Ticallion961
09-23-2003, 06:53 PM
Alright, i just got back from Halifax, and i must say i was quite delighted with the victory. I'm just gonna ramble on this post about my thoughts on the team, and the players individually. Now, this is the first time i've seen a lot of the young guys, so if i say they were terrible, it doesn't mean they are bad, they just played poorly tonight.
Now first off, the offence was great tonight, putting pucks on the net, crashing the net, and grinding in the corners with a much bigger Boston Team. They were playing a strictly dump and chase style, but it was exciting because they moved the puck really well in the offensive end. A couple players were a little tentative to go in the corners with the likes of Gill and Jurcina, but that happens sometimes. The controled breakout was working great, especially when Straka made the first pass out. In general we just skated Boston into the ground. On the bad side our power play was real bad, but Lemieux and Tarnstrom weren't there, so it doesn't mean too much.
The defence is a different story. We could not get the puck out of our own end, we would get stuck in our end for minutes at a time, and just keep on passing it to their defencemen. We also had big problems with Thornton and Samsonov, Thornton just outmuscled everyone, and samsonov was too shifty. The good thing was though that Tarnstrom, Melichar, Rozival weren't in the lineup, so things should improve come regular season.
Player Reviews
Goalies
MA Fleury - I've seen Fleury play quite a bit, and he keeps on getting better. He played really well tonight. He's so fast moving laterally and stick out his pads, its nearly impossible to beat him down low. The two goals he didn't have a chance in hell to stop, and he robbed the bruins often. On a lighter note, during the warm-up the players were playing pepper with fleury (where they crowd around him and just shoot the puck until they score) it took so long for them to score, the crowd gave fleury a big round of applause just for that.
Andy Chiodo - Obviously didn't play, but i must say he needs new gear, the gear he was wearing didn't go with the pens uniforms.
Defence
Steve McKenna - If he never plays defence again it will be too soon, he can barely skate backwards, he is good for clearing people away from the net though. Got in a fight with McCarthy, after Sandy hit someone with an elbow, at least Mckenna knows his role.
Brooks Orpik - Most consistent defensemen of the night. Never caught out of position, was standing players up near the blue line. PLayed mistake free hockey (except for a holding penalty which he didn't deserve).
Dan Focht - Had some good moments and some bad. He's not much with the puck, but he seems to know this, so he doesn't keep it very long. He took himself out of position sometimes to make a hit, but other than that he played decent.
Patrick Boileau - I thought he was bigger for some reason. Oh well, he played fairly decent, got lucky on his goal, just a one-timer off a nice feed from morozov in the slot, snuck through Shields' equipment. Nice skater.
Drake Berehowsky - Dear God it was painful to watch him. Definately Pittsburgh's worst defencemen tonight. Turned the puck over constantly, couldn't keep the puck in at the blue line. Got burned quite a bit, couldn't pin anyone to the boards. And to top it off, in the second period he had to lift backhand about 3 inches over Shields for a goal, and he just couldn't manage to do it. Very dissapointed in him.
Paul Bissonnette - The player everyone wants to hear about. Well there was some good things and some bad. He was the Pens second best D next to Orpik. His big problem was that he was getting beat off the rush quite a bit. At least it was Rolston, samsonov and thronton that were going around him most of the time. the second goal was in large part his fault, he just let Thornton walk by him and set up Murray. I suppose it didn't help that he was playing with berehowsky. Now for the good news. He was great in his own end, clearing the puck, and fighting along the boards, he was the only player that could actually pin thornton along boards. SO he had some ups and downs this game, but i'd still like to see him in a pens roster this season.
Forwards
Tomas Surovy - Didn't really notice him much, but he always seemed to be there for every scoring chance. He got pushed around a lot by the big D-men. Overall i was pleased with his play, he went to the net hard.
Marty Straka - God he's good. Anyone that says he is nothing without Lemieux is fairly stupid. Great skater, fast, can change gears quickly. Great stickhandler, he dangled around some bruins like they were pylons. For the most part tonight though he was just dishing it off to teammates. I was waiting for him to go for a coast to coast rush, but it never happened. He played D on the PP, made smart moves with the puck. Great game.
Matt Murley - If this guy plays like he did tonight every night he's got to be on the team. He was all over the ice, hitting, backchecking, scored a goal by crashing the net after a nice pass from Endicott. He was the second best forward out there tonight. I definately want to see more of him in a pens uniform.
Aleksey Morozov - Terrible game from him, had a couple great chances that he shot right at the chest of Andrew Raycroft. In his defence though i think he is too smart offensivley for some of his teammates, a lot of his passes caught some guys off guard when they were in a seemingly unreachable position.
Eric Meloche - What a pesky ******* this guy is. Slashes everything that moves gives shots behind the refs back all the time. Other than that he played fairly well, not much offence, just grinding in the corners. Made a great shot block in the closing seconds of the game...i think it was him, it was at the opposite end of the ice.
Ryan Malone - He was just plain bad. looked really out of place on the ice. He was a step or too behind, and he couldn't find open ice despite playing with straka often. Probably the worst forward for the pens.
Konstantain Koltsov - I was waiting the whole game for a huge burst of speed from him, but it never came. He played fairly good with using his speed though. Good on the penalty kill and moving the puck through the neutral zone. Was getting down to block shots, gotta love that.
Brian Holzinger - Didn't do much of anything, i'd be happy if we got rid of him.
Rico Fata - Best player on the ice for both teams, he was all over the place. Best penalty killer we have, scored a nice goal on a really accurate shot to the far corner coming down the right wing. Was forechecking really hard, stickhandling was real good, he made this one move between his legs that was awesome. If i'd a known he was this good after the Kovalev trade i wouldn't have been as pissed. Just a terrific game, i can't say enough good things about him. Got the first star and deserved it. I was very very impressed.
Shane Endicott - This is another guy that impressed me a lot. Played on a line with Murley, and he just forechcked real hard and created a lot of scoring chances, especially in the first period. Laid a nice hit on Bergeron in the corner, set up Murley's goal from behind the net on a great pass. Great Game
Matt Bradley - The third party on the Murley, Endicott line. Didn't play as well as the rest of his line, but was definately an asset out there tonight. Made a great play to take a big hit to keep the puck in on the first goal. In fact he took a lot of huge hits tonight. But he kept on bouncing back and going right back at it.
Ramzi Abid - Didn't get much ice time. He is still as Slow as ever. worked well cycling the puck and finding open space in front of the net. If he could skate faster he'd be very effective. I can't stress enough how slow a skater he is.
Well those are my player reviews, and like i said they just apply to this game, although i've got a bad feeling about some players (ex. berehowsky). One thing that i forgot to mention is how well we did on face-offs, i don't have any stats on it, but it seemed to me we were winning an awful lot of faceoffs.
Now i gotta go study for a test, if ya got any questions about the game, ask away.
Forgot to add my three stars
1. Rico Fata (by a long shot)
2. Marc-Andre Fleury (gets me excited about the future)
3. Matt Murley (Thornton deserved it, but this is an all penguins three stars)
Now first off, the offence was great tonight, putting pucks on the net, crashing the net, and grinding in the corners with a much bigger Boston Team. They were playing a strictly dump and chase style, but it was exciting because they moved the puck really well in the offensive end. A couple players were a little tentative to go in the corners with the likes of Gill and Jurcina, but that happens sometimes. The controled breakout was working great, especially when Straka made the first pass out. In general we just skated Boston into the ground. On the bad side our power play was real bad, but Lemieux and Tarnstrom weren't there, so it doesn't mean too much.
The defence is a different story. We could not get the puck out of our own end, we would get stuck in our end for minutes at a time, and just keep on passing it to their defencemen. We also had big problems with Thornton and Samsonov, Thornton just outmuscled everyone, and samsonov was too shifty. The good thing was though that Tarnstrom, Melichar, Rozival weren't in the lineup, so things should improve come regular season.
Player Reviews
Goalies
MA Fleury - I've seen Fleury play quite a bit, and he keeps on getting better. He played really well tonight. He's so fast moving laterally and stick out his pads, its nearly impossible to beat him down low. The two goals he didn't have a chance in hell to stop, and he robbed the bruins often. On a lighter note, during the warm-up the players were playing pepper with fleury (where they crowd around him and just shoot the puck until they score) it took so long for them to score, the crowd gave fleury a big round of applause just for that.
Andy Chiodo - Obviously didn't play, but i must say he needs new gear, the gear he was wearing didn't go with the pens uniforms.
Defence
Steve McKenna - If he never plays defence again it will be too soon, he can barely skate backwards, he is good for clearing people away from the net though. Got in a fight with McCarthy, after Sandy hit someone with an elbow, at least Mckenna knows his role.
Brooks Orpik - Most consistent defensemen of the night. Never caught out of position, was standing players up near the blue line. PLayed mistake free hockey (except for a holding penalty which he didn't deserve).
Dan Focht - Had some good moments and some bad. He's not much with the puck, but he seems to know this, so he doesn't keep it very long. He took himself out of position sometimes to make a hit, but other than that he played decent.
Patrick Boileau - I thought he was bigger for some reason. Oh well, he played fairly decent, got lucky on his goal, just a one-timer off a nice feed from morozov in the slot, snuck through Shields' equipment. Nice skater.
Drake Berehowsky - Dear God it was painful to watch him. Definately Pittsburgh's worst defencemen tonight. Turned the puck over constantly, couldn't keep the puck in at the blue line. Got burned quite a bit, couldn't pin anyone to the boards. And to top it off, in the second period he had to lift backhand about 3 inches over Shields for a goal, and he just couldn't manage to do it. Very dissapointed in him.
Paul Bissonnette - The player everyone wants to hear about. Well there was some good things and some bad. He was the Pens second best D next to Orpik. His big problem was that he was getting beat off the rush quite a bit. At least it was Rolston, samsonov and thronton that were going around him most of the time. the second goal was in large part his fault, he just let Thornton walk by him and set up Murray. I suppose it didn't help that he was playing with berehowsky. Now for the good news. He was great in his own end, clearing the puck, and fighting along the boards, he was the only player that could actually pin thornton along boards. SO he had some ups and downs this game, but i'd still like to see him in a pens roster this season.
Forwards
Tomas Surovy - Didn't really notice him much, but he always seemed to be there for every scoring chance. He got pushed around a lot by the big D-men. Overall i was pleased with his play, he went to the net hard.
Marty Straka - God he's good. Anyone that says he is nothing without Lemieux is fairly stupid. Great skater, fast, can change gears quickly. Great stickhandler, he dangled around some bruins like they were pylons. For the most part tonight though he was just dishing it off to teammates. I was waiting for him to go for a coast to coast rush, but it never happened. He played D on the PP, made smart moves with the puck. Great game.
Matt Murley - If this guy plays like he did tonight every night he's got to be on the team. He was all over the ice, hitting, backchecking, scored a goal by crashing the net after a nice pass from Endicott. He was the second best forward out there tonight. I definately want to see more of him in a pens uniform.
Aleksey Morozov - Terrible game from him, had a couple great chances that he shot right at the chest of Andrew Raycroft. In his defence though i think he is too smart offensivley for some of his teammates, a lot of his passes caught some guys off guard when they were in a seemingly unreachable position.
Eric Meloche - What a pesky ******* this guy is. Slashes everything that moves gives shots behind the refs back all the time. Other than that he played fairly well, not much offence, just grinding in the corners. Made a great shot block in the closing seconds of the game...i think it was him, it was at the opposite end of the ice.
Ryan Malone - He was just plain bad. looked really out of place on the ice. He was a step or too behind, and he couldn't find open ice despite playing with straka often. Probably the worst forward for the pens.
Konstantain Koltsov - I was waiting the whole game for a huge burst of speed from him, but it never came. He played fairly good with using his speed though. Good on the penalty kill and moving the puck through the neutral zone. Was getting down to block shots, gotta love that.
Brian Holzinger - Didn't do much of anything, i'd be happy if we got rid of him.
Rico Fata - Best player on the ice for both teams, he was all over the place. Best penalty killer we have, scored a nice goal on a really accurate shot to the far corner coming down the right wing. Was forechecking really hard, stickhandling was real good, he made this one move between his legs that was awesome. If i'd a known he was this good after the Kovalev trade i wouldn't have been as pissed. Just a terrific game, i can't say enough good things about him. Got the first star and deserved it. I was very very impressed.
Shane Endicott - This is another guy that impressed me a lot. Played on a line with Murley, and he just forechcked real hard and created a lot of scoring chances, especially in the first period. Laid a nice hit on Bergeron in the corner, set up Murley's goal from behind the net on a great pass. Great Game
Matt Bradley - The third party on the Murley, Endicott line. Didn't play as well as the rest of his line, but was definately an asset out there tonight. Made a great play to take a big hit to keep the puck in on the first goal. In fact he took a lot of huge hits tonight. But he kept on bouncing back and going right back at it.
Ramzi Abid - Didn't get much ice time. He is still as Slow as ever. worked well cycling the puck and finding open space in front of the net. If he could skate faster he'd be very effective. I can't stress enough how slow a skater he is.
Well those are my player reviews, and like i said they just apply to this game, although i've got a bad feeling about some players (ex. berehowsky). One thing that i forgot to mention is how well we did on face-offs, i don't have any stats on it, but it seemed to me we were winning an awful lot of faceoffs.
Now i gotta go study for a test, if ya got any questions about the game, ask away.
Forgot to add my three stars
1. Rico Fata (by a long shot)
2. Marc-Andre Fleury (gets me excited about the future)
3. Matt Murley (Thornton deserved it, but this is an all penguins three stars)