The way they played tonight, the entire defense corps should be benched. Lovejoy shouldn't even be allowed to sit on the bench. He can sit on the snot and spit-smeared mat in front of the bench.
I'll bet I could pick any player on any team and watch them for an entire sequence, and if I tried hard enough, I'd be able to figure out some reason why they are solely at fault for a goal. Crosby screened Fleury on a low percentage shot, and the puck found its way into the net. It happens sometimes, and it wasn't Martin's fault.
Why was Crosby screening the goalie? Because Letang was chasing Briere to the wall and he had to fill in at a position he doesn't play. Why was Letang chasing Briere to the wall? Because he was caught flatfooted against a guy moving at full speed. Why was Letang caught flatfooted? Because Martin didn't slow Briere's forward momentum, which is his job. Why didn't Martin slow Briere's forward momentum? Ask him. He was in position to do so and didn't. Entire sequence happened because of this one play. It's the mistake that makes the other problems inevitable.
I'm not watching Martin and looking for mistakes. I'm watching the play and seeing Martin make mistakes that cause cascade failures. See also: botched pinch where, instead of getting the puck deep, he throws it into the skates of a flatfooted Crosby at the line from Crosby's blind spot while he's rotating to cover for the pinch. Did Crosby later fail to identify a late man? Yep. But the entire sequence never should have happened. If you're looking at who didn't make the right desperation play, you're not going far back enough in the sequence.
Incidentally, other than Briere, who dumped the puck in Letang's end twice for five man, zero forechecker linechanges and a couple center ice missed receptions that went for icings, the puck was dumped on Martin's side when that pairing was together, on just about every dump, which is exactly what I said they would do. This resulted in multiple flyer possessions as Martin bailed on the puck to avoid being hit. He retained the puck and exited the zone, by my count, exactly once when Letang went way out of position to set a pretty awesome pick on either Schenn or Simmonds. They did dump the puck in Letang's end and go for hits when Engelland was paired with him briefly, which didn't really work because he got the puck, slipped the check and got it back out.
Of course, eventually the flyers gave up dumping completely because they could carry it without worrying about back pressure or being challenged, which is a bigger problem and a team thing, not a Martin thing.
I'm rewatching this now. Martin had a better game 2 than game 1, but that's sort of like saying vomit smells better than poop.
Please don't bench Martin Bylsma, we'll pay you double!
****, I remember when Orpik kneed a Ranger second to last game of the season and people here were saying 'suspend him'. Someone said if the league really wanted to punish the Penguins, then they'd make Orpik play the whole first round. Only thing sadder than agreeing is knowing that it's a hundred times worse with Martin . . .
Martin's infamous sloppy transition allowed his man to gain position and cut inside, which started the whole sad sequence.
Fleury should've had it, and Martin shouldn't have ever let his man cut in.
Looked like Martin was calling for a change when he thought the puck was going to be deeper, basically got caught going the wrong way. Thus making him a step behind when the play turned around.
__________________
"Every game, every point is a necessity." -- Ty Conklin, January 2007
"I'll have a chance to compete for the post of first issue. This is the most important thing." -- Sergei Bobrovsky, June 2012
Looked like Martin was calling for a change when he thought the puck was going to be deeper, basically got caught going the wrong way. Thus making him a step behind when the play turned around.
