What will Laviolette do in Philly to change that? Answer: A lot more than Bylsma did to get the Malkin line away from the matchup Laviolette wanted.
One shift, Sid's line uses its speed to exploit the Coutorier with Grossman-Coburn unit, and it's a goal for Sid. The one or two or three times the Malkin line got away from that unit, it had a prime scoring chance (including against the vaunted Giroux line, which did nada in return).
So, wouldn't logic dictate to keep going after those matchups.
Saying 'well, we got Staal out against Giroux nearly every time' is the type of thing someone should hype after a road game, not a home game.
IDK id DB thinks he's above line matcing or if he just doesn't ****ing get it TBH. There's been too many times where he puts out the 4th line in the o-zone after a commercial to deny that DB doesn't even look at the situation before putting a line on the ice.
Martin's problem...he has ZERO (Read: ZERO ZERO ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) and mean mother ****ing ZEROOOOOOOOOOOO physically in his game. ZERO! ****ING ZERO! And it kills us!
Martin needs to go but who will want him and with his limited trade clause we can't just trade him anywhere if someone would want him. He is a big liability and Letang can't constantly be everywhere trying to make up for his mistakes. HE WAS A BAD SIGNING the amount of $$$ and specifics of his contract are crazy....BRING BACK SCUDERI AND GILL, even Whitney ( no not WHITNEY ).
martin again had a bad game. orpik was brain dead, mich was as bad as martin. and the great letang tried to stop a shot with the blade of his stick.....all goalies just love it when a player attempts to do that....joy and eng were our best demen and that should never be.
I wish I could call you out for hyperbole but... It's true. (I wear this bag since Paul Martin is too shameless to wear it.)
You're on the money again.
Don't hold your breath. Possibly we could trade in the off-season but if he has a ****** playoff... whose going to move a decent F for a $5M egg-beating lesbo?
Just do what every other team does when they pay a lot of money to a player they need rid of. Bury him in the AHL. *Cough*Cough* Rangers/Caps/Flyers
Just an observation, Letang was the worst player on the ice last night, not Marin. The penguins lost his game by not coming out after the first, I still think it goes 7 though!
I just can't imagime what we are going to have to pay Letang when his contract is up. If Martin is getting 5Mil then Letang must be worth 10Mil.
Martin is worth maybe 3.5, Letang 6.5 or 7... With Crosby and Malkin at 8.7 would Letang need to take a discount to stay? I'd think Pittsburgh would move players out to fit him if not... They won't let him walk.
Martin is worth maybe 3.5, Letang 6.5 or 7... With Crosby and Malkin at 8.7 would Letang need to take a discount to stay? I'd think Pittsburgh would move players out to fit him if not... They won't let him walk.
No, they won't let him walk. I'd imagine Shero would move players to fit him in, Paul Martin especially.
There was one ****ing play in the third (before Briere's goal) where he literally let up and let a Flyer player got to the puck first on a dump in. He reminded me of someone trying to buy an icing call by taking the long route.
I think I know the play you mean and it was pathetic. He clearly could have gotten the puck first but intentionally let the guy get it first to avoid the hit and then swung his stick at him. It just looks like he's not willing to take a hit to make a play. And people were worried about that with Niskanen.
3 more years. Sorry for that poster's unnecessary hostility.
Not a problem, I'm used to him... It's ashame that it's comments and posters like that, that give pens fans a bad rep, I like reading your threads because for the most part you guys are great fans.
THat was a pretty piss poor effort by Martin last night. He looked afraid to go and fight for pucks. You can't have a defenseman like that in a series like this, or one that we'll have with Boston, Washington, or New York. He has got to play better. It's that simple.
I thought Michalek had a bad game also. He's one of the biggest offenders of something I have been pointing out for the last 20-25 games of the season. People got pissed when Scuderi and Gill would put the puck high off the glass. That's understandable, but that is drastically better than limp dick clearing attempts that don't clear our zone. Michalek did it 3 or 4 times last night.
This team has to get pucks in deep. Dumping the puck is not a bad option. This Philly team can take turnovers and turn them the other way in a quick hurry, and they then have the skill to finish them off. We have got to make them go 200 feet every single time they touch the puck. We need to simplify our hockey, and play a physical style how we did the first 20 mins.
Letang had a bad game because of two critical instances: inexplicably letting Schenn get his stick on that puck even though you could smell the play coming, and mishandling the puck on the Vorecek goal (even though Staal didn't help)
Martin was piss poor the entire game. The ENTIRE game, and right behind him was Michalek. Orpik was actually fine until he took his obligatory "stupid penalty of the day".
I thought Michalek had a bad game also. He's one of the biggest offenders of something I have been pointing out for the last 20-25 games of the season. People got pissed when Scuderi and Gill would put the puck high off the glass. That's understandable, but that is drastically better than limp dick clearing attempts that don't clear our zone. Michalek did it 3 or 4 times last night.
Paul Martin takes most of the heat, but Michalek has been garbage pretty much all season. What a stark difference to last year, when i felt very confident in the Martin-Michalek pairing.
We're going to live or die with this overpaid, overexposed, overplayed big four on defense...unfortunately.
I think nobody could predict that both Martin and Michalek would be lousy fits for this team, AND that at the same time Orpik would regress so badly in one season. But that's what we face now.
If Letang plays as badly as the others, too, well we won't even force a Game 7 (let alone win this series).
I've said it before and I'll say it again, against a DEEP offensive team like Philly (whose fourth line has talent like Voracek and Read on it), you HAVE to split the pairings up evenly so that we're not exposed.
Of course, playing our ACTUAL 6 best defensemen, not the top 6 according to our salary cap, would also help matters.
On another note: Remember when certain people kept telling us Martin was so subtlely awesome and that we just didn't understand, basically because we don't know hockey? This is a weird league. Having a decent stick and being able to make a 5 foot pass to the winger on the half boards are suddenly worth millions and millions of dollars, even if you can do virtually nothing else.
it's just hard to imagine winning a Cup with the way Martin and Michalek are playing. Just compare them to when we did win the Cup and had Scuderi and Gill. Think of all the big plays those 2 had during our Cup run, especially Scuderi who was willing to sacrifice anything to stop the puck. Now I have to watch Martin skate around like an idiot shying away from contact?
Paul Martin takes most of the heat, but Michalek has been garbage pretty much all season. What a stark difference to last year, when i felt very confident in the Martin-Michalek pairing.
This. I don't know what the hell happened to Martin and Michalek this season. I was expecting they get better this season since they have better understanding of this system.
It's true. (I wear this bag since Paul Martin is too shameless to wear it.) 
