The exact same thing that happened in the last two games that mattered against Philly. We play hard and get a multi-goal lead but don't make it stick.
I have to say that it feels like this team peaked about a month or so too early. Blowing a 3 goal lead against a team that you've blown two other 2 goal leads to in the past few weeks is a terrible way to start the playoffs
2nd period
3rd period
After the 1st...there was no intensity, no pursuit, barely any hitting, no will to battle, no...anything that it takes to put a game away.
I hammered on the fact that it is imperative we play a 60min game...we didn't, we lost. Not a ****in one of them should go to the locker room and wonder why they lost.
That's it in a nutshell. Players stopped hitting. Players started getting cute. As I wrote above, the Pens had a chance to snuff the life out of the Flyers in the second. But, from the bench management to players getting cute in danger areas, they did exactly the opposite of what they should have done.
One more thing, and I'll get hammered by some for this: I wrote before the playoffs that I was worried that Dan Bylsma could coach the Pens out of the playoffs. From the bench management to the matchups (Geno's line should've been out on Briere to exploit size and Sid on Coutorier and the Grossman pair to exploit speed), you'd have thought it was a road game tonight but for Staal getting out there on Briere. There's an arrogance to it, really, kind of like the whole Steelers 'we do what we do' thing. It's not the sole reason the Pens lost. It's not even the primary reason. But, what one would like to see from a coach is someone who exploits every possible matchup advantage at home, and Bylsma/Granato (I mention Granato because he runs the forwards) give you anything but.
+ Fleury. Good game, and the only reason it was close.
+ Kennedy. I don't like him, but he had the strongest game outside of Fleury.
+ First 15 minutes of the game.
- Dan Bylsma. Yeah ********, I'm calling you out. Whatever your 'strategy' is for holding leads is more embarrassing than your PP strategy. After you see your team get abused all 2nd period, do you make any adjustments? Any pep talks? Any changes at all? Hell no. Do anything different after a humiliating 3rd period? hell no. Ever hear of dumping the puck in, and hammering the defense? Apparently not? Just keep putting your worst player on the ice over and over. Which, brings me to...
- Paul Martin. You are the biggest waste of 5 million dollars, maybe in the history of the league. I'll have to look at the box score, but i know he was on the ice for at least 2 goals. No hustle. no hitting. Can't move a puck. Can't shoot a puck. Just twirl around out there like you have epilepsy. I really would rather see Carl ****ing Sneep in the lineup next game over you.
- Defense. Martin was putrid. Orpik and Z weren't much better. Seriously, I've seen more solid D in highschool games.
- Our 'stars'. Hey Geno, the series has started. Staal, good hustle in OT. Sid, nice goal, but that was about it. You did have a couple good shots, that missed the net by 12 feet.
- Absolutely zero heart and determination on this team. It almost felt like they think the Stanley Cup is handed to them now that they're all healthy. Hey ********, it doesn't work that way. Hopefully you get swept so you realize that next year.
I could go on, but I gotta work in the morning. **** off
I don't know what the answer is for the PP anymore, but not scoring was the difference between winning and losing tonight. I don't care if you split Sid and Geno up, keep them together, or what, but at some point, as a coaching staff, you've got to figure it the **** out.
The answer is split Geno + Sid up, but they'll never do it.
Right now Kunitz is an absolute waste of space playing where he is. There is nothing going to the net for him to screen. He can't knock in any rebounds because hes soff as tissues. We've got 25 goal guys on the team who don't see a minute of PP time. Dupuis, Staal, Cooke.. I'd love to see someone with Dupuis's energy out there at least to gain possession. Richard Park played 2 minutes with the top unit last weekend and even he looked good. Theres plenty of options to try. Why they waited for this to happen i dunno.
Pens just aren't a team made to play a real big physical game, especially when you bench Asham, one of the few guys who will play that way. They of course have bangers, but their top 2 lines outside of Neal aren't real physical. Outside Orpik and Engelland their D is soft as hell. Vitake-Adams-Asham had 3 great shifts early, they Vitale messed up on that goal and that was it.
Bylsma can't stay with what works, he continues to baffle me with his decisions.
+Kennedy
+3rd D-pair
+Kunitz, easily best forward on that line. Wake the **** up Geno and Neal
+Dupuis
+MAF
-Crosby, I think I saw him once doing something other than not sucking after 1st period
-Malkin, did nothing
-Letang
-Martin, **** you Martin, **** YOU! gtfo of this team and never play hockey again you ****ing *****
----------BYlsma
What's it gonna take for this team to get a kill instinct? Somebody show these guys some DVDs from the biggest serial killers in the world and show them how it's done. I don't understand how a team can look so different after the first period. Do they use up all their energy in the first or what?
Look at Letang, 2 assists on the first 3 shifts then he was playing like a pansy in the defensive zone for the 3rd and OT. Him and Crosby have to let Fleury play nets. He'll make the saves. Don't screen him or deflect the shots.
This game shouldn't have even gone to OT but it did thanks to Fleury.
how in the world in the play-off you have MAF playing well and we still lose 4:3 in our own arena.
-------f..... pathetic effort, that is a killer, our d-man look like little girls watching over their heads, they cannot bring the puck up in time, so no use of your offensive weapons, we are trying to invent 1 man forecheck and two man cycle, that is not going to happen, our d-man are pathetic and got easily bitten one on one, the flyers at least hold and interfere no one calls that so why not.
Call f..... time-out after 3:2 what are you waiting for!!!!!!!
+ The first period looked it was 2009. We were forechecking hard, getting on their D and getting a lot of chances.
+ MAF did what he could.
- 2nd/3rd period, nuff said.
- Martin/Michalek: Where is the guts? Where's the passion? Those two give away the puck to dodge hits! TAKE THE CHECK AND GET THE PUCK OUT OF THE ZONE YOU BALL LESS MORONS!
****ing hell. My friend kept updating me on the bus on the score via text because I can't access the internet via my phone and she told me it was tied and a couple of minutes later my bus passes by a restaurant with a television and all I see is the ****ing Flyers celebrating. What a ****** way to find out they lost.
I guess I'm going on a hockey media blackout until Game 2. Let's hope this team has got their **** together by then.
We won in spectacular fashion in game 1 last year against the Lightning. We still lost the series. It is game 1, the least important game of all. Chill, everybody.
What a ****** way to find out they lost.
