Penguins defensive zone coverage is awful, go back to man coverage.
You score 5 goals, you expect to win. Especially in the playoffs. That being said, it's only two games, a lot could happen between now and game seven (If it lasts that long).
Rangers fan here wondering what the trouble is. Everyone has you guys picked to win the Cup. Your roster has twice as many offensive weapons as anyone in the East, among those weapons arguably the two best players in the league. There are a bunch of Cup winners on that team.
Now, I don't think a sweep is going to happen, because after watching you guys kick our butts all season I can't believe the Pens would go down that easy. But what's the deal here? Is it defense? Fleury?
I don't want to be that guy, the I Told You So guy, but...
Do you remember after the second Islanders loss, when the defense had just completely forgot how to play the game... this is after the 8-4 Ottawa game, and both Islanders losses...
I said that was the beginning of the end for Dan Bylsma in Pittsburgh. Because a week passed and he didn't make a single change, the defense got worse every game and he still sent them out there playing shinny hockey rather than defense-first, championship winning hockey. Who's in charge of that dressing room? Why do they only play one end of the ice?
Do you remember the 09 Final? Babcock tried to force the Zetterberg-Crosby matchup every single time he could, and Bylsma countered him. Bylsma has last change at home, and he kept putting Malkin out against Couturier, even when it was obvious who was winning that battle. That's not trust, or respect, that's either suicidal overconfidence or complete ignorance. That's Michel Therrien level ignorance of how the game is coached. Peter Laviolette is completely outcoaching Bylsma, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
I don't even hate most of the defense. Orpik, Michalek, Martin... they're all capable of playing good D, we saw it last year. But Bylsma doesn't want to. This has to be blamed on him. You can blame Lovejoy for not being good, but Lovejoy can only play as he's taught. And Bylsma has taught everyone to be weak in their own zone, and flatfooted in the offensive zone.
We've given up five breakaways. The Flyers haven't given up a single breakaway.
I could go on forever, but I think I'd rather write this team off. It's easier emotionally.
Pretty much. Bylmsa is wearing out his welcome. He was great for us, but it's not 2009 anymore. People have figured out Pittsburgh's system and Bylsma can't adapt.
Out coached. Out coached. Out coached. Out hustled. Out played.
You are exactly right, Disco Dan is being out coached, Fleury has been horrible and Lovejoy should be in the AHL right now and $5 million a year Martin should have been traded during the deadline
Penguins defensive zone coverage is awful, go back to man coverage.
You score 5 goals, you expect to win. Especially in the playoffs. That being said, it's only two games, a lot could happen between now and game seven (If it lasts that long).
Then things would be even more of a cluster ****. They can't decide who their man is now.
Granted it's on a much more exaggerated scale, but these first two games feel a lot like the '96 first round against the Caps. Blowing huge early leads on home ice in both of the first two games. Obviously that's the homer in me wanting to make that comparison because the Pens won the next four in the series. Hopefully it wouldn't take a 4-OT win this time to turn it around.
You had the sense in that '96 Pens-Caps tilts that Pittsburgh was still the better team despite being down 0-2 in the series. Hard to think that same thing after this one. The defensive zone breakdowns are just eye-gougingly awful.
Rangers fan here wondering what the trouble is. Everyone has you guys picked to win the Cup. Your roster has twice as many offensive weapons as anyone in the East, among those weapons arguably the two best players in the league. There are a bunch of Cup winners on that team.
Now, I don't think a sweep is going to happen, because after watching you guys kick our butts all season I can't believe the Pens would go down that easy. But what's the deal here? Is it defense? Fleury?
Philly is the worst matchup for Pittsburgh, it almost seems like they're built to exploit our weaknesses. It comes down on Bylsma and Shero though. Shero for not making the defense tough enough, and Bylsma for ignoring the defensive ineptness that has been going on for the past month.
+ Bylsma used his timeout.
+ Sid looked good.
+ No injuries...?
- Letang's a joke offensively. I've never seen a player with more offensive talent have less self-confidence than I see with Letang.
- Martin is a joke. Nope, that's it. That's all I have to say.
- MAF really didn't have a HORRIBLE game, but man, we could have used some ridiculous, game-changing saves.
- Lovejoy isn't cut out to be an ECHL player.
- Orpik plays defense like he's the Orpik of 03-04.
- Bylsma is employed.
- Staal forgot he's a dominant two-way player.
- Malkin forgot he was the best player on Earth this season. When Sid came back, Geno became ****.
One of Jeffrey or Tangradi should play in place of the 4th liners. Adams is useless if he's not killing penalties and the pk is awful this series. Asham is useless in a fast-paced game and Vitale was benched the whole third. Might as well give DJ a go or something.
Martin has sucked all year but other than him the D was actually playing pretty well up until the point Crosby came back for the 2nd time. It's like they forgot they can win games that arent 6-5
Rangers fan here wondering what the trouble is. Everyone has you guys picked to win the Cup. Your roster has twice as many offensive weapons as anyone in the East, among those weapons arguably the two best players in the league. There are a bunch of Cup winners on that team.
Now, I don't think a sweep is going to happen, because after watching you guys kick our butts all season I can't believe the Pens would go down that easy. But what's the deal here? Is it defense? Fleury?
Goaltending. Clearly. Everyone here blames the D, but opportunities are going to come in the playoffs. We get as many chances on offense as the Flyers do, probably more, its just their goalie is able to stop a few of them. Fleury is floating so off his angle that hes making simple shots into tough saves. I've seen few goalies play this poorly and not get yanked. ANother bizarre coaching decision. Johnson might have been able to hold this game together in the 3rd period. At least hes beaten the Flyers in CEC before..
Lovejoy has proven in recent weeks and especially of late he has no business being on this roster. He's just not up to snuff, period. Had his shot. Time to move on from that option. In general regardless of outcome I believe the following guys are history after this playoff:
Lovejoy
Martin
Sullivan
Asham
and Bylsma if we lose this series.
I'd keep Asham, but the rest can all go. Especially Dan "i'm too good to call a timeout" Bylsma.
Rangers fan here wondering what the trouble is. Everyone has you guys picked to win the Cup. Your roster has twice as many offensive weapons as anyone in the East, among those weapons arguably the two best players in the league. There are a bunch of Cup winners on that team.
Now, I don't think a sweep is going to happen, because after watching you guys kick our butts all season I can't believe the Pens would go down that easy. But what's the deal here? Is it defense? Fleury?
and half the defense as anyone in the East and an elite goalie in the regular season...
One thing I will say is that the Flyers are a whole lot tougher to beat without the defeatist attitudes of Richards and Carter. Giroux is a whole different animal.
Crosby has tried and tried and tried to carry this team on his back,
GMAFB... as bad as NBC commentators are they were right about Crosby having an all-over-the-place game. He has work to do also, especially defensively. He's obviously been out and the defensive awareness might be suffering a bit but we have to play D to a man or this is over.
