Oh well, they're heading for some brutal negotiations soon.

Yep. And I'd try and get Malkin signed long-term this summer if I were them, because if they end up waiting until next summer, they better watch out, because some other team is going to sign him to a massive offer sheet. Then Pittsburgh is put in the difficult position of choosing between Malkin and four first-round picks.



How are they going to punish Detroit physically? Detroit has as much, or even more grit than Calgary. It's not like Detroit's big names are pushovers either. Zetterberg can hold his own, and while Lidstrom and Datsyuk may not be the most physical guys, they are going to let you push them around either.

Welp...

That one hurt pretty badly. I think Pittsburgh was joking. They couldn't have been serious.

dammit

That entrance by Fleury was amazing.

even better was the two Detroit maintenance guys yucking it up about it

but even better? 4-0. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERS

I chuckled when the Detroit PA announcer called Sid "Steven Crosby."

Haha, yeah that was pretty funny too.

Anyways, Franzen is back which means more ass-kickery is on the way.

Game 2 tonight! Go Wings.

I still want to see the Pens do well though, I don't want them to get blown out because theyre a really exciting team to watch and are good for the sport, plus Crosby's the man.

Yeah Oz is a goal tending machine. There were a lot of golden opportunities that were shut down by him, because he's the best goalie in the fucking world.

Well good thing no one can beat Pitt in a 7 game series.

....You do realize that it hasn't happened yet, right? I sure hope so, considering how much you think you know.

Obviously I realize it hasn't happened yet or I wouldn't have made that snide remark. Obviously teams have come back from a 2-0 deficit and it's far from over.

But then you realize that not only is it a 2-0 deficit, but they also haven't even scored a fucking goal. Find me a finals series where a team has come back from being shut out in the first two games. I think you'd be hardpressed to find one, if there even is one. Malkin is being completely taken off his game by Detroit's defense. Every time he touches the puck he immediately gets bumped off. And it seems to have gotten to his head. That's what happens to a lot of good young skill players. It happened to Vanek in his rookie season and that got him benched most of the playoffs.

Osgood is a great goaltender, and he is on top of his game right now and made some amazing saves tonight. I'm certainly not going to take anything away from him because its no easy task to shut out Pittsburgh, but lets be honest, when you only have to face 19 and 22 shots, he's not the main reason that Pittsburgh isn't putting up the numbers that they need to win. They can't buy a shot on goal, let alone have one of them actually go in. They're taking dumb shots because they're not getting quality scoring chances.

Their skill players aren't getting the puck in the right situations, and the best of their scoring chances have come when they crash the net and a Detroit player can't clear. That's not Pittsburgh's game and its not happening much as you can see. Most of their goals these playoffs have come on the odd-man rush and defensive breakdowns and Detroit is playing solid D and not having any of that. If I were a Penguins fan I would be pretty depressed right now. It's not looking good at all.

woops, i accidentally just wandered into his thread. bye.

woops, i accidentally just wandered into his thread. bye.

Yeah, this is the hockey thread, there should be a thread about v-necks and unfortunate looking girls somewhere you can spit knowledge into.




Obviously I realize it hasn't happened yet or I wouldn't have made that snide remark. Obviously teams have come back from a 2-0 deficit and it's far from over.

But then you realize that not only is it a 2-0 deficit, but they also haven't even scored a fucking goal. Find me a finals series where a team has come back from being shut out in the first two games. I think you'd be hardpressed to find one, if there even is one. Malkin is being completely taken off his game by Detroit's defense. Every time he touches the puck he immediately gets bumped off. And it seems to have gotten to his head. That's what happens to a lot of good young skill players. It happened to Vanek in his rookie season and that got him benched most of the playoffs.

Osgood is a great goaltender, and he is on top of his game right now and made some amazing saves tonight. I'm certainly not going to take anything away from him because its no easy task to shut out Pittsburgh, but lets be honest, when you only have to face 19 and 22 shots, he's not the main reason that Pittsburgh isn't putting up the numbers that they need to win. They can't buy a shot on goal, let alone have one of them actually go in. They're taking dumb shots because they're not getting quality scoring chances.

Their skill players aren't getting the puck in the right situations, and the best of their scoring chances have come when they crash the net and a Detroit player can't clear. That's not Pittsburgh's game and its not happening much as you can see. Most of their goals these playoffs have come on the odd-man rush and defensive breakdowns and Detroit is playing solid D and not having any of that. If I were a Penguins fan I would be pretty depressed right now. It's not looking good at all.

Yeah. I agree that they aren't giving him very man shots to save, but look at some of the absolutely amazing saves he's had. He absolutely robbed so many penguins last night and in game on.

But.. You are right. Even Crosby has serious issues getting a shot agains the Detroit defense. It really looks like it's taking everything they got to get 20 shots off. That's not good, but still I'm optimistic.

If they win the first game at home, they are right back in it.

and.. it's not really that Malkin isn't playing good, they are just absolutely shutting him down. Like you said, he can't even handl the puck for more than 2-3 seconds. Terrian just has to figure out what he can do to keep Malkin in the game.

I don't know if anyone saw the one shot that Brookes Orpick had, but it was pretty good. I mean, the shot was terrible, but he is a defensmen and he took it to the net and completely shook the Detroit defense. Maybe they need to try something out of the ordinary like that.

There at least five goalies currently in the NHL that are better than Osgood.

And Malkin has played like shit these first two games. He's being shut down like he was in the Juniors two years ago against Canada.

Just because he's getting shut down does not mean he's playing like shit. He has barely even gotten a chance to do anything becaue they all over him. There is a difference between a team shuttign a player down and a player playing like shit.

That's not what Therrien has been saying... He's been very vocal about how poorly Malkin is playing. And Malkin knows he's not playing well. Anything else is just excuses.

But more importantly, Detroit is making Crosby and Malkin look like the little boys that they are. We'll see if Pittsburgh can respond, but if they're going to have any kind of a chance, these guys are going to have to grow up fast. Crosby needs to stop whining, and Malkin needs to stop playing so selfish. They've got 3-4 guys on him whenever he touches the puck, someone else has to be open, wouldn't you think?

And yeah, if they win Wednesday they're right back in it, but they're going to need to make a complete 180. Home ice advantage hasn't meant much lately in these playoffs.

From the highlights I've seen of the series so far I've have really noticed how irresponsible Malkin is defensively. He's pretty much useless in his own zone. Not only that but in the past 6 games he only has 2 points, so he has cooled the fuck off.

Malkin has done absolutely nothing this series at all. He's looked lost out on the ice and has been awful defensively. How does that not mean he's playing like shit?

Did you not read what i said? if players that are better than him shut him down, it doesn't mean he's playing any worse than he used to. It just means that they're not allowing him to play at the best of his ability.

As far as defense goes, Malkin always plays like that defensivley. He's not like Stahl or Rutuu.

I think it's somewhat of a combination of the two.

Also, didn't Malkin say he was feeling tired throughout game 1? I think the kid is just worn out.

we pretty much sleepwalked through the first two games and we seemed too busy trying to watch what the wings were going to do next. i remember seeing gonchar at one point just standing there like he had no clue what to do. habcock's strategy is simple and super effective and the wings D is solid, as much as I hate to admit it. malone took too many dumb penalties too.

i am not giving up on the pens cause we still have game 3 tomorrow to redeem ourselves and avoid a sweep but malkin/hossa/crosby really need to show up soon.

Some MVP candidate then, huh? I refuse to believe he's not good enough to break through this crap. He's just young, man, and he's playing like shit. Do you even have a point with what you're trying to say or are we just going to argue semantics?

Malkin: Ineffective. Done and done.

I never said that I thought he should be the MVP.

"We"? Haha

"Habcock"? Haha

hey, babcock's strategy has the same effect as a squirtle would against geodude.

Haha. I have such a hard time when people refer to "their" team as "we". "You" have nothing to do with the team, therefore, I just find it ridiculous to associate oneself with the actual players on the ice, court, or field. But not that big of a deal, just a small tick of mine. Either way, if Pittsburgh loses tonight, bring out the brooms Detroit. God I hate saying that.

What players that are better than him are shutting him down? Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom are the only players on Detroit that are even in the same category as Malkin.

And who the fuck is Stahl? This ain't fuckin' D2: The Mighty Ducks.

I say we sometimes when it's teams I've loved forever. Bills and Sabres. I feel dumb when I do it but I can't help it sometimes because I'm so obsessed with them. But I don't know if I'd refer to my trendy bandwagon choice as "we" because I chose them after liking the football team from the same area...

On a related note, I think it's actually pretty appropriate when it's your college team and you actually go to the school.



That's funny because a panel of hockey experts that probably watch a lot more of it than you do decided that he should at least be considered on the ballot, didn't they? I mean, 47 goals, 59 assists, +16 and played every game. Second only to Ovechkin in points. Also he lit it up for most of the playoffs thus far and has 19 points. He filled in nicely and kept Pittsburgh playing very well even while their best player (arguably the best in the NHL) was out for an extended period of time.

The fact is he is an MVP candidate who is every bit as good as any player on the Red Wings and he's completely ineffective right now. You can say he's playing poorly and having a tough time growing up, but it is not because any of the Detroit players are better than him.

hopefully there's a tussle or two tonight after that bullshit franzen had to put up with last game. sucker punch & attempted slew foot.

stay classy, pittsburgh.

stoked i get to watch the game tonight, i had work the other two games...i hope the penguins pull it off only, and let me clarify only, so i get to watch more hockey games before october.

i meant babcock, the b is right below the h and i didn't notice.

Hey the Penguins scored!

Wasn't looking good with only 1 shot in the first 14 minutes...

edit: I like how Detroit just hooks and then drops their sticks, as if it negates the obstruction. It's some sneaky bullshit. It's happened 3 times tonight that I've seen. edit: 4 times. wtf

alright so i have inadvertantly (sp) found myself rooting for the penguins during this game. wtf. i think that means its time for a drink.

Malkin didn't play any better than he has in the last two games.

Looks like the theory was wrong. By the way, where the hell did Adam Hall come from? He hasn't been a very big part of the penguins scoring this season at all, and he ends up scoring the winning goal. Nuts.

I disagree I think Malkin played quite a bit better.

However, no one said that Malkin determines how well the team plays. If anything that's Crosby's job and he showed up tonight and they won. They played pretty awesome, and surprisingly physical. Unfortunately they'll have to do that 3 more times to win this series. Do they have it in them? I'm not sold yet.

Great hockey game tonight. That's all I wanted in this series. I hope the rest of the games are just as exciting.

Malkin didn't show anymore presence at this game than he did in the other two. unless you count the one shot he had.

well everyone played their asses off tonight and it really helped us win the game. would've been kind of cool if sid pulled off a hat trick. i'm just glad that this series isn't going to end with a sweep. orpik played amazing tonight, especially in the third period just slamming the red wings into the boards and everything. go pens!

Yeah Orpik did play great. I've alwas thought h was a great defensmen.

Hal Gill is starting to get pretty cocky and it's costing us goals.

One shot? He had 6. He had 3 shots on goal, 2 that were blocked, and 1 that he missed wide. He also registered a hit and two blocked shots. And I believe he set up a few decent scoring chances. I know I heard his name called a lot more tonight. Just because he didn't register in the goals or assists columns doesn't mean he wasn't out there.

agreed.

i thought malkin was taking a more aggressive approach this game, and he seemed to be, if not a factor, at least a presence out there....and then he took that stupid penalty at the end. that was just a bonehead move.

franzens goal was straight up titties.

haha us? i thought you were a caps fan?

you don't frequent this thread much do you

i've made more posts in it than you? but i haven't caught myself up on which player stacey thinks is hot lately, no.

No no, Hal Gill is just being Hal Gill. He was actually decent when he first came to the Pens but now he's just showing his true colors.

Yeah.. and Hal Gill is cocky. It fucks us over a lot.

Luc Bourdon killed in a motorcycle accident
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...-66E76wsgL9NkPg

Such a tragedy. I'll always remember him lighting it up in the World Juniors a few years ago.

RIP, Luc.