It's A Hockey Night In Pittsburgh !
- Thread starter mike 301
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Sid willed himself to that goal .... 3-2 Rangers .... We're back in it !
“There are no bad shots in a Stanley Cup game.” - Confucius
Shame but predictable. Goalie was slinging hash a week ago. Still just one L. Pull the stars the rest of the night.
Matheson was too. He had a good first game. Not so much with the last two Ranger goals.
I've only seen the last two goals, but those aren't on #70. Unlucky deflection off a skate, and the other one FFS you can't let that guy skate towards your net from there.
Tough night for matheson. One more rangers goal goes off him, he gets a “Chinese hat trick.”
Yeah, Matheson played it poorly and left his goalie in a tough position.
I thought he covered what he could given how fast that developed. That shot was perfectly placed. That was not a Beer League B grade shot.
Thoughts??
Again, line 1 was awesome. Dominant on every shift. The problem is lines 2-4 were not.
Malkin was not good this game. Neither was Kasper.
It was obvious that 3OT game took some out of the Pens. Losing Dumoulin, well Letang was not good last night. And Matheson was horrible. Aside from his bad cross check, Marino was good again.
Jeff Carter has been on a milkcarton for a month or two. Really need something from him.
Dominque was good, but Shesterkin is Shesterkin. I would like to say he is due for a bad game, but that is 6 stellar performances against the Pens this year.
The gods certainly aren't smiling on the Pens. Coming in big underdogs, when you are down to your 3rd string goalie, loss of a top pairing Dman, and 2 of your 8 best forwards, that is not optimal. But all things considered, splitting with the Rangers 1-1 at MSG is certainly not optimal. Game 3 is bigger than a normal Game 3. Because if the Rangers win, then everyone can write off Game 1 as a fluke.
But one thing is for sure, the Rangers are not dominating the Pens as expected as this has been a fairly evenly played series.
Again, line 1 was awesome. Dominant on every shift. The problem is lines 2-4 were not.
Malkin was not good this game. Neither was Kasper.
It was obvious that 3OT game took some out of the Pens. Losing Dumoulin, well Letang was not good last night. And Matheson was horrible. Aside from his bad cross check, Marino was good again.
Jeff Carter has been on a milkcarton for a month or two. Really need something from him.
Dominque was good, but Shesterkin is Shesterkin. I would like to say he is due for a bad game, but that is 6 stellar performances against the Pens this year.
The gods certainly aren't smiling on the Pens. Coming in big underdogs, when you are down to your 3rd string goalie, loss of a top pairing Dman, and 2 of your 8 best forwards, that is not optimal. But all things considered, splitting with the Rangers 1-1 at MSG is certainly not optimal. Game 3 is bigger than a normal Game 3. Because if the Rangers win, then everyone can write off Game 1 as a fluke.
But one thing is for sure, the Rangers are not dominating the Pens as expected as this has been a fairly evenly played series.
It was a helluva snipe, it’s okay to give credit on a great play and shot
Stats indicate that the pens carried play for a good bit of yesterday’s game, same as the 1st game after the 1st period. But it sure didn’t seem like it to me.
More shot attempts, more SOG, more high danger scoring opportunities. Shesterkin sure is good but he sure doesn’t have to face as many redirected shots as our goalies have to. We very seldom have someone in front of the net for that, aside from Malkin’s game 1 OT winner of course.
Shesterkin has had some luck these 1st 2 games though. In addition to all the advantages in shots the Pens have put up, they have to be way way ahead of the Rangers in shots clanging off goalposts.
There haven’t been an excessive # of penalties called in these 1st 2 games. That’s a good thing because that has definitely been an area where the Rangers have dominated. Seems like they have control of the puck in the offensive zone almost the entirety of every power play. Pens not so much, they spend as much time giving the Rangers good short handed opportunities.
Agreed. The Rangers have been relentless in controlling play once they’re in the Penguins zone. The Pen’s top line has been its usual dynamic self when attacking, but the usual bugaboos of zero productivity from the subsequent lines, horrid blind passes and neutral zone turnovers from the usual suspects, as well as less than zero physical intimidation by ANY Pens line, along with the beer league gibrone in net, sure makes it seem like a near-hopeless task right now.
I reviewed the video of the 5th goal again today and as I said last night, Domingue was beaten cleanly as opposed to the first 4 goals which were all deflected in ...... on the fifth goal there was no deflection, no screen, the goalie clearly saw the shot all the way ..... I clarified by saying it was a tough save situation by the goalie and definitely agree that it was a very good shot by the Ranger ..... personally I don't consider it to be a bad goal at all and Domingue played much better than the 5 goals against might suggest with the first 4 all deflected into the net ........
However, I'd like to go through the 5th goal through the eyes of the goalie and what he should be thinking during that sequence and make a couple points along with giving a different prospective (anyone who doesn't care should stop reading now because there will be a lot of detail) ...... Matheson obviously played it poorly and let the puck carrier get by him along the boards out past the top of the circle and the puck carrier went farther along the boards then cut in through the circle and took a shot from 2-3 feet right below the face-off dot ...... when the puck carrier got past Matheson and was about to cut into the circle, the goalie should be making sure he is in proper position at that point while taking a quick look into the slot to see if there were any other Rangers in a dangerous position in the zone who could receive a pass ........ with the look he would have seen no other Ranger that the puck carrier could pass to and that the puck carrier could not continue to cut through the inner circle to the slot as Letang was starting to close on him from there ...... the goalie then should realize that the puck carrier has very limited options, basically shoot from where he did or turn the puck toward the goal line and take a bad angle shot on the backhand ....... at that point both the goalie and shooter know the higher % shot is from near the face-off dot where he actually took the shot ....... the goalie has to be in the best position he can be to stop the shot at that point and make the best save selection when the shot comes ....... so how did Domingue do ? ......
He was actually in pretty good position just inside the blue paint and had his glove in good position .... but when the shot came and he went down, he dropped his glove down close to his pad and it was no longer in the proper trajectory with the puck to make the save ..... the puck went over the glove just outside his arm at about elbow level ..... if he would have not dropped the glove, the puck actually looks like it would have gone directly into the glove or he at least would hardly have had to move the glove to make the save ..... he had no chance once the glove was lowered ....... when shooters are real close to the goalie when shooting (inside the hash marks in the low slot or in the inner lower circle close to the goalie) often times goals are scored over the pads and under the glove so goalies drop their gloves to near the top of the pads to stop those shots but when shooters are farther away like the Ranger shooter was last night, the goalie should keep his glove up more normally to be able to protect the upper half of the net as well, not automatically drop it close to the pads ........ so that is point one about that goal from the goalies standpoint.
Point two, since the shooter had limited options and basically had to shoot from where he did (as discussed above), is there anything the goalie could safely have done to decrease the chance of a goal from the spot where the shot was taken and the answer is "yes" ....... he could have been more aggressive with his positioning and gone a foot or so outside the crease to cut the angle down more and give the shooter less net to shoot at ...... there was no other good option the shooter had and if the goalie cuts the angle down, the shot likely hits him in the torso rather then go over the glove as it did ......
It was a tough save and excellent shot, no doubt ..... but, the Pens goalie and goalie coach after reviewing the video are rather talking about glove positioning and considering more aggressive positioning to cut the angle down if that same play happens again so as to have a better chance of making the save ..... the Rangers forwards are talking about a great shot ....... it's all about prospective.
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I fault the management for this for not having better 3rd and 4th string goalies.
Rangers are dominating on special teams. Their powerplay has been unstoppable and made us look silly. Our powerplay has not been good and allowed a shorthanded goal in game 1. We will not win the series if this continues. They have a big advantage in goal right now, so we must at least even out the special teams. Oh, and I wouldn't mind seeing a Penguin, any Penguin, actually hit Panarin and make life difficult on him. We just offer nothing when it comes to physicality and disrupting the other teams better players.
This is not new, but I blasted Jim Rutherford the previous offseason, then Hextall last off season and again at the trade deadline to get some veteran backup like the Pens had with Tomas Vokoun or Thomas Greiss, a guy like that. And this is going to bite them the second playoffs in a row.
It's a shame. And hey Domingue may become folklore, but we are playing the best goalie in the world right now. The shame of it is, these 3 pillars of Penguin hockey's careers (together) are going to come to an end because of this.
