No 3 peat for Pens
- Thread starter oldpanther
- Start date
Not sure I agree on the score, but I agree on the title.
I'm wondering if the standard Yinzer take will be "Bums. Couldn't even win 3 cups in a row". I sure hope not.
Oh I am sure there will be some. Murray is getting crucified by so many for having an average playoff performance after winning back to back cups by the age of 23. Not saying he played well either. Just saying fans are so quick to turn on the players.
The Pens have had a great run the last couple of years. We all knew how tough it would be to win three in a row, especially in the salary cap era...
They'll be back...
They'll be back...
Already a ton of finger pointing. And to some, Ian Cole was Bobby Orr and would save the day.
61 playoff games in 3 years. That’s another 3/4s of a high intensity season. They were done Saturday night and to believe otherwise is fooling yourself. They are top flight athletes but they did everything humanly possible and hit a wall. It’s not a huge deal just disappointing.
Maybe because hockey is a harder sport aerobically than Basketball?
http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/sportSkills
Mostly agree but they were not done Saturday night. They played a solid game last night and were literally an inch from winning it. Kunuckel hits the post in OT. If that shot is one inch to the right, Pens force game 7.
Comparing apples to oranges really.
-Using Warriors as an example. The Warriors found a way to put an All Star team on one squad. There is no parity at all when it comes to them building that super squad.
-Basketball can be dominated much more by one or two players than hockey. Hockey is much more a team sport and even the best players only play about 30% of the time. And James might be the best NBA player ever. No hockey player on the Pens, Crosby and Malkin included are the best ever.
-Hockey takes a much bigger tool on your body getting checked, getting hit with pucks, etc..
It was a good run by the Pens and fatigue certainly played a factor in their loss. But the Caps also deserve a ton of credit. As I said in the other thread, they made more plays this series and without question made less mistakes especially in regards to giving up odd man breaks and so forth.
I don't know how any Pittsburgh fan can be upset with any of our teams. Counting Pitt in 1976, I've seen all of our Pittsburgh teams win titles, including the Pirates. In my lifetime Pittsburgh teams have won 14 championships. That comes to one championship every 3.5 years of my life. I'll take that any day!!!
If you buy that study then it is. Slightly. NBA players are on the court longer than NHL players. NHL players get two halftimes each game to recover. The excuse that the players were tired is tiresome.
Murray was not great (had not been all year). He was injured a lot. Don't know that he ever really returned to top performance.
Letang played the worst.
We needed a better spare defenseman than we picked up in Hunwick
Team was pretty banged up.
Team missed the grit of Kunitz, Bonino, Cullen and especially a defensive pairing. Cole and Hainsey would have helped.
Rutherford saw the writing on the wall at the end of last season. He knew the stars could only take so many head shots and hits from behind. He wanted to add more grit. He did bring in Reaves. Coach Sullivan had other ideas. Sullivan did not want Reaves and refused to use Reaves. Rutherford eventually gave up and traded Reaves.
Rutherford tried to give Sullivan what he wanted. Team was never the same after the trade for Brossard.
The excuse that the players were tired is tiresome. But even though NHL players rest in shifts and get two halftimes there is no way NBA players take the physical toll that NHL players take during a game.
This! The best player or players on a basketball team are in action over 90% of the time and have a lot more control of the game compared to the other sports.
To quote Charlie from The Mighty Ducks “if it is one inch to the left he misses the net entirely.”
Shots off the posts are often (not always) indicative of the goalie playing enough of the net that they are forced to those areas. As a result, they do not count as shots on goal. For most of the heavy lifters they played 307 games in less than 3 calendar years. They were not poised to play another month.
So why aren’t the best player or players on a basketball team more tired or as tired as the best player or players on a hockey team?
No NBA team has won three championships in a row since they made the first round best 4 out of 7, that’s a sign that the best players might be getting tired after deep playoff runs.
because NBA players don't get hit. Sure they may take a occasional charge or bump but they aren't getting hit like a hockey player. Its amazing to me that hockey players don't get hurt more than they do. They are getting hit almost like a FB player 3 times a week!
I am hesitant to even say anything negative about the team or players. In saying that I will say letang and Kessel did not play to the standard that they have set for themselves. Those two were stars in other cup runs but they weren't much more than role guys in this series.
Basketball isn’t on ice and isn’t as physical.
Also- not getting hit with sticks.
One have a frozen piece of flat rubber to push around.
The other an inflatable ball which bounces up.
I bet you’re trolling-
But you’re being stupid.
Basketball has more breaks and rests.
Tv , free throws, quarters .
I’m in bad shape relatively now and can play hoops for an hour.
Ice skating, never mind hockey, not so much
Seriously- just the amount of water weight lost during a game tells the story.
I’m not going to excuse Letang because some of his turnovers were egregious. I’m betting it will come out that Kessel has a broken wrist, hand or something similar. You don’t just forget how to effectively puck handle overnight.
People who never ice skate think it’s tough.
The best NBA players play 40 plus minutes per night. They run up and down the court, stopping and starting, jumping, battling for rebounds, setting picks and absorbing hard fouls. They get knocked down. Basketball is as tough a season as hockey. LeBron James has the played almost three full seasons worth of playoff games and just led his team past his conference’s best team in four games.
Like I said the excuse that the Penguins are tired is tiresome.
They stand around waiting for the ball so they can play the one on one game, then when touched on the wrist a foul is called. When the best players' team wins 3 championships in a row you can tell me they weren't tired.
Another tiresome argument. Golden State and Cleveland have met in the finals three straight seasons and neither team bowed out in the second round this year.
Gee, could that be because hockey is a more physically demanding sport? I've played both, hockey is MUCH more demanding.
Nah, I just think hockey fans for whatever reason just have much lower self esteem and are looking for any sleights against their game even where none exists.
The study cited by one of you shows that hockey is marginally more physically demanding. The Penguins lost. There is no need to make lame excuses about them being tired.
The study cited by one of you shows that hockey is marginally more physically demanding. The Penguins lost. There is no need to make lame excuses about them being tired.
Honestly, you are a total fool if you are trying to equate playing the majority of a basketball game to use that as saying that a hockey player should be able to play the majority of minutes in a hockey game.
I get you are trolling, but you are doing it poorly.
Fatigue was probably a factor for the Pens but in it wasn't the sole reason they lost. Washington played a better series. They made more plays, made less mistakes and had the better goal tending in the series. But some of the mistakes, the lack of making plays, etc.. could have been a result of fatigued players.
I'm not talking about the Penguins losing, you can't win forever. I am just speaking from experience. I have played both games and from my experience hockey was much more physically demanding than basketball, baseball and football. Yes, hockey players go in shifts and are not always on the ice. But in the other three sports you can take plays off, which most do, and the same players are not always on the field or court either. It all evens out time-wise. When you are on the ice you are always moving, not so in the other three sports.
Not in this case, Holtby was clearly beat on that shot. Kuneckel has net to work with and just missed. Agree that hitting post is part of the game though. Just pointing it out to show they could have just as easily won that game.
But again, I disagree with your overall premise that they were done on Saturday night. They played a solid game and were an inch from going to a game 7. Being done would have been getting blown out and not making the game competitive. Certainly agree though that there was some fatigue in play but the Pens were ready to play. They got beat by a better team in that series.
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Hockey is way more difficult and anyone who has an ounce of objectivity and is not trolling would agree.
The hard fouls in Basketball are nothing to intentional hits in hockey. Its no where near as physical and if you believe so you are not very bright. I am in no way saying BB is not a physical sport but one sport hitting the opponent is a foul in the other its part of the game.
Agree that I don't think being tired was the main culprit. The main culprit is washington is pretty damn good. Add in Letang and Kessel, two players who have been stars, did not play well for whatever reason. Also Murray wasn't great just ok.
No, I'm saying playing 40 minutes of basketball is the approximate equivalent of playing 20 minutes of hockey. I'm not suggesting hockey players should be playing more. I am merely rejecting the notion that the Penguins being tired is a valid excuse for bowing out in the second round after winning two championships. Also, the fact that the first round series is now a best of seven instead of a best of five is not a valid excuse either.
Nor is it anything to troll about. You hockey defenders are quite amusing. I'm not making a basketball vs hockey argument.
