A lot of good stuff to think about in your posts guys....... some thoughts ......
- The last 2-3 years the teams that seemed to do the best had the best combination of speed, talent, physicality, structure and goaltending ....... I thought the Canadiens were faster then us, more physical, had better structure, and better goaltending ..... the only advantage that we had was talent and that alone was not nearly enough ..... we have to try and get better in some of those categories ...... by the way, I thought Julien did a great job coaching against the Pens ...... he knew that Crosby and Malkin's lines like to bring the puck into the offensive zone via the rush rather then dump and chase so he clogged the neutral zone to slow the rush down and had his big, and fairly mobile defensemen play very physical against our smaller wingers which got us off our game in the offensive zone ..... also our forecheck was not nearly effective enough ....... on the other end, Montreal got it in deep, and their forecheck was pretty effective especially against our 3rd line defense and they also effectively activated their defensemen in the offensive zone and we did not take advantage of that ....... when Lafferty was put in for McCann and didn't do well in Game 3, I thought the move Sullivan should have made in that game was keep McCann in as 3C and put Lafferty or Rodrigues in for Marleau ...... he could have also even considered scratching Sheary, putting Hornqvist on Sid's wing and Rodrigues on the 3rd line with McCann and Lafferty (that would have been a more physical and much faster 3rd line although less experienced).
- My main concerns about the Pens going into the Qualifying Round as I posted prior to the Canadiens series were the 3rd line forwards (along with depth at forward with Bjugstad and Simon out), 3rd line defense, and the power play ...... we were horrible in all those areas and it cost us big time (we weren't so good in some other areas as well .... our 1st two lines didn't score enough and our structure was not good enough, for example) ........ In addition, Guentzel and Dumoulin looked "rusty" coming back from injuries and weren't as effective as usual.
- IMO, we need to get bigger, faster, younger and play with more structure and intensity (like we did when Crosby was out during the regular season and won a lot of games) ...... we need a RW on Crosby's line, re-configure the 3rd line forwards (especially 3C) and 3rd defense pairing, and improve the power play ...... it's a complicated matter and how we do those things is above my pay grade, GMJR will have to figure it out ..... he will have to take into consideration the salary cap, what he has in the system already that might fill some of the holes, what improvement he feels players in the system can make before next season, what he has to give up in trades to get what he wants and how that affects the team, what to do with RFA's (they have 8) and UFA's (they have 3 and I expect all 3 to be gone ..... Schultz, Sheary, and Marleau) and whether he trades any core players (Crosby is untouchable, I don't expect Malkin to go anywhere because they need him and also because the return is unlikely to be good enough and besides they CAN'T trade Malkin unless he agrees because he has a full no movement clause in his contract and he likes it in Pittsburgh ..... Letang possibly could be traded but my gut feeling is that there is a 90-95% chance of him coming back although at some point we need to decrease his minutes a little bit probably by increasing Marino's a little ...... we have little depth on defense and Letang is still very good so I believe he will be back .... on the power play, we haven't adequately replaced Kessel on that first unit ...... Rust scored 9 PP goalies and 10 PP assists in the shortened regular season and playoffs combined so I might consider him on that 1st PP unit.
- As far as the goalies, both are RFA's and will demand a significant salary increase so they can't keep both goalies under the salary cap and of course even if they could, one will be dealt before the expansion draft after next season or be lost for nothing ...... with Murray's play over the last 3 seasons, his inconsistency, Jarry's improved play, potential bigger upside, and cheaper salary, I expect Murray to be dealt and Jarry and DeSmith likely to be the goalies next season although anything is possible ..... the media has already discussed the possibility of packaging Murray and Jack Johnson in a trade with an expected minimal return (maybe a mid to late round pick) ...... based on his performance the last 3 seasons, trading Murray alone is postulated to be worth a 2nd round pick and a prospect (but not a top prospect ...... maybe a 1st round pick is possible if a team really needs a goalie and believe a change in scenery and maybe a new goalie coach may rejuvenate Murray into a top goalie and I think that is possible) ...... Dr. VonYinzer is correct, Murray has had a problem for at least the last 2 seasons of poor positioning and playing too deep in the crease and why that wasn't changed at the start of this season is a puzzle to me ...... in the 2nd half of this season and playoffs he was playing better angles and positioning and it seemed to coincide with his overall improved performance ...... his movement hasn't been as precise either especially his power pushes ...... his post play has been a problem at times like in the 4th goal in Game 3 ...... IMO, his glove hand could be better but has improved ..... most of his problems are technical to me and thus should theoretically be correctable...... there are several ways to improve your glove hand (you can practice a lot of shots to the glove hand ..... you can play more aggressive angles and positioning ..... the deeper you play in the net the more open net there will be over the glove hand that you will have to cover and that is not good if your glove hand is a weakness, so playing out farther decreases the open net above the glove ..... you can change the position of your glove and also can change how you move your glove to catch the puck once the angle of the shot is seen .... the other thing that might help the glove hand is that there are different types of gloves with different angles of the pocket/web to the cuff (60/75/or 90 degree angles) and some are better suited for different goalies ...... by the way, had a goalie coach tell me at a clinic one time, that if the goalie is in the best angle and position on a shot, he/she will only need to move any part of their equipment at most 18" to make the save ...... illustrating how important angles/positioning/goalie movement is.
- It should be an interesting off season and we will have to see what GMJR comes up with ...... if the results are similar next season then I think Sullivan will be gone and Rutherford will likely "retire".
