We talk the insanity of the Pirates being good, the fake Pens season, Crosby at the DMV, whether the Steelers have any good players, Ken and Ben Roethlisberger, how many followers we have on Spreaker, and whether RG3 is annoying. Plus so much more. It's GTOG Radio.
Mike Colligan of The Hockey Writers joins the podcast for an in-depth discussion of the Pens' offseason. We touch on everything -- the Boston series, Rob Scuderi, Matt D'Agostini, Dan Bylsma, Letang/Kunitz/Dupuis/Adams signings, Fleury, and what moves are still left to make. Plus so much else. We even debate whether Rob Scuderi got burned by Ovechkin four years ago. It's a can't miss GTOG Podcast.
Now that Ray Shero has spoken and the Pens have signed Dan Bylsma to a 2-year contract extension, the change that's coming to this team is in personnel only. On GTOG's official season wrap-up podcast, we talk about Shero's press conference, his support of Bylsma and Fleury, what the Pens should and will do this summer with Malkin and Letang, and all the other choices -- some easy, some hard -- that the team will have to make this offseason. It's the GTOG Podcast.
Listen while you watch the Stanley Cup Finals with Pierre McGuire muted.
If pucks could talk, Jarome Iginla's wrist shot at the final buzzer would have let out a feeble whimper as it landed almost apologetically in the glove of Tukka Rask. It was a fitting and symbolic end to a series the Pens deserved to lose and the Bruins deserved to win. Now armed with a body of work that reads like an inventory of a losing team's most-favored excuses -- a hot goalie, injuries, a bad goalie, and no good bounces -- the Pens have another long offseason of soul-searching ahead.
Read on for the burial...
When a team loses in such a spectacularly disappointing manner, the brain can pull you in two opposite directions are the same time. There's the reactionary "fire everybody, Crosby sucks" approach, and then there's the "I'll just wait a few weeks and let this pain fade away so that when I decide what changes I want to make I will have tricked myself into thinking we were just a few bounces away" method (aka, The Full Leonsis).
The truth for Ray Shero and the Pens is somewhere in between, but he'd be wise to not waste the opportunity that comes with having your team so thoroughly embarrassed for the world to see. Though the systematic errors are glaring and the individual failures are spectacular, the common thread that binds the last four playoff disappointments was woven at the Herm Edwards School of Simplicity: the Pens don't do the right thing often enough.
It's less important what that right thing is, and much more important that the Pens either can't identify it or can't do it. The Pens started the Eastern Conference Finals playing the right way, but couldn't sustain it when it turned out that Boston was not going to be like Ottawa and pour the accelerating lubricant for the Pens' glide into the next round. So the Pens stopped playing the right way for the next 5 periods and instead dug the first three feet of their own grave. And once the Pens identified the problems in the way they played in games 1 and 2 and tightened up defensively, they could not, shot-differential be damned, consistently generate anything resembling the high quality scoring chances that the Pens would need to beat a locked-in goalie like Rask. The Pens may spend the next few weeks feeling sorry for themselves for not catching a single break over 8 periods in Boston, but that would obscure the fact that the Pens rolled over when things didn't come easily in games 1 and 2, and couldn't persevere in games 3 and 4 once they finally seemed to grasp the idea that winning playoff games is supposed to be hard.
The Pens would have eventually broken through on Rask had they continued to play the way they did in games 3 and 4, but you don't get an "eventually" in the playoffs. And, given this team's track record of mixing random slices of inexcusable chaos into their discipline sandwich, what indication is there that the Pens could have sustained their overall solid performances in games 3 and 4 anyway?
It doesn't matter what might have happened in a game 5 or if the Pens had taken the lead at any point in one of these games because they didn't. It doesn't matter if the Pens were playing the right way when they went out because they went out. By design, the playoffs require excellence across a small sample size; whether the Pens were trending in the right direction when they went out is irrelevant. There's already a trophy for trending well over a large amount of time.
Comfort food for GTOG.
It's an indictment of everyone in the organization that the Pens went out this way, so it's hard to pin more blame on any one person than it is on another. Ray Shero's acquisitions didn't get the team any further than it would have gone without those guys, and it's easy to argue that getting both Morrow and Iginla stagnated a team that simply didn't need both of them. It's great to have a fancy shoe collection, but you can only wear one pair at a time. Dan Bylsma added to an ever-growing resume of presiding over inexplicable performances, and when he finally recalibrated his team in one area (defense), he seemed to do it at the expense of another (offense). Crosby, Malkin, Neal and Letang had no points in 4 games, and while that will almost certainly never happen again over any future 4-game stretch, it still happened. And the supporting cast, supposedly the deepest in the league, didn't hold the fort while the stars got it together. It was a total failure by everyone.
Last night's game was exciting only because it was meaningful -- if that game happens in December, it's a total snooze fest, the kind of game where if you DVR'd it, you'd actually get mad at your roommate for NOT spoiling the score and warning you against spending three hours watching it. It's admirable (and appreciated because we watch all 82 games of it) that the Pens try to play hockey the way most people want it to be played; you know, with actual goals and excitement. But the Pens have to be careful not to martyr themselves as the paragon of the way hockey should be played. Because while it might be nice to enjoy the spoils of the afterlife -- like the MVP and Norris Trophy that could be coming in a couple days -- the bottom line is that you're dead.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
Well that was terrible. The Pens were completely dominated by a terrific game from Boston and then compounded it with an all-time stink-bomb. We chronicle it all, LIVE on the GTOG Podcast, after the final whistle.
We aren't going to tell you that everything is OK, but we will tell you that it's far from the end of the world. We're covering everything about Game 1, including Cooke's 5-minute major, Tukka Rask, Tomas Vokoun, and all the emotions we're feeling. It's the GTOG Podcast.
It's our Pens-Bruins Eastern Conference Finals preview podcast. How does the long delay affect the series? Which Bruin do you fear the most? What's the deal with the Tortorella firing? All that, our predictions, and so much more. It's the GTOG Podcast.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
We opened our podcast last night asking the question: Was Game 4 the game we've been waiting for the Pens to play all postseason? Our answer was a definitive 'no.' Game 3 was the game we had been hoping the Pens were capable of -- a tight, 1-0 win, with scoring from an unexpected place, and an ability to overcome a hot goalie with a hot goalie of our own. But you know, shit happens.
Game 4 was the game we knew the Pens had in them, and the Pens teased us with it a few times in the Isles series (Games 1 and 5) and even early in this series (Game 1). But they never got all the way there like they did last night. Game 4 was total domination. The Pens OWNED the first period and probably should have been winning 5-2 after 20 minutes. With all due respect to Dejan Kovacevic, who is having himself a hell of a playoffs, the Pens were not "awful" in the first period. In fact, it was arguably the Pens most dominant period offensively in the whole playoffs; it just took a few minutes more of play in the second period to reap the benefits on the scoreboard. What happened in the third period -- 4 goals in 10 minutes -- was not the product of 10 good minutes of hockey, something which has often been enough for the Pens to win games. It was the well-earned payoff from two excellent overall performances in Ottawa in Games 3 and 4.
The Pens went into Ottawa and scored 8 goals in 2 games -- it's just a matter of bad fortune that they weren't spread out more evenly to come home with two wins. Because one thing is clear this morning and it's that this series should already be over.
Read on for more... Unfortunately, it's not over. The mental errors that the Pens make way-too-regularly are not going away, so there's no guarantee that the Pens close it out in Game 5. But the Pens would be wise to keep their foot on the gas and try to bury Ottawa right from the start because as clearly as the fans and media can see that the Pens are the better team, the Senators themselves seem to see it most clearly. From Scott Burnside of ESPN.com:
Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson, who reached the 100-point plateau in playoff scoring with a power-play goal with the game out of reach in the third, was asked whether it was feasible to win three straight against this Pittsburgh team.
"Probably not," he answered with brutal candor. "With their depth and their power play right now, it doesn’t look too good.
"I’m just saying that I don’t think there’s much going for us. Maybe that’s the way we like it."
The Senators are ready to lose this series. The only way they get back in it is if the Pens let them, and the killer-instinct and refusal to get frustrated last night is the most encouraging sign yet that the Pens won't allow it. The last 4 games for Ottawa have been like nursing a sick relative. There was a brief glimmer of hope, but we all know how it should end. It's time to pull the plug and let go.
It's ok, Paul. Don't be scared.
- Somehow Evgeni Malkin ended up with zero points despite the Pens putting up a 7-spot, including two on the power-play. He's now gone two straight games without a point. On paper, this looks bad. But if you have eyes, then it's evident he is returning to his MVP form of last season. If Geno and Sid are both playing at their highest level -- where they each are around 1.5 points per game -- the Pens are a near-impossible match-up for anyone. With no Cups in the prior three season, there have been questions about whether the "2 superstar model" works. The answer is that it does work when the 2 superstars are playing like the 2 best players in the league. Which they are.
- Tomas Vokoun is something to behold. I've never seen a goalie look behind himself so much to make sure the puck isn't dribbling between his legs and in. It doesn't dribble between his legs, though, and that's all that really matters. As long as he keeps winning -- and he's 5-1 with a 1.82 GAA and .942 save percentage -- there is nothing to discuss. He's the goalie. If he falters (and despite the constant looking over his shoulder, there's no indication that a collapse is imminent), Fleury will be ready. The only question at this point is whether if Vokoun has a bad game, would that even be enough for Fleury to supplant him as the #1 goalie again?
- Kris Letang must be bi-polar. One personality is an evolutionary Scott Neidermayer; the other is a de-evolutionary Mike Green. His first period was horrific, from giving up a shorthanded breakaway to falling on top of his goalie. But then he had 4 assists. When he isn't limiting himself, his ceiling is unlimited.
- If healthy, Jussi Jokinen needs to stay in the lineup. Joe Vitale did a very nice job in his few games, but Jokinen brings something that can further separate the Pens from the competition -- an ability to sustain offense. The Pens are so top-heavy that you can't even really say they have a "1st line." With Jokinen, the same is true at the bottom of the lineup. There's really no 4th line. With Cooke, Kennedy, Sutter, Jokinen, Adams, and Bennett/Morrow, it doesn't really matter what you call any combination. Each can play 10-15 effective minutes. Here are Game 4's time on ice numbers:
Gorgeous.
- Last night was a sad night for Sergei Gonchar. He was a -4 and was in the box for James Neal's killer PP goal early in the third. He's a big time liability at this point.
- 15:32 from Crankshaft, and you barely heard his name. That's a great thing.
Pens need to put this one away on Friday. We suspect they will. Go Pens.
Can any other team in the NHL do what the Pens did tonight -- get stymied by a "hot" goalie for a period, then run him out of the building in a third period so dominant it bordered on embarrassing?
We discuss on the GTOG Podcast.
(If you're new to the podcast, the quality is usually much higher. One of us (Artistry) decided to go on a family vacation during the NHL playoffs)
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
When Matt Cooke devilishly drew a slashing penalty on Erik Karlsson with 87 seconds left in the game, we were fully prepared to lavish the Pens with praise after what may have been their best performance of the postseason. A 1-0 win? With almost nothing to complain about? In what seemed like an actual normal playoff game after two straight series of sometimes bizarre play? Sign us up!
One bad play doesn't erase 59 minutes of strong play. But man, did that suck.
This loss would go in the heartbreaking category if the Pens were underdogs, or if some Senator made a great play on the tying goal, or if the Pens had lost 1-0 in overtime with Craig Anderson shutting the door all night. But when the Pens, from the coaching staff to every player on the ice except Vokoun, make a series of inexcusable decisions on the tying goal, the Raw Emotion reaction is to be disgusted. And when you feel yourself not being surprised that it happened, because the Pens cling to mental errors like a baby clings to his blankie, it raises serious questions about whether this team has the mental discipline to pay attention to all the details necessary to win the Cup.
Everyone says it and it's a boring cliche, but it's true -- if the Pens just cut back the mental errors, there's no one that can play with them. The problem is that there's limited evidence they can do this. We're still hopeful that the Pens can win the Cup and VERY optimistic that the Pens can still make short work of the Senators. The overwhelming talent should be plenty to do the trick. But if the Pens somehow fall short, then we already know why.
Read on for a full breakdown of the Alfie's shorty ... The problem with the Pens' approach to the late power-play was that they had no approach. They were caught in between trying to score and trying to play the prevent defense and, obviously, this meant they didn't do either. A brief run down of the problems.
Personnel: Crosby won the draw to start the power-play but was off the ice by the time the Sens scored. Sid was probably doing the smart thing by changing before he was tired, but Malkin and Kunitz -- not two guys you'd want on in a late-game defensive situation -- weren't on the same page. This is not praise of Sid for getting off or criticism on Malkin and Kunitz for staying on -- it's criticism of the coaching staff for having some guys operating one way and some guys operating another.
Personnel Part 2: And who replaces Crosby on the ice? Brandon "I play like the back of a piece of sandpaper" Sutter. Maybe Sutter is an OK defensive player and we could understand him being out there if it was for a face-off but when you're up a man you cannot simply try to keep everything to the outside and get in shooting lanes. YOU'RE UP A MAN. Go get the puck. Go make it hard for them to make a pass. Sutter is horrible at those things. And it's not that Sutter is to blame for the tying goal, but his brief cameo in the general vicinity of Milan Michalek before the pass to Alfredsson -- without really doing a thing that made it remotely difficult for Michalek to make the pass -- is a perfect snapshot of his season.
Come on, dude.
The dump in. In hindsight, we could have turned off the TV after Kunitz dumped the puck in and then half-heartedly went in completely alone to get it, while the rest of the Pens lined up across their own blue-line so that they could be flat-footed when the Senators gained the zone -- it was obvious what was about to happen. Again, the Pens were on the power-play, and instead of having the mentality that they were going to bury the Senators, the mentality was that the Pens had to kill a 5-on-4 advantage. Losers think that way. The Pens are not losers.
The Prime Minister: Is he on the wrong side of the ice as Guilherme points out? Is he covering any shooting or passing lane in the below screen grab? Is he making it difficult on the passer? We don't go to practices so we don't know if PMPM is doing what he's told here, but whatever the case, he isn't doing the right thing.
Kunitz, Malkin, and Letang: Do you have to be a hockey savant to know that when the other team is down with 30 seconds to go they're going to send a bunch of guys to the net, and yes, even when they're short-handed? If like 8 other things were different about this play, the Pens would have been in perfect defensive coverage.
This is an awful lot of analysis of one play in a game that lasted 90 minutes. But this play just made what should have been a relatively easy series a lot harder.
Upon further reflection after our podcast, the way the Pens played in the first 59 minutes makes us more hopeful than if the Pens had won 6-5. Offensively the Pens were buzzing all night and when the top two lines were getting stymied by a hot goalie and a market-correction of shooting and save percentages, the third line came through with a HUGE goal. That's how playoff games are won. The tying goal is just more confirmation that as much as this team has the ability to make amazing plays to win playoff games, you don't have to dig too far under the surface to find the ability to make plays that lose playoff games.
The sky is far from falling on the Pens. But that was a hell of a hailstorm in the last 30 seconds.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
Recapping the Pens 4-1 win over Ottawa. How dangerous is the powerplay? What's up with James Neal? Did Ottawa show anything that should scare the Pens? We muster up some emotion about the Pens workmanlike victory. It's the GTOG Podcast.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
Brooks Orpik has totally and completely redeemed himself for shooting the worst shot of all time at Sid's face. What a win. The Pens may not have deserved to win this game, but who the F cares. Bye, New York. And hello Ottawa. It's the GTOG Podcast.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
How much is on Fleury? How much is on Bylsma? How much is on Malkin? Is there enough blame to go around? Is it possible that every player is more than 100% responsible for this loss?
It's an emotional time to be a Pens fan. Experience it with the GTOG Podcast, recorded live in the wake of the Pens' terrible 6-4 loss.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
Overall, a discouraging performance. BUT WHAT A WIN.
We recap the Pens 5-4 overtime win in Game 3. Should we be anything but discouraged? Is this the worst we've ever felt after a win? Spoiler alert: No and Yes. It's the GTOG Podcast.
**If you're listening on your smartphone, the best ways to make sure that you have an uninterrupted experience are: 1) download the podcast from iTunes OR 2) download the Spreaker app by going to the App store and searching for "Spreaker" then "Get To Our Game"**
The notion that Marc-Andre Fleury kept the Pens in the game during a first period that was lopsided in favor of the Islanders in everything but the score is true. But it's also irrelevant. If you go 40 years without beating your wife then tag her with a right cross, you're still a wife-beater. You don't get to say, "well, I was really nice to her those first 40 years."
Great guy, though, right?
How many playoff games do the Penguins have to lose because Fleury is incapable of tracking the puck once it goes behind the net? How many stunningly deflating goals does he have to give up score on himself? We'll get to the overall bad play of the team later today but Fleury has played himself into a place where a bad 1st period on Sunday -- heck, even just a bad goal -- should lead to Bylsma taking the keys away. And maybe for good.
We're probably over-reacting to what is just one loss in a series the Pens should still win. But to offer Fleury the refuge of any excuse is to willfully ignore what's been happening right in front of our eyes, and has been for some time.
Since Penguins won Stanley Cup in 2009, Marc-Andre Fleury's playoff record is 13-15. Save Percentage in the high .800's #wontgetitdone — John Buccigross (@Buccigross) May 4, 2013
No one can ever take his Cup away, but whatever capital he built up from that win has been spent long ago, the Chinese are tired of lending him money, and now he's responding to emails from Nigerian princes. At this point, his ring is relevant only to his historical legacy; as to the length of his leash in Game 3, it's a non-factor, and if you're mentioning it as a credential at this point, you might as well remember O.J. for his Heisman Trophy.
But what about that shutout in Game 1?
What about it? Does not giving up a goal in one game give you license to let up 3 (arguably 4) bad ones in the next game? When Mitch Williams gave up the World Series walk-off homer to Joe Carter, did anyone care that it was the first time Williams had ever given up a hit to Carter? Fleury is the goalie; he's supposed to stop pucks whether the team is playing well or, as they were last night, playing like shit. Where is the rule that you can only evaluate a goalie when the team in front of him is playing well?
If it wasn't so depressing, it might be a fun exercise to create a coding system for the goals that have been scored against Fleury. The first category would be: "Was it an actual shot on goal?" Other categories would include, "Did it start from behind the net or along the goal line?" Wait. That's all the categories.
We all know that there were a lot of Penguins who didn't do their jobs last night. But there's one guy who matters more than others. And he let in at least three deflating, garbage goals. Again.
We'll be back to discuss the rest of the team later today.
