Series Talk: Pens vs Habs Round 1 Best of Five - Episode 5: Camme toé

[PensandCaps]

My educated guess/best hope is that Sullivan will significantly limit Johnson-Schultz's minutes, such that L2's ES minutes will be split something like 15% with Dumo-Letang, 55% with Pets-Marino, and 30% with Johnson-Schultz.

That's still 30% too much, but it's better than earlier in the year and much better than last year for Malkin. So, it may end up being simultaneously true that Johnson plays 50% of HIS minutes with L2, but L2 only plays like 30% of their minutes with Johnson. Anything at that level or better is a big win in terms of what some FEAR Sully might do.

BTW, I think L1's minutes will be split like 70%/20%/10% with pairings 1/2/3.

Malkin was a beast this year. I would be treating his line like the 1st line.

Crosby should be getting JJ 30% of the time, He's been outplayed by Malkin and most importantly, he brought JJ here.

 

[KIRK]

Last year was pretty even.

This year, no. Guentzel-Malkin-Rust was mowing teams down 5v5.

34 ES goals for Jake and 29 ES goals for Gallagher is close, but then you're also looking at 31 ES assists for Jake versus 16 ES goals for Gallagher.

As I said, I'd love to see Gallagher on Sid's RW, but I'm not going to say anyone could do what Jake has done on Sid's wing unless he actually does.

 

[Peat]

It did take 20 more games to do it, so on a PER GAME basis, Jake was 50% more productive at ES.

I was going off p/60 - Jake had 1.25 g/60 and 1.53 a/60, Gallagher had 1.38 g/60 and 1.28 a/60. Per game difference would be Jake getting monster ice time. And this is consistent on the goal scoring front - Gallagher and Guentzel were 2nd and 3rd last year for g/60.

If you gave Gallagher actual support, people would probably start thinking he's Marchand-level.

 

[Ryder71]

You wanna be hot coming into the playoffs though, does not make you for sure cup winners but it can help. But it also requires a lot of luck.

How can you possibly come in ''hot'' when you haven't played in nearly five months? This is akin to an entire off season. You can largely forget about the Flyers winning 9 out of 10.

 

[KIRK]

Malkin was a beast this year. I would be treating his line like the 1st line.

Crosby should be getting JJ 30% of the time, He's been outplayed by Malkin and most importantly, he brought JJ here.

Frankly, IF it were me, I'd try to limit the Johnson-Schultz pairing to under 10 minutes ES time a game and ride the **** out of the other two pairings.

And I'm not sure Pets-Marino isn't a better regular option for L2 than Dumo-Letang.

 

[KIRK]

I was going off p/60 - Jake had 1.25 g/60 and 1.53 a/60, Gallagher had 1.38 g/60 and 1.28 a/60. Per game difference would be Jake getting monster ice time. And this is consistent on the goal scoring front - Gallagher and Guentzel were 2nd and 3rd last year for g/60.

If you gave Gallagher actual support, people would probably start thinking he's Marchand-level.

They might, but I've just learned over the years you can't say it until it actually happens. Kessel's regular season numbers are a more recent example.

And just to reiterate, I personally think Gallagher is the perfect RW for Jake-Sid, so it's not that I'm downplaying it in theory.

 

[Ryder71]

I expect nothing but domination against these smurf colored wankers.

Absolutely. But we lost to the Islanders last season so obviously we got some naysayers here warning us that it could happen again.

 

[Borgir]

Stoked to take it easy tomorrow, turned down 11 hours straight OT to hide in my basement and watch the game. Rumours are the players here in the Edmonton bubble are having a good time, it is finally nice here though, that helps.

 

[PensandCaps]

Frankly, IF it were me, I'd try to limit the Johnson-Schultz pairing to under 10 minutes ES time a game and ride the **** out of the other two pairings.

And I'm not sure Pets-Marino isn't a better regular option for L2 than Dumo-Letang.

oh it were up to me i'd be Throwing out Ruhwedel and Jusso/Schultz.

It's absolutely crazy when you look at the Possession stats of each player with JJ and away from JJ. Its like someone made it up, it's that bad.

 

[66-30-33]

How can you possibly come in ''hot'' when you haven't played in nearly five months? This is akin to an entire off season. You can largely forget about the Flyers winning 9 out of 10.

Bruh, I was clearly talking Flyers PRE covid when they were on fire.

 

[ImporterExporter]

I expect some of these games to feature outrageous scores. At least early on. Am I the only one?

Hockey is going to be VERY, VERY sloppy IMO. You simply can't go from having months off, no real game action and then jump into playoff hockey without more turnovers, dumb decisions (mainly defensively).

 

[Peat]

Can we please stop worrying about JJ-Schultz and Geno until we actually see it?

Fwiw, Geno was their third most common C this year. This is borrowing trouble.

Also did we really only have Letang-Dumo for 20 games last season? Man, what a trainwreck that was.


edit: p.s. That game Cole was thinking about with Niemi was a 4-3 last year.

 

[Andy99]

Frankly, IF it were me, I'd try to limit the Johnson-Schultz pairing to under 10 minutes ES time a game and ride the **** out of the other two pairings.

And I'm not sure Pets-Marino isn't a better regular option for L2 than Dumo-Letang.

if it were me (as well as a bunch of hockey people a lot smarter than me), I wouldn’t be playing JJ at all...but that’s just silly me

 

[PensandCaps]

Absolutely. But we lost to the Islanders last season so obviously we got some naysayers here warning us that it could happen again.

okay but the islanders were actually good and ahead of us in the standings.

Montreal has zero business being here. frankly its Bullshit that the Penguins have to play a play in round.

But maybe it helps? like Philly will be super rusty, and we'll be in game mode.

 

[Ryder71]

Bruh, I was clearly talking Flyers PRE covid when they were on fire.

No kidding, and I'm suggesting that at this point it really doesn't much matter now.

 

[Ryder71]

okay but the islanders were actually good and ahead of us in the standings.

Montreal has zero business being here. frankly its Bullshit that the Penguins have to play a play in round.

But maybe it helps? like Philly will be super rusty, and we'll be in game mode.

I'm in no way concerned about the Series with the Habs. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is how much money I'm gonna make pounding the Pens to win the easiest of series.

 

[PensandCaps]

I'm in no way concerned about the Series with the Habs. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is how much money I'm gonna make pounding the Pens to win the easiest of series.

you trust Murray way more than i do.

i think we'll win in 4. but im not super confident.

 

[Ryder71]

you trust Murray way more than i do.

i think we'll win in 4. but im not super confident.

Four sounds about right to me, three or four.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Absolutely. But we lost to the Islanders last season so obviously we got some naysayers here warning us that it could happen again.

Shaky goaltending and arrogance with the coaching staff will do that to you.

 

[Return of the Paek]

I might be in the minority, but I would def play JJ about twice as much as Marino in this series. We are going to need his experience in the playoffs. Shutdown defenseman.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

you trust Murray way more than i do.

i think we'll win in 4. but im not super confident.

I don't trust him at all, I hope Jarry out plays his ass and this is his Murray's version of the Fleury farewell tour. He can go f*** right off.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I might be in the minority, but I would def play JJ about twice as much as Marino in this series. We are going to need his experience in the playoffs. Shutdown defenseman.

I was thinking about this a few days ago...

JJ-Marino was a solid pair, JJ was actually a functional human being with Marino. Which left the idea that if you drop Pettersson down to the 3rd pair with someone like Riikola (Schultz is a dumpster fire, no partner can fix him, he's worse than JJ right now), I would probably roll that.

JJ-Schultz is comically bad, like you are a f***ing dipshit of a coach if you think that is a 3rd pair that won't burn you at literally every second they hit the ice as a duo.

 

[Ryder71]

Shaky goaltending and arrogance with the coaching staff will do that to you.

First off the Habs aren't the Islanders. We didn't have Marino. We're a well rested group and considering the majority of our core is over 30 they should be primed and raring to go. We also have both Jake and Zucker for the first time. Before Jake got injured and though we weren't even all that healthy then we were playing an excellent brand of hockey.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

First off the Habs aren't the Islanders. We didn't have Marino. We're a well rested group and considering the majority of our core is over 30 they should be primed and raring to go. We also have both Jake and Zucker for the first time. Before Jake got injured and though we weren't even all that healthy then we were playing an excellent brand of hockey.

It's not about players.

Sullivan went on the offense and Trotz studied his counterpart, literally let Sullivan make the first move and then let him coach himself into a hole. Trotz got exploited in the 2nd round after, but Trotz understood how Sullivan worked and let him play himself into a hole. Barring that same ignorance, nothing sheer of Crosby harnessing the all of the prime Crosby from 2010-11, will save us at that point.

Before the Pandemic hit, all I wanted to see is if Sullivan was figured out in a best of 7 when teams have time to study the coach and his style. I don't want some lame f*** excuses again.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I mean, this team had a cocksure coach behind the bench and got smoked by the Habs before. It doesn't matter if they're the f***ing Islanders or if they're "just the Habs..."

It means nothing if you haven't learned from your past mistakes. All I want to see is if Sullivan from the back 2 back shows up or the Sullivan vs the Islanders that literally played into every trap the Islanders set out there.

This team has no excuse losing to the Habs.