PENS vs Montreal Canadiens Round 1 (Best Of Five)

[EightyOne]

Neutral site fan free games will be like exhibition games.

It's not really the stanley cup playoffs without the atmosphere and crowd during .

I really don't want them to go through with this. Of course I want hockey.... but this.... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Just seems wrong.

You almost never see the crowd during live play camera pans.

Many arenas 100% pipe fake crowd noise over the speakers.

Soooo...

...what if they just cut to footage of prior years' crowd shots during stoppages/goals and piped the same music/cheers over arena sound system that they already do during stoppages?

Maybe even play boos and jeers when the refs make any 50/50 call lol.

At least Murray won't be booed. Or...Maybe PPG Paints will boo him, too.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

You almost never see the crowd during live play camera pans.

Many arenas 100% pipe fake crowd noise over the speakers.

Soooo...

...what if they just cut to footage of prior years' crowd shots during stoppages/goals and piped the same music/cheers over arena sound system that they already do during stoppages?

Maybe even play boos and jeers when the refs make any 50/50 call lol.

At least Murray won't be booed. Or...Maybe PPG Paints will boo him, too.

I hope they pivot hard in the other direction. No fake noise, no filler stuff.

Mic everyone up, let us hear the live chatter on the ice, like Sid calling for the puck or defensive communication. Put us in the huddle before a power play. I wanna be there in between periods when Sullivan is fuming at a lackluster effort. Produce uncensored exclusive HBO24/7-like content after the fact.

I don’t see why they’d try to concoct a “normal experience”. Most fans will see right through it. I think they have to look at this as a unique opportunity to make some content we wouldn’t be able to typically see due to the circumstances. Lemonade from lemons if you will.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

They could just go full absurdist and pipe in sections of the Full House and/or Saved By The Bell laugh track at opportune or ridiculous moments.

I'd certainly appreciate that more than fake crowd noise.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

They could just go full absurdist and pipe in sections of the Full House and/or Saved By The Bell laugh track at opportune or ridiculous moments.

I'd certainly appreciate that more than fake crowd noise.

Are you trying to convince us that Bob Saget isn’t funny?

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Are you trying to convince us that Bob Saget isn’t funny?

He's no Screech, that's for sure.

 

[FerrisRox]

Is Montreal even really a bubble team, though? Didn't they sell at the TDL?

Like I said yesterday I get that they were HYPOTHETICALLY still eligible. But so are a just about every team these days until like the last ten-ish games of the season.

It just seems so f***ing Penguins to have to get stuck with this horseshit.

Stuck with? Isn't it a benefit to face a team that is the lowest non playoff team in the tournament? If it were a 16 team playoff, they would be facing a much tougher opponent. How are they Penguins getting screwed in this scenario?

 

[EightyOne]

Live mics?

Aaaaand there goes sixty seven careers via Twitter outrage lol lol

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Stuck with? Isn't it a benefit to face a team that is the lowest non playoff team in the tournament? If it were a 16 team playoff, they would be facing a much tougher opponent. How are they Penguins getting screwed in this scenario?

It's never beneficial to have to play games you shouldn't need to and I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't need to. Montreal has no claim to potentially play spoiler, here. In this league, things seem to work themselves out on the ice often times much differently than they do on paper. Montreal doesn't seem particularly pleased to be here, either. I don't like the format and feel like this entire thing is ill-conceived to begin with. Should have just scrapped season and concentrated on next season... it's not like the NHL has had any compunctions about hobbling or completely decimating full seasons in the past.

That said if they lose to Montreal that's on them. I'm going to be busy enjoying the Summer, regardless.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Stuck with? Isn't it a benefit to face a team that is the lowest non playoff team in the tournament? If it were a 16 team playoff, they would be facing a much tougher opponent. How are they Penguins getting screwed in this scenario?

Are you joking? The Penguins need to now play into those 16 team playoffs. That bolded point is a nonsense point, they're still going to have to play that much tougher opponent. But now they also have to beat a shit team that has no business in the spot to play for a playoff spot.

 

[K Fleur]

Remember when the mics caught Crosby basically telling Scuderi to go f*** himself?

I’m down for live mics if we get more of that.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Remember when the mics caught Crosby basically telling Scuderi to go f*** himself?

I’m down for live mics if we get more of that.

"It was a mistake to let Scuderi go on my part. To have the chance at a do-over and bring Rob back, I think that’s a good day for us."

"If I only want to offer a guy a two-year contract, he's going to go to the next team for a four-year contract. We know Rob Scuderi. If I'm going to pass on Rob Scuderi because I'm a little worried about what he's going to be like when he's 38, I'm not going to get him."

One of my favorite hockey-related quotes that aged like fine milk.

 

[FerrisRox]

Are you joking? The Penguins need to now play into those 16 team playoffs. That bolded point is a nonsense point, they're still going to have to play that much tougher opponent. But now they also have to beat a shit team that has no business in the spot to play for a playoff spot.

Sure you don't think its more fair to have teams that didn't compete the regular season and had legitimate claims to a playoff spot not make it in. This system seems like, by far, the most fair way to handle things.

If they are shit and have no business there, it shouldn't be a problem at all to have play them twice.

 

[Ogrezilla]

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Play them twice? I'm not sure I follow.

I don't see Montreal as having any kind of legitimate claim to even a shot at... whatever this is. As I said prior to this... they sold at the TDL FFS. Even they saw themselves as out of the picture.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I think it's unfair that the Islanders and Panthers will get the unfair advantage of what amounts to all home games without any fans in attendance.

 

[Factorial]

Mic everyone up, let us hear the live chatter on the ice, like Sid calling for the puck or defensive communication.

I heard 7 second delay to bleep out the "raw language" on the ice.

 

[SHOOTANDSCORE]

I'm not all worked up about the Pens having to play in. If they wanted a guaranteed spot, they should have outplayed Philly. Or the Caps. There are no prizes for 3rd in your division.

They needed the vast majority of the league to vote yes to give this season's Cup legitimacy. The bubble teams weren't going to support a system that excluded them from the playoffs. You can't give those teams sitting outside the playoffs a chance to get in without giving the teams inside, a chance to fall out.

You could think, well then let the league just play something like 5 regular season games instead of a play-in round. The problem with that is that it requires teams with no chance to return to play and it overtaxes already stressed hub cities. I probably would have preferred having the 24 teams play in a handful of games that count towards the regular season standings but then you still probably lose the support of the low end teams.

Anyway, this is the system we have. Like someone else said, we might as well just embrace the aging core getting one more chance at a Cup that they might otherwise have been robbed of.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Are you joking? The Penguins need to now play into those 16 team playoffs. That bolded point is a nonsense point, they're still going to have to play that much tougher opponent. But now they also have to beat a shit team that has no business in the spot to play for a playoff spot.

Bright side is this:

We beat Montreal and head into playoffs with meaningful “warm up” games under our belt compared to whoever our opponent may be.

We lose to Montreal and it shows we weren’t gonna make a run anyway, saves us possible embarrassment to a rival in Philly/Wash... and a lottery pick.

Kinda prefer to be where we are over TB, Boston, Philly and the Caps if I am being honest.

 

[mrzeigler]

We're getting hockey back. Let's just be happy about that ... and hope that a player doesn't die from the pandemic like happened with Joe Hall in 1919.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Maybe it seems like a small deal to most and I think maybe it has already been asked but are there any stats tracked for this play-in crap? Regular season stats have already been closed and awards handed out. And yet this ISN'T considered the playoffs. Will there be a side category opened up just for this? Or does a heroic series by like... Crosby, Price or whoever just kinda... vanish?

 

[OnMyOwn]

I heard 7 second delay to bleep out the "raw language" on the ice.

We’re gonna hear a lot of audio pauses. Every other word out of a hockey players mouth is f***.

 

[TooManyHumans]

I think this whole thing is a terrible idea. I also suspect it won't actually happen. As soon as people involved in it (not just players but any of the many people involved in putting this on) start testing positive it is going to fall apart.

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

Cross posting but:




Three week training camp means the “playoffs” start August 1st at earliest.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Seems right in line with the rest of this half-baked boondoggle.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Cross posting but:




Three week training camp means the “playoffs” start August 1st at earliest.

So even Bjugstad could be ready. His timeline is 8 weeks, isn't it?