- Aug 2, 2005
- 11,031
- 35
Certainly wasn't pretty. And as many noted in the GDT, there's still a lot of work to be done. Thankfully it's still January and there are about 20-some other teams still looking sloppy as well.
+ Credit to the defensive corps as a whole. Playing 45 minutes without a solid top-four guy like Niskanen has been so far is very alarming. Martin and Orpik continue to impress. Letang was less than stellar. As a whole, I can't complain too much, given the situation.
+ Fleury played as well as could be expected. Outside of a couple fluky bounces and the inevitable puckhandling adventures, he was the biggest reason for this win.
+ The breakouts were much more disciplined. But that's not saying a ton after the Winnipeg game. Bylsma's biggest deficiency remains in-game adjustments rather than the day-to-day stuff, in my opinion. A few bad turnovers, including Malkin's that led to the goal, but the point seemed to get drilled home well enough to the roster.
- Kunitz continues to struggle badly. Bad turnovers, missing the net on shots, and a forecheck that isn't up to speed yet. One hopes that it's still partially a case of conditioning problems from the lockout, but it's concerning all the same. Ideally the Pens are able to bring in a bona fide scorer for Sid's line and see if Kunitz can round back into form with Malkin and Neal.
- Very rough night for the power play. Tying into the previous point, I don't think Kunitz deserves to be out there with the first unit right now. But obviously the problems tonight went well beyond the guy in front of the net. Choppy play, poor job gaining the blue line and general indecision. The man-advantage should be what makes the difference in a game like this, and it failed tonight.
Malkin probably deserves his own category. Gorgeous effort and vision to create a goal and then just a lack of awareness of the situation to give one right back. The good *probably* outweighed the bad tonight, but man -- some of those lazy drop passes just make you tear your hair out.
+ Credit to the defensive corps as a whole. Playing 45 minutes without a solid top-four guy like Niskanen has been so far is very alarming. Martin and Orpik continue to impress. Letang was less than stellar. As a whole, I can't complain too much, given the situation.
+ Fleury played as well as could be expected. Outside of a couple fluky bounces and the inevitable puckhandling adventures, he was the biggest reason for this win.
+ The breakouts were much more disciplined. But that's not saying a ton after the Winnipeg game. Bylsma's biggest deficiency remains in-game adjustments rather than the day-to-day stuff, in my opinion. A few bad turnovers, including Malkin's that led to the goal, but the point seemed to get drilled home well enough to the roster.
- Kunitz continues to struggle badly. Bad turnovers, missing the net on shots, and a forecheck that isn't up to speed yet. One hopes that it's still partially a case of conditioning problems from the lockout, but it's concerning all the same. Ideally the Pens are able to bring in a bona fide scorer for Sid's line and see if Kunitz can round back into form with Malkin and Neal.
- Very rough night for the power play. Tying into the previous point, I don't think Kunitz deserves to be out there with the first unit right now. But obviously the problems tonight went well beyond the guy in front of the net. Choppy play, poor job gaining the blue line and general indecision. The man-advantage should be what makes the difference in a game like this, and it failed tonight.
Malkin probably deserves his own category. Gorgeous effort and vision to create a goal and then just a lack of awareness of the situation to give one right back. The good *probably* outweighed the bad tonight, but man -- some of those lazy drop passes just make you tear your hair out.
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