GDT: PO Game 5: Columbus at Pittsburgh | 4/26 7PM EDT

[MoeBartoli]

Agreed.

I'm no Anisimov fan in the least bit, for what it's worth ... but I'm becoming one in this series. Everyone is watching Dubinsky against Crosby, but nobody is talking about the stellar job Anisimov has done against Malkin. Let's not forget that Malkin is easily one of the top three offensive players in the world, and he has zero goals in the series.

You take Anisimov away, who do you put against Malkin?

Two good posts on this - yours along with CBJBrassard's. I also gave with your post on skill. But he had an active stick in the prior game but in the end he's playing too far above where he should as a first-liner. Tough to go from AHL to playoff top line.....While not first liners either, I would go with Letestu or Cam.

 

[blahblah]

The most disappointing thing about this game was that even though the Pens got a lot of shots; they really didn't play all that well. Most of their shots were harmless. We had this one in our grasp and we just didn't take it. Missed opportunity.

We didn't test Fleury at all after that huge choke job. We let him off the hook and get some confidence back.

If Richards had any balls, Wiz and Comeau would sit game six.

 

[Cash for Nash]

That was more concerning. Hopefully the Jackets do a better job of lobbying during game six. It's up to them to get the officials to pay attention - you know Crosby will be whining like a little *****. Jackets better do their part.

Either way, Jackets deserved to lose this one.

Yep. We got what we deserved tonight. We weren't good enough.

The playoffs aren't the time to take retaliatory cheap shots to send a message but I hope to god next year we really give them the business physically (like Philly does) in front of what are increasingly "our fans" in our building.

I agree with the previous poster who correctly stated that the Pens have pushed us around with this after the whistle nonsense for quite some time.

 

[nhldiedinthe90s*]

The most disappointing thing about this game was that even though the Pens got a lot of shots; they really didn't play all that well. .

My feelings as well. They were begging for a first period slaughter. They didn't show at all, and we barely did.

 

[Fro]

least amount of hits all series and second lowest shot totals...even with Rooney and Peel on the job at referees, we shot our own foot most of the night...

 

[Sore Loser]

Two good posts on this - yours along with CBJBrassard's. I also gave with your post on skill. But he had an active stick in the prior game but in the end he's playing too far above where he should as a first-liner. Tough to go from AHL to playoff top line.....While not first liners either, I would go with Letestu or Cam.

If Jack Skille isn't good enough to play on the team for the entire regular season, my big question to the coaching staff would be why is he playing with our most dangerous line in the playoffs?

I agree with you ... I think Atkinson or Letestu would be much better fits. Skille is more suited for the AHL or, at most, 8-12 minutes a night in a bottom-6 role.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

If Jack Skille isn't good enough to play on the team for the entire regular season, my big question to the coaching staff would be why is he playing with our most dangerous line in the playoffs?

I agree with you ... I think Atkinson or Letestu would be much better fits. Skille is more suited for the AHL or, at most, 8-12 minutes a night in a bottom-6 role.

I do like Skille, but I do agree. He shouldn't be from the AHL straight to our top line. This series proves to me we need another player on Joeys wing. I'd trade our first for it.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Aaron Portzline ‏@Aportzline 12m
#CBJ D James Wisniewski is minus-6 in this series after a minus-2 tonight. That's 324th out of 324 skaters who have played in post-season.

Pit has 16 goals in this series and he is -6.

wow.

 

[blahblah]

Aaron Portzline ‏@Aportzline 12m
#CBJ D James Wisniewski is minus-6 in this series after a minus-2 tonight. That's 324th out of 324 skaters who have played in post-season.

Pit has 16 goals in this series and he is -6.

wow.

Yeah and how many PP goals? He's probably been on the ice for over half of the ES goals.

 

[Sore Loser]

Aaron Portzline ‏@Aportzline 12m
#CBJ D James Wisniewski is minus-6 in this series after a minus-2 tonight. That's 324th out of 324 skaters who have played in post-season.

Pit has 16 goals in this series and he is -6.

wow.

It's no secret that he's terrible defensively. I'm not even surprised in the least bit.

But, he does provide something useful on the powerplay and can move the puck. If anything, I'd love to see us use him less even strength and not at all on the PK. Save his legs for the powerplay; give more ice time to Savard.

 

[CarolinaBlueJacket]

Cross checking calls are a matter of degrees.

If you don't two-hand parallel stick in the defensive zone along the boards on most board battles that you are engaged in, you will never make a competitive junior team let alone an NHL team.

That's literally how they teach you to defend in that situation. You cant two-hand drill a guy, but a "cross check" hard enough to get a guy off balance is what you're supposed to do.

...One of the many reasons I still believe hockey is an inferior sport to many others. So many "rules" are made up on the spot in practical application.

Plus the unjust random bounces seem to decide winners more often than other sports. Guys pretend like you make your own puck luck to justify the salaries everyone is making in the league. Bad for business to marginalize the sport and all.

Concerning rules being made up on the spot... You could call offensive holding on every pay in the NFL. When are charges or blocks called or not called in basketball? All sports let things go to a certain point. The NHL is no different. Wiz and Comeau need to be smarter.

Those lucky bounces are usually made by out hustling your opponent. Not every run in the NFL is pure skill.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Yeah and how many PP goals? He's probably been on the ice for over half of the ES goals.

He has 2 even strength assists so that must at least counteract another 2 goals scored by Pit. That would pretty much mean he has been on the ice for 1/2 of the goals scored.

 

[Hugg]

The Penguins have scored 3 unanswered goals in 4 of the 5 games of this series. That's gotta stop happening. /high level analysis

 

[CarolinaBlueJacket]

The Penguins have scored 3 unanswered goals in 4 of the 5 games of this series. That's gotta stop happening. /high level analysis

Very high level. About 6 inches below the Pens have scored more goals in 3 of the 5 games and that's gotta stop. Friendly joke here.

 

[Jyrki]

Well, at least the refs aren't letting the Penguins score on offside plays

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Aaron Portzline ‏@Aportzline 12m
#CBJ D James Wisniewski is minus-6 in this series after a minus-2 tonight. That's 324th out of 324 skaters who have played in post-season.

Pit has 16 goals in this series and he is -6.

wow.

Now you understand how we feel about Orpik.

It's no surprise that once he's out of our lineup, our D looks like slightly less of a dumpster fire.

Still, I'm expecting you guys to pull it out. The Pens are ripe for meltdowns.

Just keep antagonizing Neal and Letang until they do something monumentally stupid, like the Flyers do, and you've got this.

 

[db2011]

I haven't read through yet, though I'm looking forward to it. Want to hear ya'lls take.

To me, Bob showed up and the rest of the guys did, too, but to allow so many shots on goal is a real issue. Good game but we let the Pens have their way with us...

 

[Cyclones Rock]

After period 1, it was all the bad guys. Every once in a while, it would figure that a team with two of the best players in the world would dominate the CBJ. Still, no goals for either Malkin or Crysby after 5 games and that is quite a feather in the Jackets cap.

It was nice to see Bob have an outstanding game. He almost played well enough to steal one.

As others have stated, I would have liked to have seen a little less passing a lot more shooting against MAF. The guy is a head case who just had a major meltdown. I'd install a shoot first/crash the net mentality for games 6 and 7.

Wiz really was south of gawdawful last night. He's just one of those guys whose very good outweighs his very bad, but it's not evenly metted out. It would nice to see a little bit of the very good. Time is a wasting, wiz.

 

[major major]

The team really didn't get much going on Fleury. This is the big dilemma as far as I can tell: the Jackets only play well when they are pressing and have the d-men pinching, we can't keep the score down if the puck is in our end. Yet if both teams pinch and press you'll have a lot of odd man rushes going each way, and who wins that kind of game? The Penguins. Our only chance then is to somehow lull the Pens into playing over-careful and have them play defensively. That's what we did in games 2 and 4, where we dominated most of it, but only because the Pens had the lead. But we can't just let them score first, can we?

 

[pete goegan]

Looking at the ESPN box score it's 25-22 them. 15-12 in Pitt and 10-10 in Columbus.

The 25 times the Jackets have been short-handed is the most in the playoffs. All along, we've known that play had to be more disciplined in order to keep the Pens power play off the ice and keep the Jackets penalty killers fresh. The inability to do that has been very destructive.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

The 25 times the Jackets have been short-handed is the most in the playoffs. All along, we've known that play had to be more disciplined in order to keep the Pens power play off the ice and keep the Jackets penalty killers fresh. The inability to do that has been very destructive.

9 of those penalties belong to Blake Comeau and James Wisniewski. Nobody else has more than 2 individual penalties.

 

[pete goegan]

9 of those penalties belong to Blake Comeau and James Wisniewski. Nobody else has more than 2 individual penalties.

And most of the calls against those two have been the result of lack of discipline, selfishness, or stupidity. The cost has been obvious.

 

[jackets4life]

And most of the calls against those two have been the result of lack of discipline, selfishness, or stupidity. The cost has been obvious.

This. It's not necessarily the fact that they are taking penalties that's bothering me, it's the kind of penalties they've been taking. Not even an effort to play disciplined hockey. To me, that's not only selfish but it's screwing over the rest of the team, not to mention the fans. Hopefully Richards sees that and does something. Disappointing to say the least that these guys would put us in this position.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

This. It's not necessarily the fact that they are taking penalties that's bothering me, it's the kind of penalties they've been taking. Not even an effort to play disciplined hockey. To me, that's not only selfish but it's screwing over the rest of the team, not to mention the fans. Hopefully Richards sees that and does something. Disappointing to say the least that these guys would put us in this position.

Wiz would be bad enough with his misplays and poor decisions even if he wasn't taking penalties. But in the regular season he would score a big goal on the PP or something to even out his play. He's not doing that in this series. That said, you probably can't sit him, and if you're leaving him in he has to play minutes.

Comeau on the other hand, you have options. His boneheadery is inexcusable.

 

[CBJ Tiffin]

Just to add some more numbers to the discussion, the CBJ are 6/22 for 0.273 on the power play, while the Pens are 5/25 for 0.200. A little surprising (in a good way) to me that it has worked out this way.