Game Thread: Penguins GDT/GNT's week 15 (Jan 12 - Jan 18)

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Penguins schedule this week…

Tuesday, January 13 vs Minnesota Wild

Friday, January 16th @ New York Islanders

Sunday, January 18th vs New York Rangers

Will be a tough week, 2 big games against the Islanders & Rangers.

 

[evolver115]

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

 

[Burghfan]

Gotta agree with you. Why keep Bortuzzo and send Pouliot down? Makes no sense to me. Hopefully they make a trade and get rid of Bortuzzo for a low draft pick or something.

 

[Darkstone42]

Pouliot still needs to work on some things. I'm okay with the decision to send him down. Maybe do something like what they did with Despres where they don't send him out for any powerplays and just use him 5v5 and on the kill to work on his performance in the defensive zone. You can see the talent, but he just hasn't looked completely NHL ready to me.

Borts isn't great, but as long as he isn't paired with Scuderi and his minutes are limited, he's a decent #6. And he has the advantage of matching up well physically with bigger forwards, which Pouliot simply cannot do.

 

[evolver115]

Pouliot might be their next man up for now. It's a numbers game, and they don't have a spot for him every night, so he is just getting scratched. Better to have him get regular minutes in the AHL. Health is a luxury the Pens haven't afforded much of lately. It's nice that Martin has returned, and apart from Maatta, who is now officially done for the season, they have a healthy D-man core. If someone were to go down, I bet Pouliot is the next man out of Wilkes-Barre.

 

[element1286]

Bortuzzo is a good 7, he is what he is, and he's cheap.

Pouliot is clearly not ready, IMO. Send him down to get minutes, worst thing to do is jerk him around like they did with Despres. Keep him in WBS to work on his game. He'll have a spot next season assuming everything goes well for him.

 

[scoutyjones2]

Pens better school the Wild tonight....

 

[Darkstone42]

The Pens look sloppy, but Fleury's bailed them out and, my God, the fourth line scored a goal! Goc gets the tally, and the assist goes to (gasp!) Sill!

 

[Darkstone42]

Pens starting to pick it up. That goal sparked them. Good possession now, generating some chances.

Sid looks aggressive tonight. Nearly scored twice on his last shift. (Good blocker save on the first one. That's not easy, probably the shot I struggle with the most as a goalie, quick, through someone's legs, blocker low.)

 

[Darkstone42]

I predict at least one Sidney Crosby goal tonight.

 

[Darkstone42]

Well, Sid's got a point at least. Perron with the goal, soft hands at the netmouth.

 

[Darkstone42]

That move he made at the end of the period, almost scored again, trickled just wide after Backstrom (I think, I can't hear the game over the noise in my lab) got a little piece. Crosby's got his mojo back, methinks.

 

[Darkstone42]

Fleury has been outstanding so far. Bad change by the Pens gave the Wild a 2-on-1, but Fleury shut it down.

 

[element1286]

Cheap elbow by Suter on Downie. He's better than that type of garbage.

 

[element1286]

Sloppy play finally caught up to the Pens.

 

[Darkstone42]

Where was Bortuzzo going? Ehrhoff was already over the puck holder, why did Borts vacate the other side of the ice?

But yeah, Suter should have gone off for five. Instead, the Wild get a goal.

 

[element1286]

Borts is an adventure in the defensive zone to say the least.

Nice PP execution, haven't seen that in a while.

 

[Darkstone42]

My NBCSports app skipped the powerplay goal. Stupid app.

 

[Darkstone42]

That second look at Suter's elbow was even worse than the live look. Pretty clear what he was doing there.