Penguins GDT/GNT's week 17 (Jan 26 - Feb 1

[pixburgher66]

Beau Bennett the scape goat healthy scratch tonight. Not that he is playing well, but good lord, Brandon Sutter couldn't create offense in the beer league at Ice Castle right now. And the entire 4th line are not NHL players, but it's always easy to scratch the young guy.

Nail on the head, and it's shades of Blysma. Merely a red flag, no alarm bells for me. But it's very much what Danny would do. Overvalue grit and undervalue skill.

 

[element1286]

Nail on the head, and it's shades of Blysma. Merely a red flag, no alarm bells for me. But it's very much what Danny would do. Overvalue grit and undervalue skill.

Agreed, if he keeps doing it, then I'll be worried.

 

[Darkstone42]

Bennett's a young player, so there's a chance he's just sitting to either clear his head after some struggles or to get the benefit of seeing things from the press box. It's been an effective strategy before.

Pens do look sharp tonight, though. Schneider's been up to the test so far.

 

[Darkstone42]

I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, the Devils were on a 5-on-3 powerplay.

 

[Darkstone42]

And they killed it. Great penalty killing. Very aggressive.

 

[Darkstone42]

Sutter flashed the wheels on the break, but Schneider again stands tall. Hornqvist drew a penalty on the sequence, though.

 

[Darkstone42]

The first unit looked bad, but the second unit looked good on that powerplay. Schneider made two great saves on the second unit, though, and the Pens were held scoreless.

 

[Darkstone42]

The Pens outshot the Devils by 10 in that period, but they couldn't beat Schneider, who looks like he's very on. There were some really excellent saves on his part, most notably a right bad save on Downie in alone after a turnover, and closing the 5-hole on Sutter's breakaway.

Hopefully the Pens don't get frustrated and keep playing like they have, because the Devils haven't even threatened to score yet, really, and didn't even look dangerous with a two-man advantage.

 

[scoutyjones2]

The first PP blows.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

Sorry to say, but the Devils are not a good team at all this year, the very fact that they're keeping up with us shows where we're at as well. Our record is deceptive, in reality we're no better than the Devils.

 

[Darkstone42]

Sorry to say, but the Devils are not a good team at all this year, the very fact that they're keeping up with us shows where we're at as well. Our record is deceptive, in reality we're no better than the Devils.

If it weren't for Schneider, we'd be winning 3 or 4-0. The Devils have not "kept up" with us. They're goalie is standing on his head.

 

[Darkstone42]

I think Zidlicky just robbed Kunitz, and then Despres saved a goal at the other ened on basically the only really good luck the Devils have had tonight.

 

[Darkstone42]

Good shift for the Devils, but they couldn't hit the net. Martin was too passive, letting Jagr beat him to the puck, and that set it in motion.

 

[Darkstone42]

Crosby looks good tonight. He's buzzing. Generating a lot of offense with Kunitz and Perron. But Schneider has just been really good.

The Pens have tripled up the Devils in shots, 27-9, and the zone time is probably about the same. Schneider did this in his last start, too. He's on a bit of a hot streak lately.

 

[Darkstone42]

Bortuzzo lost the puck, Fleury bit on the move, and the Devils on only their tenth shot score.

 

[Darkstone42]

Ugh, the dump-in attempt hit the linesman and bounced right back to Bernier. I guess it wasn't all on Bortuzzo, since he had turned to chase and probably didn't expect the puck to suddenly be back on Bernier's stick. Still, falling over is what gave up the goal, probably.

 

[Darkstone42]

How in the world did Schneider get over to make that save? Someone is feeling it...

 

[Darkstone42]

Man, Schneider just barely made that save. Almost got in the five-hole. But he took away a lot of net very fast.

 

[Darkstone42]

Post for Letang. Of course.

 

[Darkstone42]

Did the Devils replace Schneider with a brick wall? Through traffic, deflections, breakaways, one-timers, everything is hitting him. And it's not even just shooting it into his chest. There have been at least five saves with big "wow" factors to them.