FINALLY! - The 2013 NHL Season - Page 70

On May 12 2013 11:10 StarStruck wrote:


It's going to be hard regardless.

On May 12 2013 14:20 Critter wrote:



Obviously, but a well rested Pens team was likely the hardest of the possible outcomes.

On May 12 2013 16:28 Slaughter wrote:
Pens aren't built like a traditional playoff team. They are prone to being pushed around. They can only compete when either Malkin or Crosby are going off. They are better now then they were though, hell when they went back to back finals they pretty much had a free ride cause the rest of the East was shit at that time.

On May 12 2013 16:28 Slaughter wrote:
Pens aren't built like a traditional playoff team. They are prone to being pushed around. They can only compete when either Malkin or Crosby are going off. They are better now then they were though, hell when they went back to back finals they pretty much had a free ride cause the rest of the East was shit at that time.

On May 12 2013 23:34 StarStruck wrote:



Exactly. Only spot they really can hurt you is on the score sheet.

On May 13 2013 07:50 DeepElemBlues wrote:


Clearly written by someone who hasn't watched them play except for the Islanders series.

Regular season and first round were night and day. Penguins were hitting everyone everywhere all the time during the regular season. First round they stopped except in Game 5, hopefully they will remember how to play physical for a whole series now.



Neither of you know what you're talking about as you both clearly have watched very few Penguins games other than the first round.

Examples:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400443114
http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400460455
http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400443151

Even when they got outhit it was close and giveaways and takeaways were not so lopsided, now look at the 3 games that were close against the Islanders:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400462016 - outhit which led to numerous giveaways
http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400462023 - outhit again
http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400462019 - barely outhit but by this point in the series the isles didn't need to outhit by a large margin to get takeaways
And game 6: http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=40046206 - outhit again and lucky to win in OT

So I don't know if the Penguins were tired in general or playing too many old guys *cough*Jokinnen*cough* but putting Vitale and Kennedy in the lineup for game 4 clearly made a difference:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400462025 - only game where the Penguins had more takeaways than the Isles except for game 1 which was clearly a case of nerves on the part of the Isles.

At some point in the last week of the regular season the Penguins lost their physicality and didn't really get it back until game 5. Which is a lot different from saying they're not built to be a physical team, anyone who has watched all their games this season knows that's total nonsense. They had one of the best forechecks in the league until the last week of the regular season.