Pens Report

As I get ready to watch the Capitals-Canadians game, I figured I'd make a little post about what I see as the Pens' biggest strengths and weaknesses going into the second round. It'll be a short and sweet post, but give me a break, there's not much to write about until we know who we're facing...lol

Anywho, I see our biggest and most glaring weakness as our maddening inconsistency. Some periods and stretches we look absolutely unstoppable, with Crosby and Malkin flying through the neutral zone and our third and fourth lines back checking like crazy and disrupting every attempt by the opposition to clear the zone. These are the times that remind people why they won the Stanley Cup in the first place, but the problem is this used to be how they played all the time, not part of the time.

There are times now where the Penguins aren't the fastest team on the ice, and with the talent and overall team speed they have that's completely unacceptable. They always play hard, if not desperate, and as we all know desperate is how you have to play if you're planning on lasting long in the playoffs. The sense of urgency with them seems to come and go and really doesn't get turned on until they're in trouble, and sometimes that's too late.

The biggest strength of the offense has been that we're getting contributions from people of all sorts, including Matt Cooke scoring two goals in game 6 and Pascal Dupuis scoring the game winner. Obviously Crosby and Geno run the show offensively, and they are both playing well (Crosby on a record setting pace in fact), but the fact that everyone has been chipping in is a great sign for the rest of the playoffs.

Our defense is good on one side of the ice, not so good on the other. Losing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi were bigger hits then most people expected, and Jay McKee has been an adequate but not exceptional replacement for them. There are certainly times where our lack of another bruising defenseman to help punish people in front of the net really hurts us, and those two were very good at clearing out the garbage. We also seem to be moving the puck more side to side as opposed to the up the ice style that we have favored since Disco Dan Bylsma likes, which is causing more turnovers and better scoring chances for the opposition.

On the positive side, our defense has never been better in the offensive zone. Sergei Gonchar has been his usual skillful self, and Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski have shown why they were prized prospects. Letang and Go Go could certainly be better in the defensive zone, but their offensive skills have certainly helped the team thus far this season. And let's not forget the skills of Jordan Leopold, who missed most of the last series with a concussion. He's an excellent two way player and will certainly be a boost over McKee when he comes back into the lineup.

Finally, our goaltending has been adequate, but not stellar. The Flower has been solid, and has really limited his soft goals, but there are still games where he gives up 3 or 4 goals and those games are very difficult to win. But overall he's been very good about not letting things get out of hand and has always kept us in the games, which in the playoffs is definitely a good thing. Plus his big game experience and the relative lack of quality goaltending left in the Eastern Conference playoffs certainly point to him being a strength.

So overall, I'd say we're not at the top of our game but we're getting better. I think our offense is a force to be reckoned with, and our defense is coming along. And having 2 of the 3 (or possibly all 3) teams seeded ahead of us getting knocked out has to make us the odds on favorite. Hopefully these guys won't get complacent and get so far behind that we can't come back, but luckily for all of us, even when we're down by three goals you can't count these Penguins out.

Until tomorrow...

PS - Go Canadians...hahahaha