-This game was all about Sidney Crosby, but Fleury quietly made some pretty big saves to seal the win for the Pens. The man is playing so solid right now. He’s not making the fabulous saves, but he hasn’t needed to because of the play of the D and his own positioning.
-Sidney Crosby. ‘Nuff said.
-Sid’s line mates, Dupuis and Kunitz, also had good games. Dupuis is playing great hockey and so is Kunitz. That line just knows exactly how to feed off of each other. At times, they almost seem like a more skilled version of the third line.
-Speaking of the third line, I’m just going to start lumping them together instead of referring to them individually. That line is just so tenacious on the puck it’s amazing. They’re not scoring too many goals, but they’re wearing out the opposition which does nothing but help the top two lines score.
-I am loving the second pairing of Martin-Michalek. They both work well together, which I find a bit surprising given the fact that they’re both still learning Pittsburgh’s system.
-When Martin and Michalek do figure out this system fully—you better wachale.
-Everyone keeps talking about how well Tanger has played this season, but his partner, Orpik, is very quietly playing great. His defense has been solid and that shot-pass to Sid for the hatty? Excellent.
-The Pens D, as a whole, has really buckled down within the past month or so. The biggest indicator of this for me: the odd man rushes by the opposition have, for the most part, been eliminated.
-The stat sheet will tell you that Geno had a horrible game, but it wasn’t that bad; although it was up and down. He was playing pretty well, then took a stupid penalty. Started to get in a groove again, then made a bad giveaway that lead to a goal. He had a pretty good third period, though.
-You know the Pens are in a groove and playing well when DB plays the fourth line on a consistent basis throughout the game. Crosby may be carrying the team right now, but the team effort is very prevalent.
-Max Talbot. He’s officially back. Like Flower, he’s playing solid hockey right now.
-The Pens, as a team, are playing amazing hockey. The Thrashers are no slouch and were just as hot as the Pens coming into this game. Get ready for a Pittsburgh invasion in Columbus on Saturday! Oh and Sid, please don’t shave your mustache.
Good call on mentioning Fleury at the outset. It's easy to overlook his performance given the way Sid is tearing it up, but so nice that Flower continues to be very solid for us.
ReplyDeleteAlso loving the Orpik-Tanger pairing. I'm really looking forward to how cohesive this whole defense is going to look in a few months.
I swear I had another thought in my head but it's gone now. Oh well, too focused on the 6+ hour drive to Columbus Saturday. Go Pens!!!
Oh yeah, that was the other thing. Nice to see you're coming around to the lucky 'stache!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I usually talk about the goalie(s) before anything else. With the way the team is playing as a whole, you're right, it is easy to overlook the fantastic goal-tending we're getting.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yeah, I'm coming around to the stache. It doesn't look as horrible as it did two weeks ago. I'm actually thinking he might keep it for the whole year if he continues to play pretty well (obviously, he's not going to stay on fire like this). He could be the hockey version of Brian Wilson...well, not really lol.