xtrememachine1

Yeah, 4 years ago they lost to the Habs and the red hot Halak. The Flyers had the Pens number this year, but teams that give the Pens problems in the regular season always seem to get knocked out before they play them. Boston and NJ both got knocked out in 2009 and I know they would have been more difficult than the Canes or Caps. Perhaps Montreal could be a tough opponent. Fleury didn't play well against either in the regular season. I was just saying the other day, in the 28 years I've been watching hockey, every playoff matchup between the Pens and Rangers has been decisively in the Pens favor. This appear to be no different.

Once again, everything is falling into place for the Pens, like it seems to every year. I don't know if its luck or if its the talent level of the conference, but it seems like the Pens never have to play anyone good until the Conference Finals. The Flyers would have been a much tougher challenge for them, yet the Rangers won and couldn't look more pathetic in this round. I'm pulling for Boston in the other series because I think Montreal will be another Rangers for the Pens.

Its kind of amazing how these failures keep happening to such a talented team. Its equally amazing that this team has stayed together after so many failures. I mean, yeah, they're good, but they're never going to win anything aside from their division or a presidents trophy. Champions don't blow 3-0 leads. If the ownerships' goal is to sell tickets and be competitive, then stick with them. However, if they want to win a championship, they need to make changes. Big changes. This is the second time in 4 years they blew a 3-0 lead. I would think enough would be enough by now.

This page has a couple animated gifs of the incident your talking about. http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2014/04/25/monster-redux-gustavsson-to-start-again-for-detroit-in-game-5/

So how many playoff games are they going to let this guy blow before yanking him for good? I mean, seriously, he looked bad and gave up soft goals in '10, he was wildly inconsistent in '11 got bounced in the first round, got annihilated by the Flyers in '12 (I really thought that would be it), was terrible against the Isles last year and did get yanked for Vokoun before the upset could happen. This year he's giving up soft goals and making dumb mistakes. Yet every season, its like a reset and they throw him out there for Game 1 of the first round and say "He hasn't been good for us lately in the playoffs, but he has a Cup." "But he has a Cup", I think, has screwed them out of at least one championship, if not more.

Exactly. I got into a discussion with someone the other day about this with them saying "Yeah, well we lost more games to injury than you." Yeah, I'm pretty sure you still have all your stars playing whereas Datsyuk and Zetterberg missed more than half the year and will be out for the remainder of this one. Franzen missed more than half the year. Helm missed pretty much the entire year. Howard's been in and out of the lineup all season. Like you said, take away Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Kunitz and Fleury and see how well they fair.

Not sure I agree with this. He took them to the Finals which is more than any other Flyers coach could say in the past 16 years. They looked pretty good a couple years ago when they knocked off the Pens. They missed the playoffs during a strike shortened season and start off 0-3 this year. Not sure how he's getting fired now. The roster is a mess. Over payment for a bunch of old defensemen, terrible goaltending, lots of injuries. I mean, if there was a coach waiting in the wings that they knew would fit this team well, I'd say go for it, but now they turn to Craig Berube?

This is a drastic over payment. I mean, he's making as much as Stamkos. He's making more than Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kopitar, Malkin (this year), Toews, Sedin twins, Kane, Corey Perry, every goaltender in the league. Plus, he's not that far off from Crosby, Ovechkin territory with this deal. He's valuable to the Leafs, no doubt, and he's a good young goal scorer, but that kind of money should be used for the best players in the league, not the best player on your team.

I feel bad for Brunner. I think he is a talented player, but his agent thinks his client is worth the world and now he's staying in the NHL by playing on a tryout contract. I really hope he returns to Detroit, I think he could have really worked out well in the long run for us and would have fit in nicely with all of the other young guns we have coming up through the system.

I just saw the third period, but it looked like a typical Wings-Pens game. Wings winning, Pens getting swarmed with defense, Pens acting like thugs because they're losing, Crosby acting like a spoiled brat. On one play, Crosby skated through the middle with the puck, was swarmed with Wings, Quincy ended up being the one that knocked the puck off his stick, it went to the boards, Quincy moves it over to the other d-man and Crosby takes a swipe at Quincy's head with his stick. Seriously? Its preseason, its 4-1, its the last half of the third period. Kunitz blindsides Abdelkader. Orpik took a couple of shots at players. Its really disgraceful how they play, even in preseason. It may have been just a preseason game, but man, did it feel good watching the Wings beat them so badly.

I thought about going, but at $95 a ticket for a preseason game? No thanks. I'll watch it from home. WPCW is a local Pittsburgh station. Its Pittsburgh's CW.

Get rid of Tootoo or Bert or Sammy and all will be fine. Cleary's better than any of them and he's cheaper.

I'll be really interested to see what he's making considering we couldn't bring Brunner back because of the cap.

How about we wait and see the terms of the contract before blowing up? Maybe its a try out deal and he can get sent to the minors when he gets beat out for a job in Detroit. I mean he could still get waived or we could trade someone else like Bert or Sammy. Still too early to freak out, either way, whether you like Cleary or not.

Possibly a replacement for Blysma if he fails again? Can he make them better defensively? http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2013/08/09/penguins-hire-jacques-martin-as-assistant-coach/

Very impressive team, as always, but goaltending could be their undoing. No more Roys, Brodeurs or Belfours. Its kind of amazing considering how loaded they are,talent wise, at every other position. You would have thought some Canadian goalie would have stepped up by now as being the elite go-to-guy for international competition.

I can't confirm this anywhere online, but my parents told me yesterday they read in the newspaper that Bylsma wants Fleury to play for Team USA. Their argument was "He has a dual citizenship" and he could play for either country. First of all, he can't play for the US. Tons of players with dual citizenship don't play for the US. Patrick Roy wanted to and wasn't allowed, I don't see how this would be any different. Second, that would be a slap in the face to US hockey to pick Fleury, a goalie that's played many times for Canada in international competition, over the talented goaltenders we have. I'll take Quick, Miller, Anderson, or Howard over Fleury any day. Honestly, I think Bylsma is just trying to pump up his goalie because not even getting an invite to camp after yet another playoff disaster, his confidence has to be rock bottom.

Philly is a prime example of how NOT to do it. Sure they're making trades, making big signings, buying out players, but they're also over the cap even after buying out Briere and Bryzgalov. They're stuck with Pronger's contract, Giroux and Brayden Schenn are RFAs next year and Giroux should be getting a huge deal coming up, they have just one goalie right now, Wayne Simmonds is signed through 2019(?), 7 of their 9 defensemen are making over $3.5 mil... its things like this that make me glad we have a GM that takes a more patient approach.

I'm actually surprised he signed for so little. I was thinking he'd get $4.5 to $5 mil a year on the open market. He scored 20 goals in 48 games this year. Granted that was with Crosby, but that little fact didn't stop Letang from getting a huge pay raise. Good for them.

LOL its comments like these that make me love this board

I agree 100%. Colo actually did something this past season and is in a position of need. Sammy did literally nothing for us, costs us more and plays a position we're log jammed at already. I'm not sure why they're keeping him. He's not good enough to be top 6 and if he plays the bottom 6, he'll take away a roster spot from one our younger players that should be with the big club. I really hope there's a trade in the works here.

With Colo getting bought out (which really isn't the best use of our buyout power) we only have one left and I have to believe he's saving it for Franzen next summer when he's 34.

Oh well. Would have been nice to have him, however, if we had gotten him, Datsyuk and Zetteberg would have been on the same line and we're a much harder team to play against/match up against during the playoffs when they're on separate lines. There's always Jagr. He'll sign for just a year and it won't be for as much as Vinny. Plus, I liked what I saw from him defensively this past season, so he could be a fit. Also, I noticed Colo is going to be bought out. That's kind of confusing. We have way too many subpar forwards, holes on defense and we buyout Colo and not Sammy or Bert? I felt like he was pretty solid for us down the stretch and into the playoffs and outplayed his $2.5 mil contract. http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/02/report-red-wings-likely-to-buy-out-colaiacovo/

This is just to make up for those Blackhawks t-shirts that said "Chicago Stronger".

That's the Pens asking price? Well considering he just turned down a $7 mil per year contract, why would anyone give up all that and then have to sign him to a $8 mil per year long term contract? I mean, this is Kris Letang, not Nick Lidstrom or Bobby Orr.