Theophany

I'd either scratch or play Homer on the 4th line. Mule-Z-Dats Hossa-Filp-Hudler Cleary-Helm-Sammy Maltby-Abdelkader/Draper-Homer/Leino D pairings stay the same; if Lilja is back, pop him in for Lebda. Then you have D lines that can eat up 20+ mins a game easily. You could flip Dats and Hudler if you really wanted, but with these lines, I think we'd be extremely solid defensively.

Regardless of the cup, they deserve to be listed as a dynasty. No other team in the NHL can come close to our modern numbers.

Yeah, if ever there was a dynasty in modern sports, the Bulls with Jordan and the modern Wings with Yzerman and Lidstrom have to be it.

Uh, no s***? Oh, and breaking up lines that have been amazing seems pretty stupid. At the very least the pairing of Filppula/Hossa should remain together. They've been tremendous in the past two games. Hudler/Helm/Sammy was a great line last night, too. But saying "defense will win this" is kind of a no-brainer. Even ESPN got that right.

I know, I just can't help but giggle a little when I see that picture. Then again, I usually laugh when I see Dats. The guy is pretty ******* funny.

I don't know about that picture, Dats always looks kinda like a retarded Dracula.

I just call him Helm. It's kinda ridiculous to try and give a guy with an incredibly short last name a nickname.

Could definitely see that, combined with the Draper vision (good two-way forward with great speed and physicality). 'Late bloomer'? No offense, but he's only 21. He's still got a long career ahead of him wearing the winged wheel.

Lucic is much more of a defensive forward than any of the other guys I named, but he still gets it done in the offensive end. Yes, in my mind, he's just as much of an impact on a deep Boston team as Staal is on Carolina or Nash is on Columbus. It just happens that Boston also has multiple great players in Savard, Ryder, and Kessel.

You haven't been watching the playoffs, have you?

I agree, I just don't know who will fill his shoes in front of the net. Cleary is a possibility (he's been great in front of the net in the playoffs), but I don't know if he's going to be able to take the kind of punishment that Homer does. Either way, Homer is almost done. He's the guy I'd most like to see go right now of all of our forwards (including Leino, Abby, and Helm).

A lot of it is their defenders playing pinched on the crease and controlling the rebounds for Hiller/Giguere. Giggy gives up many less rebounds, as his rebound control is superior to Hiller's, but they both still give up a lot. But having two huge guys in front of the crease does a lot for rebound control.

You need to understand that I've played defense for 20 years, and I'm just going by everything I've learned. A playmaker or Crosby or Malkin's calibre absolutely needs to be covered 100% of the time, because if you give them any space, there will be a tap pass to someone sitting on the crease for a redirect that your keeper can't possibly stop. I'm not really trying to tell you that your opinion is invalid, but I'm just letting you know that Crosby and Malkin's reputations as playmakers are there for a reason, and there's a reason that we'll stick Zata on Crosby for the entire game and have Lids parked on the crease when he's out there. Edit: 70% of the scoring that the Pens have done in the playoffs has come from either Malkin or Crosby; I think that says something, don't you?

Eric Staal, Rick Nash, and Milan Lucic are easily on the same level as Getzlaf. And you know why Getzlaf was more of a threat? Because we weren't in close-coverage on Getzlaf. We were more concerned in breaking up plays as they were forming, because Getzlaf isn't as dangerous alone as Crosby or Malkin are. Every team that's lost to the Pens hasn't been in close-coverage on Crosby and Malkin. If you give these guys any room to work with, they're going to walk all over you unless your goaltender is standing on his head to a ridiculous extent. Edit: Oh, and Jarome Iginla too. Forgot him.

I agree. He was actually skating last night to the point that my brother and I actually remarked "holy s***, look at Homer go!"

As a defenseman, I always want to see that called. If you can't play positional defense, don't rely on a garbage play to save your ass. It's ridiculous.

Honestly, you're giving Getzlaf and Perry too much credit for the system that Anaheim plays. That's what made that series so difficult for us. Getzlaf is a great forward, don't get me wrong, but he wasn't the source of all of their scoring and defensive pressure. Most of their success came from shutting down our rebound opportunities with Neidermayer and Pronger in front of Hiller, who's actual stopping power is ridiculous, but his rebound control is awful. Getzlaf isn't the best power forward in the game, BTW.

Their ATOI is still ~21:00. That's actually less ice time than we give to Zata, Lids, Rafalski, Stuart, and Kronwall per game. I don't think it will be an issue.

You would have had to prove that Zata's hand closed over the puck--nearly impossible to do, since the play had been blown dead and thus not reviewable. It's actually pretty relevant. Since that play wasn't for the GWG (or even tying goal), it wouldn't have pushed the game to OT, thus the "non-call" is irrelevant.

It's actually your stance that doesn't make sense. Had we shut off on Getzlaf and Perry, they wouldn't have had as many goals (they would have still gotten some, just like Crosby and Malkin will get one or two in this series), but Pronger, Neidermayer, Ryan, etc would have scored a lot more due to lack of play on them. As it is against Pittsburgh, we play a very tight game when Crosby and Malkin are on the ice. We don't move Lidstrom out of the crease area much and Zata sticks to Crosby like glue. We didn't do that against Getzlaf and Perry, which allowed them more room to operate. We didn't need to shut down on them because they weren't as much of a threat on the offensive end as Crosby and Malkin are. Anaheim played a style of hockey that's extremely hard for the Wings to compete with, because they have two huge guys on the blue line feeding passes to Getzlaf and Perry. It helps that both of those guys are great at passing and great at physical play, on top of being some of the better defensemen in the league. Pittsburgh doesn't have near that kind of ability to move the puck from their D up to their forwards. Granted they play a style that allows more goals but scores more goals, but their top two D aren't #3 and #4 in playoff points for their team (Gonchar is tied for #4 in points for the playoffs, Letang is #7). You're welcome to draw your own conclusions, but Malkin and Crosby have easily put up the highest point totals in the playoffs thus far, and it's for a good reason.

I don't think he "stormed back to the bus". That's not how ESPN is describing it. I think he was really depressed that his team lost; I don't think he thought it was possible that the Cavs would lose anywhere but in the finals.

I cannot agree with this at all. If we don't shut down Crosby and Malkin, they walk all over Ozzie. We didn't shut off on Getzlaf and Perry. If we shut down on them, Pronger scores, Neidermayer scores, Ryan scores, etc. The Pens don't have the depth that the Ducks have. There's a big difference between the two teams. It's called "defense".

Being a ******* retarded ****** bag comes to mind. Cheap shots and whining, to list a few examples.

Toews or Kane should be the poster boys of the league, TBH. Both are amazing players and both are great kids. Toews is by far one of my favorite players in the league (other than the chops, I hope he got rid of those ASAP after they were done); I would much rather see a Toews highlight reel instead of a Crosby one.

Hey, what was that other team that had two big young stars but better defensive presence that we just beat in 5 games? Oh, s'up Chicago; wanna say something to the Pens?