Pens Team Defense

[titanium2 867]

Anyone out there with a fair evaluation?

I think we'll all be a little surprised on how much better their Dmen and forwards are in their own zone.

[10 Minute Misconduct 104]

Pittsburgh's defense is their weak spot. It can be exploited.

[egroen 384]

It's not great - that's for sure.

I was shocked when they traded Whitney - he made a lot of bad errors, but was a big body who could carry the puck and make the outlet pass - definitely an asset for the Ducks.

I can't wait to see the Wings split and leave Hal Gill caught up ice with his sasquatch pants down.

[dat's sick 1,002]

Pittsburgh can dominate a game and still let in 4-5 goals. Their defense is not much to be scared of. If we can shut down Malkin and Crosby, or atleast contain them somewhat, we will win this series. Easy as that.

[Jaymz99 2]

Pittsburg Defense is an oxymoron. They are an offensive team, both figuratively and literally.

[reggiedunlop 0]

keep thinking this way....... we love it

[egroen 384]

keep thinking this way....... we love it

Ok, Pittsburgh's D might not be the weakest we have seen this post-season, it's probably better than Columbus'.

[Psychlone 0]

The Pittsburgh defense while certainly not elite is very underrated. Scuderi has been incredible defensively all playoffs against some of the games elite players. Orpik hits anything in sight and Eaton is a shot blocking fiend.

There is no doubt it will be tested against the Wings but anyone that thinks they are a joke is in for a rude awakening.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Psychlone

[Nightfall 871]

The easiest way to look at this is to look at the stats of the playoffs so far. The pens have played one more game than the wings so take that into consideration.

G/G GA/G 5-5 F/A PP% PK%

PIT 3.82 2.76 1.24 19.3 83.6

DET 3.69 2.12 1.84 25.7 73.7

PIT has just a little more goals scored per game than the Wings.

DET is giving up over 1/2 goal less per game on average.

DET is scoring more 5/5 than the Pens are

DET has a better power play at 25.7 percent

PIT obviously has a better PK than the Wings by 10%

So defensively, the Pens are not pylons by any stretch of the imagination. I think the Wings do have a better defensive core.

What worries me are the power play opportunities by each team.

DET has 41 PP opportunities at home and 33 on the road.

PIT has 43 PP opportunities at home and 40 on the road with only 1 more game played.

The Pens have a few more on the road so I have to wonder what happened there.

Ah well, their defense will be good thats for sure.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Scoring goals isn't what concerns me in this series. The Wings were able to get pucks past ANA and I would think any rational Penguins fan would agree that defense is far superior to their own.

I think the key to the entire series (aside from the Wings' health) is going to be how well Z matches up against Crosby again and then how well the rest of the team swarms their offensive stars. If the Wings are able to get guys on Crosby and Malkin the second they touch the puck and allow them no room, the Wings' depth should take over and score timely goals. Also, discipline will be huge in this series. If the Wings head to the box more often there's a decent chance the Wings will be in trouble. IMO, the team with the more sustained forecheck likely wins this series. Fortunately, having Blue-collar Babcock as the head coach makes me feel more comfortable in that area.

[dat's sick 1,002]

The Pittsburgh defense while certainly not elite is very underrated. Scuderi has been incredible defensively all playoffs against some of the games elite players. Orpik hits anything in sight and Eaton is a shot blocking fiend.

There is no doubt it will be tested against the Wings but anyone that thinks they are a joke is in for a rude awakening.

I'll be honest, maybe I'm underrating their D a bit.

But after overcoming Anaheim, no other team's D seems even half as intimidating.

[Chris L 0]

G/G GA/G 5-5 F/A PP% PK%

PIT 3.82 2.76 1.24 19.3 83.6

DET 3.69 2.12 1.84 25.7 73.7

This is interesting. Our PP is great, and theirs sucks, our PK is the pits and the Pens are very good. This will be interesting to see how special teams work it out.

[bruisebrother15 29]

While we may have the better D overall I think Pittsburgh plays very good team defense. The last few games I watched they seemed to box everything out in front of MAF and they try to push everything to the outside. They also seem to be doing what the Wings did to them last year and that is attack the other teams offense very quickly and not give them any room.

They also don't seem to be making the bad turnovers that seem to plague the Wings D lately.

[Red4wings4life 0]

While we may have the better D overall I think Pittsburgh plays very good team defense. The last few games I watched they seemed to box everything out in front of MAF and they try to push everything to the outside. They also seem to be doing what the Wings did to them last year and that is attack the other teams offense very quickly and not give them any room.

They also don't seem to be making the bad turnovers that seem to plague the Wings D lately.

I am sorry but they have not faced the Wings who have the best net presents of any team in the NHL. No team can match that part of Detroits game, we have 3 solid guys that can play very well in front the other teams net. Homer, Mule and Cleary.

The Pens do not have an answer for them and Flurey has not had to deal with as much traffic as he is going to see in this series. That will be the key here, Fluery might be playing well but he will have to deal with so much more traffic then he has seen from the East.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Red4wings4life

[Datsyerberger 279]

The Pens team defense as a whole is underrated. At the same time, it's definitely not their greatest asset.

One really big difference between this year and last is last year Fleury was going on a tear and keeping them in games where their offense wasn't as effective, and this year they're mostly living off their offense.

[Vladifan 680]

Scoring goals isn't what concerns me in this series. The Wings were able to get pucks past ANA and I would think any rational Penguins fan would agree that defense is far superior to their own.

I think the key to the entire series (aside from the Wings' health) is going to be how well Z matches up against Crosby again and then how well the rest of the team swarms their offensive stars. If the Wings are able to get guys on Crosby and Malkin the second they touch the puck and allow them no room, the Wings' depth should take over and score timely goals. Also, discipline will be huge in this series. If the Wings head to the box more often there's a decent chance the Wings will be in trouble. IMO, the team with the more sustained forecheck likely wins this series. Fortunately, having Blue-collar Babcock as the head coach makes me feel more comfortable in that area.

This is exactly where I am. From what I saw of the Pens in their series, yeah, they looked aggressive on defense, but not all that organized nor was it sustained and focused. Again - our players are taught from the git-go to be just as efficient and hard-working on defense as they are on offense. That should be our saving grace.

[NGKEIB 32]

I think our PK will finally get its ass in gear this series, but I sure do miss Lilja.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we haven't given up a goal on a 5-on-3 yet have we? That at least is a good sign.

The Penguins have one of the better defense corps in the East, but that doesn't mean that much. Washington has a couple of 4th forwards and some faceless jobbers, NJ is nothing like it used to be. Philadelphia's idea of 'team defense' is if it looks like someone else is going to score, start a fight so that play is blown dead, or have your fowards go out of their way (and out of position) to hit people. I'm not saying that all of the teams in the West have better defenses (Chicago is a case in point... Campbell for the Conn Smythe!), but we've faced a really deep defense in Anaheim and gotten through, and I think that after us they have the best defense in the league. I agree that Pittsburgh's defense is underrated, but that doesn't mean it's that good...

[egroen 384]

The Red Wings have the best forecheck in the game (when they are not playing prevent and causing me to pull my hair out of my head), as well as the best backcheck -- Anaheim is the only team that was not a turn-over machine against Detroit this year, and that was with Pronger, Neidermayer, Beauchemin and Whitney all playing smart and Getzlaf, who rarely turns over the puck, playing 25 minutes.

We may see Pittsburgh turning the puck over more than Chicago and the Wings better continue to capitalize. If they continue to play an agressive game, the Wings can use it against them - just like they did with the Blackhawks.

[Doc Holiday 0]

Pittsburgh? Defense?

How many two way forwards do they have? I can think of two.

[stactum 4]

I think PIT with their "underrated" or "team" defense are in for another big surprise in the series

This time school starts Saturday for PIT

[HoweHatTrick 0]

Scoring goals isn't what concerns me in this series. The Wings were able to get pucks past ANA and I would think any rational Penguins fan would agree that defense is far superior to their own.

I think the key to the entire series (aside from the Wings' health) is going to be how well Z matches up against Crosby again and then how well the rest of the team swarms their offensive stars. If the Wings are able to get guys on Crosby and Malkin the second they touch the puck and allow them no room, the Wings' depth should take over and score timely goals. Also, discipline will be huge in this series. If the Wings head to the box more often there's a decent chance the Wings will be in trouble. IMO, the team with the more sustained forecheck likely wins this series. Fortunately, having Blue-collar Babcock as the head coach makes me feel more comfortable in that area.

I agree with everything you said, you nailed it. We have got to stay out of the box, we can't take dumb penalties in this series (not that we have been undisciplined). We'll also most likely need Fil or Helm matchup against Crosby when they double shift him. It will be interesting to see how those matchups play out. The way both guys have played so far, I feel pretty good, they've done a good job at creating offense from their defense.

[Ms_Hockey 0]

Let's just put it this way. In terms of defense, we've already faced the toughest team we're going to face... Anaheim.

[wingsownnhl43 14]

I love this.

We heard all about how "great" Pittsburghs team defense was last year and now we're all starting to hear it again. Did you guys forget that we just beat these guys 11-12 months ago?

Their defense is actually worse this year without Whitney.

Pittsburgh just happens to have a great offense that helps disguise how awful this defense really is. Theyve already let up 3 or more goals in this playoffs nine times, and MAF is actually a pretty solid goalie. Come on people.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

One thing I have noticed is that Fleury hates it when the puck is behind the goal; the entire area from the icing line to the boards. Lately, this has been a strong point for the DRW; being able to cycle down low, especially behind the goal. And I don't think Pittsburgh's defense can deal with it, the same way none of the last three teams were able to deal with it.

[Snazzy 0]

The Pittsburgh's' defense in the Carolina series was horrid. They had so many open holes and weak areas that Red Wings will pounce on and exploit. Pittsburgh didn't beat Canes, Canes beat themselves. They were absolutely bad in that series, their players had no heart and they just mailed it in.

Pittsburgh will go into this series thinking they are better than they are. Unless, Pens change their game (and work on their defense), Wings will sweep the Pens. Most of Pens success is puck possession, Pens won't have the puck very much in the Finals. So they better learn how to play defense and tighten up their game very quickly, otherwise Detroit will exploit and dominate them.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Snazzy