395 replies to this topic

[mindfly]

Starts well...

Injured in camp or 1st preseason game:
Hudler
Draper
Franzen

When will the madness end?

[Hockeytown0001]

Score and official game recap now included in the OP

[egroen]

It's been tough to find any first-had accounts from the game, but here's a good one posted over at KuklasKorner:

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/a2y/comments/anyone_for_a_pummeling/

Chief, Since I was in attendance I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as I can without turing this into another entire post of my own:

Orpik’s “hit”: I saw the whole thing unfold as Franzen was coming up in the rush. Orpik was beat by Franzen’s speed and his own flat-footedness. I don’t think the hit was “intentional” in the sense of injury, but it was intentional in the sense of stopping Franzen from getting free clearance to the net. It was a blatant sticking out of the knee. Minimum he should get 3-5 regular season games for it...but we all know he won’t. There is no excuse for a play like that in the pre-season, especially when I don’t think Brooks Orpik is exactly fighting for his spot on the roster. It was a dirty and stupid play that is well worth a suspension. Even some Pens fans I know admitted it was a “bad call” at best by Orpik.

Bertuzzi: He turned right around after the hit and came out swinging on Orpik. Good to see from Bert. It was probably one of the most legitimate hockey fights I’ve seen in a while. Bert looked possessed and got a few good punches in on Orpik. Orpik barely had a chance to fight back the whole time.

Salei: Looked fantastic for being our #5 defenseman. I cannot say enough about how excited I am to have a rock-solid and sturdy guy back there. He was consistently solid the entire evening and I’ve got NO complaints about his performance. He has decent movement on the offensive side, but he is much more suited to sturdy play in the Wings zone and in just getting the puck back out as quickly as possible.

Modano: Bland. He was good at times in that he can still skate, he won some key faceoffs, he can send and receive passes with the best of them. At other times though, he looked sluggish backchecking, one goal being a direct result of him not marking his man coming back up the ice. I think he’s still worth the money we’ll pay him, but he is definitely suited for more of 12-14 minutes a night I think.

Ericsson: Played OK. Frustrating at times when he would commit poor turnovers or get caught too far up in the rush. (He was behind the Pens goal at least twice in the game) Still though, for playing against Malkin and Crosby a significant amount of time, he looked alright and acquitted himself well. He’s still growing, and I think Kindl is going to challenge him to keep his game up, but the fact that the Big Rig was an Even +/- in this game was very encouraging considering everyone else kinda sucked in that department.

Kindl: Looked decent. He made some of the same mistakes that Big Rig makes occasionally in trying to do too much offensively, but to note that he was also an even +/- is a nice addition. He moved real well and I think he has a better presence at the point right now than Big Rig. I like Kindl and I think he’ll be ready to step in if/when we have any blueline injuries (please Jobu no....)

McCollum: Looked alright. He gave up some pretty juicy rebounds a la Tiberius anytime before last December. He didn’t give up a goal though and played strong. Granted by the 3rd he was mostly playing against the Pens 4th line and guys from the minors. Still a decent showing.

Other Filp: He needs some SERIOUS work in GR. He didn’t seem to be able to keep up at all with the Pens and was consistently rubbed off the puck. I’d like to see him do well, but I see no way he makes it to the big club anytime soon.

Finally, Ozzie: He gave up some bad rebounds. However, in all honesty, I think only 1 of the 5 goals can be attributed to him. The other 4 the defense got beat...and beat really bad. Meech, who I do pray gets better, was atrocious. At one point Sid stepped right around him and was able to get more or less a breakaway shot for a goal on ozzie. At multiple times Lashoff and Meech were terribly out of position. Stuart was alright, but playing against Crosby and Malkin all night will get you a couple minuses. Frankly, Ozzie didn’t look terrible, but our bottom D-men were really, truly, awful.

Let’s hope for continued development of the lines and I’d like to see more of Ritola...looked pretty good last night as well. Sorry this was so long, but I figure the 19 would appreciate some “in house’ perspective. Fuch the Pens. LGRW.

[Hockeytown0001]

Thanks for that.

[jeff48109]

from a pens blog

link

Brooks Orpik is the man.
Todd Bertuzzi is not.

can't believe the crap they spew

[Hockeytown0001]

from a pens blog

link



can't believe the crap they spew

It's the Pens. What did you expect? They're almost up to Chicago levels of hockey denseness.

[Jesusberg]

Bertuzzi: He turned right around after the hit and came out swinging on Orpik. Good to see from Bert. It was probably one of the most legitimate hockey fights I’ve seen in a while. Bert looked possessed and got a few good punches in on Orpik. Orpik barely had a chance to fight back the whole time.

Salei: Looked fantastic for being our #5 defenseman. I cannot say enough about how excited I am to have a rock-solid and sturdy guy back there. He was consistently solid the entire evening and I’ve got NO complaints about his performance. He has decent movement on the offensive side, but he is much more suited to sturdy play in the Wings zone and in just getting the puck back out as quickly as possible.

These two things make me VERY happy. I've been waiting for Bert to let go again, and I just wish I could have seen it on TV or in person. I think he and Franzen are going to play better than we think they will. I've had my doubts, but from several pre-season accounts they have looked good together.

As far as Salei goes, I had a feeling he would do well. It's only one exhibition game, but like I've said before he's capable of playing steady hockey for 20+ minutes. Hopefully he can calm down Ericsson and Kindl as the season goes on.

[titanium2]

from a pens blog

link



can't believe the crap they spew

This is a town that probably still has people who think Ben Roethlisberger is innocent. Just disregard and ignore anything they say because it's worthless.

[Hockeytown0001]

This is a town that probably still has people who think Ben Roethlisberger is innocent. Just disregard and ignore anything they say because it's worthless.

Didn't even think of that.

[Z Winged Dangler]

the "it's your call" for this on TSN is pretty good. some classic pens fans being pens fans...

[xtrememachine1]

Brooks Orpik is the man.
Todd Bertuzzi is not.

Typical Pens fan mentality. This franchise and its fans are getting to be as bad as the other PA team and its fan base. Makes sense though, the GM is the son of Fred Shero, the guy that coached the Flyers when they were the Broad Street Bullies in the mid 70's.

[Din758]

the "it's your call" for this on TSN is pretty good. some classic pens fans being pens fans...

can you post a link? i cant find it and i need something to laugh at.

[RusDRW]

Orpik barely had a chance to fight back the whole time.

This is what I like from your report. When Big Bert is on him game there are no players in this league who can stop him. And it does not matter whether it is fighting, passing or driving to the net. Hop he is back.

[cjm502]

Also, I just watched the Downey fight. It doesnt look like he got beat THAT bad, after trading blow for blow he took a few shots and lost balance. Stupid pens announcers.

[esteef]

Also, I just watched the Downey fight. It doesnt look like he got beat THAT bad, after trading blow for blow he took a few shots and lost balance. Stupid pens announcers.

Exactly.

esteef

[brett]

can someone tell me if the goals ozzie let in were soft?