Should be a great watch, both for the Fleury return and, oh yeah, the Knights are in first place in the West.

Loss against the Devils was a bump in the road, but definitely don't want to lose two in a row.

Bonus points if the Fleury tribute video ends with "...oh, and fuck you James Neal".

Connor McDavid show was fun to watch last night. Would be cool if Crosby delivered a gem of his own. Go Pens.

Anyone else somewhat miffed that this game didn’t make the national broadcast?

Here here on the fuck James Neal train. In fact I like all the Knights except for this dickhead

Did I see that Kuhn is spending time on the 2nd line w/ Geno? Holy hell is that moronic. I get injuries, but they could have recalled Sprong

#FreeDanielSprong

You could see the disgust on Malkin's face after about half a dozen shifts with Knuckle in Jersey. Look, I'm not ragging on the player because IMO he fills a role on this team. I like his effort and the fact that he likes to block shots kind of intrigues me. But, but, but, but he is not a good fit in the top six.
That said, I hope Knuckles shuts me up tonight and knocks one home.

As far as Sprong goes I don't think Sully likes his game. Look at all the guys called up instead of him. I have also spoken to a few friends that watch WBS and they told me that this year Sprong has been benched on more than one occasion-during the game-for lack of effort. Also, Sprong has been getting by on talent more so than effort.

I wonder what kind of foolery Fleury pulls off before the game against his former teammates? He is quite the prankster. And I can't wait to see the reaction the fans give him tonight-it will be Mario-esque in stature.

And to the Pens fan base that still harp on the Murray versus Fleury decision_get_over_ it!

▶︎

Yes to all of this.

I was a MAF backer until 2012, and then did I finally become convinced he had some sort of mental block. Then I hated him until last year.

We don't win the Cbus or Wash series without him. And to top it all off he bails out the team by waiving his NTC. I mean he could have fucked the Pens in multiple ways during his last couple of yrs, but was always a good soldier. I mean he was kind of the OPPOSITE of what James Harrison pulled and was all about the concern for the franchise above anything else.

I don't think I respect an athlete more than how I think of MAF...even Mario, yea he saved the Pens but he still had financial incentive and skin in the game.

That being said it was the correct thing to move on from him. It's kinda like the girlfriend you knew forever and got along great, but you knew you were both holding each other back. If the Pens don't win it all I'll definitely be pulling for him and the Knights. I hope the ovation is great for him and he feels appreciated.

A Pens/Knights finals would be freaking amazing and absolute best case scenario.

I think it'd be the only possible scenario where a Pittsburgh team could be playing for a championship and I wouldn't be a wreck. Because even if we lost it, we'd still have our back to back cups, and Fleury would get a well deserved happy ending to his tumultuous couple of seasons.

I think Sprong has to be bored shitless with WBS play. Every guy is different and he seems like the kind of guy who needs to be thrown in the pool to sink or swim.

Not really sure what you're going to find out about him in WBS and this opportunity seems like it was tailor made for him.

Maybe they'll wait a couple of games before doing it so he doesn't feel entitled?

agree..felt the same way on maf...
I blamed him mostly for the early playoff losses to lesser seeds..he was awful in those series..glad he got it together last year.

Me thinks Sully doesn’t appreciate his millennial attitude (JK I really don’t know much about the situation other than he seems to be on Sully’s radar and not in a good way).

I'm telling you-I don't think Sully trusts him.
Benched Sprong the last West coast trip against SJS in the third. Scratch next game and sent back down after that. It has happened several times under Sullivan.

I agree his skill would be better served in the top 6 then some of the other choices.

It would be something if Sid scored #400 against the Flower tonight.

MAF is owning us.

Jake really poor pass there at the end of the period. Dude needs to make the most of his chances or get him off that line.

I liked the start to the second period. Smart play.
Have to think Murray lost the puck on the second goal because that should never have gone in. Dumo was late to react as well.
Of course dickface had to score the goal.

The Knights are doing a good job of standing the Pens up on the blue line. Some guys don't want to dump and chase tonight-missing Horny.
Even without Sheary in the lineup we are faster but they have done a great job of taking away space.
Speaking of that, the Pens have faced two deliberate/structured teams the last two games and have struggled mightily to get shots on net or build any OZ time.
That worries me.

And there is Reaves getting us back in the game-I'll take it!

I’ll be damned. Reaves!

Cole!

The C liners are showing up tonight!

Finally get a D man to engage-Cole.

It's weird watching the Birds score against Fleury.

Great ply by Rust on that goal. Rust is the man.

Nice!

some more spurtability!!!

And now we're making the top team in the West look silly...

Malkin is unstoppable.

Wow!

Gah, Murray.

Can't let that one in.

cant see game but wondering if jarray might be better option more often in goal awhile moving forward.. I was liking the desmith kids solid efforts too..tho I see he lost to devils last game..

I don’t follow as closely as some of you guys...what’s the root of the James Neal hate?

He's known to have a douchebag personality. Supposedly wasn't all that well liked in the locker room when he was here.

Also has a reputation for taking head shots, although that seems to have died down a bit in the past few years.

Aaaah, I see...thanks.

wins are good!!!

Great to get that win. Rest of the division isn't doing us any favors.


Thought we saw some of Good Letang tonight. Seemed to be everywhere with the puck and making some things happen in the offensive zone.

Would love to see that rend continue.

Definitely need to get Horny back.

Great game, great win at home. VGK is gonna be good for a while.

For all you guys that have had great success with nhl streams reddit, you'll have to clue me in on what the secret is.

9 goals scored and I saw exactly 2 live. Well, with a delay.

I know I'm running old equipment with an old ipad(but updated software), but jesus fucking christ. Not easy. Found one link in the entire thread that worked, and it locked up after stalling earlier at the beginning of the third after intermittent sound throughout the whole game.

Whatever.

Go Pens! Glad Flower got a good reception and missed a few shots.

You can get Pens the rest of the season on nhl.tv for not more than $40 total.

I watched until the MAF tribute and then only bits and pieces after that

Good news: Looks like our 5 v 5 play is normalizing
Bad news: Looks like our PP is normalizing

I saw Reaves score and I thought Hacksaw was going to kill his dog...

Neal could have had a fine career in Pittsburgh, if he hadn't gone out onto the tiles. Drinking problems(rumored), head hunting and the breakdown of his chemistry with Malkin all led to his being run out of Pittsburgh.
Scores 40 goals one year(Malkin his primary center) and then he goes almost rogue and becomes a cheap shot artist in the 2013 season.
It was like the guy morphed from a top winger into a sometime thug.
Anyway, the Pens got Hornqvist for him(along with Spalding) and that trade worked out for both teams.
Sometime after leaving the Pens he stopped with the cheap stuff.
By the time he was dealt he had basically run himself out of Pittsburgh.

Last night was a weird game. Talk about momentum swings. That period of time where the Pens dropped 5 on Vegas was some of their best play of the season.
Then came the 'old' hang on and it almost cost them.

Both tenders made nice saves but gave up some weak goals. The Reaves goal went through Flower and the last goal Vegas scored was bad positioning by Murray.

But they won and that is all that matters except...

Two more injuries.
Getting thin at winger.
It should be interesting who might be the next call up from WBS.

VGK is getting some outstanding play from guys that were not supposed to produce like they are:

Karlsson
Marchessault
Smith

Neal is a shit but he’s talented. I can see them playing NASH, Winnipeg or San Jose for the West.

Hahaha!!! I thought the same thing!!

Neal has had a few fines for diving/embellishment in his time in Nashville too...

FWIW Marchessault put up 30 goals last year for the Panthers. And Reilly Smith has a 25 goal season on his resume and has averaged close to 20 over the last 4 years. Kind of nuts that the expansion draft was set up so well (and honestly a little unfair) for that team to get some pretty strong talent.

^
Right; forgot about Marchessault in FL; I think he also had some injury issues and is now healthy. Hell of an snipe there in the 3rd on Murray.

But yes, totally agree about their draft; really well done.

I will never hate a goal scored by a Pittsburgh Penguin or a save by one of their goalies.

I can only imagine two scenarios in which I'd want the team or one of its players to fail/lose.

1) A Mario/Crosby-type drafting tank
2) Where it would be the straw that broke the camels back in regards to a firing of a coach or the benching of a player (e.g., Bylsma's team, which clearly didn't have "it," losing to the Rangers after being up in a playoff series 3-1, leading to his ouster)

In every single regard, my leanings favor the team as a whole, and they ALWAYS come to fruition. Fleury getting usurped by Murray directly led to two Stanley Cups. Bylsma losing with Team USA made Shero's decision to fire him easier after the NYR series. In both cases, I wanted the yinzer-triggering thing to happen to better the logo.

Not really. The team is still comprised of mostly bottom-6 players and third pairing defensemen. The true hero of the VGK story is their coach Gerrard Gallant, who built his team's playstyle perfectly around the suboptimal roster that Irsay created for him.


The draft made it very easy for teams to keep their core players. Take the Penguins for example. They're a team absolutely loaded with high-end talent, yet they were able to keep every single one of their desired players. Most teams didn't have the goaltender situation that the Penguins did, which necessitated the trade of Fleury/2nd round pick. That's an easy swap for Pitt, and VGK didn't hold them over a barrel. VGK could have easily selected someone like Justin Schultz instead. With how many goalies were available, this would have been the best option at the time. Very few teams had logjam situations that required them to give up huge assets to keep a player or just outright lose that player. I can only really think that Anaheim and Minnesota were truly hurting.

For Marchessault/Smith, Florida ownership wanted to drop payroll by $10 million. That was the easiest way to do it. Fans are responding to this by not showing up to the games (not that they were before).They are the Pirates of hockey.

Vegas could have easily held teams hostage more than they did or, in many, many cases, taken a better or more-established player than they did. For example, Vegas could have taken T.J. Oshie from WSH and threw a bunch of money at him instead of Schmidt. Sami Vatanen from ANA (though Theodore is outplaying him this season). Schultz (RFA) from PITT.

A lot of the top options available to Vegas from some teams were downright weak, unremarkable, or players entering free agency. A lot of these players, such as David Perron, are overperforming at the moment. Perron has been nothing more than an inconsistent 2nd line player his whole career. He's producing like a first liner at the moment. Erik Huala, the guy Vegas "settled for" in a trade, was nothing more than a solid 3C in Minnesota. He's performing like a top 6er right now. Derryk Engelland, a bottom-pairing/7th D guy, is playing top 4 minutes, is +12, and is one point off his career-high of 17 in just 52 games.

Nashville dumped Neal because he was in the last year of his contract and they valued some of their youth over him. I doubt if Neal would re-sign in NSH anyway. If anything, it was a tough sell for Vegas even to select him. He'd be likely to walk the next year if the team was bad. Then again, he would likely be involved in a midseason trade, yielding prospects in that scenario. Vegas easily could have went for a guy like Jarnkrok or Sissons, which would have just saved them money to land one of the higher-priced unprotected players instead.

Only a few team were absolutely idiotic. Everyone knew William Karlsson was going to have a breakout year. That's easy money.

While I think Gallant is a fine coach, I think the thing you miss about Vegas is that the almost mimic the 2016 Pens team. Tons of F depth and quick players to play a "team defense" that gives other teams major problems.

They don't have a ton of top end guys like we do at F, but look at the bottom of their roster. All players who could play another tier where they are at and that creates matchup problems when you go against your opponents' 4th lines and 3rd pairings. We had that luxury with Bones and Cullen and even guys like Scott Wilson who were passable 3rd liners.

Agree with your point that while McPhee has built an unbelievably competitive immediate roster, he made some poor selections that might haunt this expansion team in the next 4 yrs or so

And (like the Pirates) the Panthers have a fantastic core to build around, but their ownership just sucks ass.

Sasha Barkov, Huberdeau, and Trochek are studs, and they are all under 25 and locked up for the next 4 years.

Ekblad and Yandle are a great #1 D pairing.

Bjugstad can play as a bottom 6 center or on the wing, and he's still fairly young.

The team has plenty of cap space to add depth, and they had 3 guys make Craig Button's top prospects list. The fact that their ownership/management keeps fucking around should really incense all 12 of their fans.

Haha

Especially with forward depth, they were downright scary in those last 2 minutes. Swarming and blowing past Penguins players.

First time in a LONG time I remember seeing a Pens game where the Pens scored that dagger goal to go three up... and the other team didn't fold. Not only didn't they fold as I expected, they damn near forced overtime.

I remember a few years ago when the Dreaded Three Goal Lead was a Penguin killer. Literally, soon as they were up three, it was "here we go again." Different regime, though.

I haven't watched much of the season so far, only read the threads. They didn't paint a pretty picture at all, but do they still have the come back ability? The last two years is seemed a three goal deficit didn't affect this team and all, and would pull out a win out of their compression shorts at the end. Be it the 3rd or overtime.