NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[StCapps]

No way the Pens win the cup with Fleury in net. Not happening, the meltdown is inevitable, if not this round, eventually. This isn't the regular season and Pens defense does not impress me and never has, especially without Letang. Pray for Matt Murray, otherwise the Pens are boned.

[Smitty-48]

Other than Lundqvist, every other goalie in their path is suspect, so once they're past the Rangers, there's nothing really to slow the Pens down, the other goalie is going to get exposed, before Fleury does, the Pens will insulate Fleury, but just not letting the other team have the puck, Borbrovski was all world this year, and the Pens smoked him like a rented mule, Fleury didn't even see that much action, because Columbus could barely get out of their own end.

Crosby is flying, Crosby is on a mission, it looked like Chicago might be the team which could slow him down, but with Chicago just not showing up, the way is now pretty much wide open, and I think that will just get Crosby even more motivated, to throw this team on his back and make it happen, before the window closes.

I don't think Matt Murray that good, the Pens just made him look good, he was the back-up in the AHL, but all of a sudden he's the second coming of Patrick Roy? No, the Pens just made it look that way, and they can do the same for any goalie.

[Smitty-48]

Even with the Leafs, they can't fix their defence overnight, but I still think they will be dangerous over the next couple of years, just riding Auston Matthews the way the Pens ride Crosby, I thought Matthews was going to be good, but even I didn't think he was going to be this good, elite and complete, right out of the box, winning that lottery for the Leafs, was the game changer, they tanked well, just in the knick of time.

Pathetic defence, and a shaky goalie, and Matthews still almost put the team on his back, came within a lucky bounce or two, of knocking off the President's Trophy winners, and that's at 19 years old, so this is why Leafs fans ain't crying in their beer, the future is bright, but it's mostly Matthews related.

Ovechkin wasn't even scary, Kadri actually shut him down for the most part, damn near knocked him out of the series, Washington being built around a winger, is the reason they keep losing, Montreal proves; the goalie can't save you, and Pittsburg proves; it's all about the top two Centres, and a puck moving defence, if you have a top two, elite and complete, and a puck moving defense, you can win with Anti Niemi, Corey Crawford, Matt Murray, even Freddie Andersen, doesn't matter, pick any halfway decent goalie, and the rest will take care of itself.

Montreal has the best goalie in the world, by far, but no centres, and a slow defence, so; going nowhere fast, once they traded PK away, they were doomed, because it wasn't actually Price who was propping them up, it was actually Subban, without Subban, the puck moving just came to a halt, and they couldn't score to save their lives, and then even Carey Price couldn't save them.

When the league changed the rules, they turned it from a defending league to an attacking league, can't sit back and rely on your goalie anymore, it's all about getting the puck up to the forwards and then heavy shifts down low, the' Leafs are a bunch of squeaky toys on the back end, and yet even they were able to get to the playoffs and be dangerous when they got there, whereas Columbus and Minnesota, riding their hot goalies all year, they were swept aside with ease. Unless it's a Brian Elliot total meltdown situation, the goalie is not actually that important anymore, any halfway decent goalie will do, and the best goalie in the world, doesn't actually make much of a difference.

[SilverEagle]

I have a lot of faith in Captain Canada, he's at the top of his game right now, I don't think Washington can stop him, I think Crosby will be the deciding factor.

Yeah I agree. Could you imagine the numbers Sid would've put up if he was playing in the 80's era when 99 and 66 we're kings.

[SilverEagle]

No way the Pens win the cup with Fleury in net. Not happening, the meltdown is inevitable, if not this round, eventually. This isn't the regular season and Pens defense does not impress me and never has, especially without Letang. Pray for Matt Murray, otherwise the Pens are boned.

Man you have it out for old 29. What did he do to you StCapps? Did he bang your sister dirty or something?

[Smitty-48]

I have a lot of faith in Captain Canada, he's at the top of his game right now, I don't think Washington can stop him, I think Crosby will be the deciding factor.

Yeah I agree. Could you imagine the numbers Sid would've put up if he was playing in the 80's era when 99 and 66 we're kings.

He's more like Yzerman, I'd say he'd put up those sorts of numbers, Gretzky was better than Crosby, crazy at it sounds, Gretzky in his prime, is still kind of underrated, but certainly, with the goalies back then, Crosby would be scoring 60 or even 70, when Gretzky was scoring 80 and 90.

[StCapps]

No way the Pens win the cup with Fleury in net. Not happening, the meltdown is inevitable, if not this round, eventually. This isn't the regular season and Pens defense does not impress me and never has, especially without Letang. Pray for Matt Murray, otherwise the Pens are boned.

Man you have it out for old 29. What did he do to you StCapps? Did he bang your sister dirty or something?

Have you not watched him cost you playoff series after playoff series by melting down repeatedly ever since he won the Cup the first time? You should hate him more than I do. He's been holding the Pens back in playoffs for years. Smitty must not have been paying attention either, he doesn't give a shit when the Leafs aren't playing anyway, he must have missed Marc Andre Fleury repeatedly meltdown during the playoffs, every fucking time, like clockwork. You can set your watch by San Jose choking and Fleury choking in the playoffs.

The Pens ain't that good, Columbus just sucks, that's why they couldn't get to Fleury often enough to prevent from losing in 5. The one game they lost was Fluery's fault. Fleury is a regular season goalie only, you might do as well with an empty net in the playoffs when he's in mental midget mode. Ticking time bomb.

[Smitty-48]

Washington kind of sucks, the Rangers suck, Anahiem and St. Louis kind of suck, there's nobody in the Pens way, which doesn't suck the same way Columbus sucked, so, Pens are actually looking pretty good, they just have to defend by commitee, to try to spread those Letang minutes around, and dominate puck possesion the same way they did with Columbus, with a whole lotta Crosby and Malkin, all game every game.

Unless Crosby gets hurt, the way is wide open.

[StCapps]

Washington kind of sucks, the Rangers suck, Anahiem and St. Louis kind of suck, there's nobody in the Pens way, which doesn't suck the same way Columbus sucked, so, Pens are actually looking pretty good, they just have to defend by commitee, to try to spread those Letang minutes around, and dominate puck possesion the same way they did with Columbus.

The Pens kind of suck too as long as Fluery is net and Letang is out. Worse than last year by a whole lot and the choke ass Sharks took them to 7 games. As vulnerable an Eastern Conference favorite as I can ever remember as long as that is the case and even if they get there whoever wins the West will eat them alive with Fleury between the pipes. They don't need to face stiff competition for Marc Andre Fleury to meltdown, recent history is very clear about that, they got lucky that Fluery only cost them one game against Columbus, they could have a cakewalk to the Cup and the Fleury Meltdown would still be a huge threat to derail them.

He's that bad. Seriously. Like playing Russian roulette, you might dodge the bullet in the first round, but what are the chances you pull the trigger four times and don't eat the bullet on one of those occasions? Not very high.

#prayformattmurray

[Smitty-48]

The Pens could just throw Tristan Jarry in there, and suddenly he would be the new "Matt Murray", Matt Murray is not that good, he's just overrated because he's insulated by Crosby & Co, put him on the Leafs and he would get shelled right off the ice, Freddie Andersen is better than Matt Murray, and Freddie Andersen kind of sucks.