tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14971098.post3941234013483418318..comments2024-03-17T21:09:46.268-04:00Comments on The Peerless Prognosticator: A NO-point night: Game 11: Penguins 5 - Capitals 2The Peerlesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10293195514553989436noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14971098.post-3445462525936377532013-02-08T17:51:01.408-05:002013-02-08T17:51:01.408-05:00Cheerless
I certainly understand your frustration...Cheerless<br /><br />I certainly understand your frustration! It's almost become a dull ache for me, watching this stuff. Not quite though--I still have to leave the TV/room for a while in order to cool down enough to finish watching these games. :-( <br /><br />As always, your well-written and detailed analysis is appreciated. And I agree with almost all of it--certainly with the overall sense of futility. <br /><br />However, I would, with great respect, suggest that two of the goals you mention in the fifth point of Other Stuff--Malkin's PPG on Neuvy and Cooke's quick strike off the faceoff on Holtby--were not soft goals. <br /><br />While you may be a reincarnated goalie, to my admittedly inexpert eye, given the television replays, it appeared as though Malkin's shot was superlatively good and I wonder if *any* goalie would've stopped it. Neuvy could perhaps have been a smidge further out, but even with that I'm not sure he would have been big enough to stop it. I would argue that for Neuvy to have been far enough out to completely obscure the goal on that shot he would have been far out of position, leaving the goal too vulnerable to the other power play Pens. <br /><br />As for the Cooke goal, it appeared to me as though Holtby never had a chance to see the shot until the puck emerged from the screen of a Caps defender (Carlson, I seem to remember). One of the replay angles was from behind Cooke as he shot, and it certainly looked to me as though Holtby was screened by not only a Caps defender but partially by another player even closer to Cooke. <br /><br />But those are only two small points, easy to lose in the stream of poor play we're seeing from the Caps these days. <br /><br />And the above certainly doesn't mean Neuvy and Holtby aren't each failing to provide the level of goaltending we need. The stats you provide are unflinching. The Dupuis goal on Neuvy looked to be the definition of "soft" at the NHL level. While I was a bit surprised when Oates pulled Neuvy for Holtby, given that Oates had let Holtby struggle through the entirety of the last Pens game on Sun, I was afraid something like what happened would, in fact, happen. <br /><br />Nor does it excuse the entire team for the clusterbleep (aside from Mike Ribeiro) that is this season so far. What in the world is happening during second periods?!? <br /><br />I'd thought to maintain a semblance of calm as this slide has gone on by noting the good plays, and willing myself to think that they're almost to the point of getting the new system ingrained. After the last three games, I'm no longer able to do that. <br /><br />aphidAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14971098.post-45214481866357153452013-02-08T10:19:55.549-05:002013-02-08T10:19:55.549-05:00aweasome..
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