What a terrible game 1 loss for the Pens at home. Vokoun needed to stop a couple and a pond hockey-type blown defensive coverage led to the third Boston goal. Fleury needs to get in there. I reckon he has had enough time to recover from his meltdown. Rask is an excellent but streaky goalie like Luongo who grows in confidence with each save he makes, including regulation saves on shots fired directly at his chest. Gotta get under his skin by crashing the net and creating screens in front of his face. Not easy with the Bruins D-men but not impossible either.
Malkin and others skated through their D but their linemates didn't arrive on time, allowing the slower Bruins D-men the opportunity to disrupt and neutralize developing threat. Unacceptable for a team as fast as the Pens. I hate seeing a superior team losing because it's being out-thought like this. The Pens need more desperation and discipline, and Bylsma MUST make some adjustments to disrupt their defensive schemes, rather than simply reacting to their attempts to disrupt the Pens' natural game. Bowman made the same mistake against the underdog Devils in the
'95 Cup finals and we got swept, BADLY. I believe Pittsburgh to be more than capable of bouncing back from this and winning game 2 and then win one in Boston InshAllah.
The Kings need to realize that as great as Quick is, sitting on a 1 goal lead against the Hawks simply won't work 9 out of 10 times. Kopitar would be busy covering either Toews or Hossa at the boards, and someone else needs to find ways to get past an exceptional corps of Hawks D-men and the hugely underrated Crawford in Chicago. If not, we're in for another homer series here.