HabsFanInPitt27 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 VS At Mellon Arena - Pittsburgh,PA Game Preview For the underachieving Pittsburgh Penguins, the first game under new coach Dan Bylsma had a familiar result - another disappointing loss. They hope to change that trend Thursday night against the struggling Montreal Canadiens when they implement Bylsma’s aggressive offense. After advancing to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1992 last season, Pittsburgh (27-25-6) has been one of the league’s biggest disappointments. The Penguins had been expected to contend for the Stanley Cup, but are six points out of the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. The team’s season-long struggles led to the firing of coach Michel Therrien Sunday. Bylsma got the call that he would replace Therrien, just before he was set to coach his Wilkes Barre-Scranton club in an AHL game. Bylsma met his new team Monday morning and was behind the bench for a 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Islanders later than day - the Penguins’ sixth defeat in nine games. Bylsma had his first practice with the Penguins on Wednesday and is attempting to get them to be more aggressive and instinctive, and less driven by a mindset of avoiding mistakes. Though it’s late in the season to install a new offense, but Bylsma hopes his team can quickly adjust to the new scheme. “He’s really detailed in his systems, and I mean the systems are going to be a drastic change from what we were playing before,” defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “The mentality is he just wants us to be a lot more aggressive in every zone, play on your toes and play with confidence, don’t go out there playing not to make mistakes.” Bylsma also is seeking increased production from players other than Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, the NHL’s No. 1 and No. 3 scorers, respectively. “I think he’s excited for this opportunity, and that’s the way we have to look at this - as a great challenge and a great way for us to raise our game and find a way to (get) ourselves in the playoffs,” said Crosby, who has just one assist in his last four games. “Our game had to change.” The inconsistent play of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has contributed to Pittsburgh’s struggles. He’s gone 1-2-1 with a 2.88 goals-against average in his last four starts. Fleury was also in goal for the Penguins’ first two games against Montreal (30-21-7) this season and posted a 3.57 GAA in losing both. While this has been a trying season for Pittsburgh, the Canadiens have had their own problems lately. Montreal suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to Washington on Wednesday, its 11th defeat in 14 games. The Canadiens had the third-most points (60) in the East on Jan. 17, but have since dropped to sixth, just one point ahead of eighth-place Buffalo. Montreal played without slumping All-Star right wing Alex Kovalev, who was told by the team to stay home and rest during this two-game swing through Washington and Pittsburgh. Carey Price made 32 saves Wednesday, but fell to 2-7-1 with a 3.71 GAA in 12 games since returning from a lower-body injury. Price, who was 7-0-2 with a 2.09 GAA in his final nine starts before the injury, has won all four of his career starts against the Penguins, compiling a 2.20 GAA in those meetings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setrixwalls Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 2-1 Pens OT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvtomatKos-yn Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 30 - 0 Habs. Brisebois and Schneider combine to make the worlds deadliest 2nd D-line, making Ovechkin so impressed that he tears his contract up and sign 20 years with Montreal for the sum of 12L of gatorade per day. Let's go Habs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HABSNCUPS Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Alright , enough is enough. Lets get a win tonight for I am about to leave my house and drive 5 or 6 hours to watch this game. Go Habs GO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
357908_1475251331 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 today i'm going to start taking gainey at his word that no one has called about kovy. stewart is probably the best news we've had all year, since we have so many prospects, and schneider will only calm and steady the field. that said and trying to get down to brass tacks; i admit that kovy was trying at times to calm and steady the field, and he might have tried to be a new prospect for the team with a lot of cute plays that didn't go much further than failure, but i don't blame him. lol to it being malkin's turn to show us khl/nhl play. i thought we had enough of it with ovechkin last night. my original few posts on this board were about the captaincy and "A"'s and now i think i know what i was talking about. if we had the opportunity to see some of the khl televised maybe we would know better about what we were trying to acoomplish in our game and in our coaching. we will just have to go on the best we can without it i guess. let's just get out there and try to be a team worthy of the best players in the world, and we will win. 3-1 habs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynch_mtl Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 30 - 0 Habs. Brisebois and Schneider combine to make the worlds deadliest 2nd D-line, making Ovechkin so impressed that he tears his contract up and sign 20 years with Montreal for the sum of 12L of gatorade per day. Let's go Habs! That's hilarious. But I don't know if that contract would be too heavy for us. A whole 12L a day? make it 3 and we have a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanman Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 everytime we go in as the 'struggling Montreal Canadiens" guys who have not scored in weeks look like superstars. Play like last night and we win easily. Lots of positives to take from last nights game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunner_canadian Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 It would be nice to get back in the Win column. Go Habs Go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrownSugarl Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Guy Lafleur slammed the team recently. Last time he did that we tore up the league with "4 4th lines". Let's hope is starts tonight against Cindy and the Flightless Waterfowl... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habtalk Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Tough loss against the Caps. No contest in Vancouver. Blown out in Calgary. Perhaps instead of bowling our pre game bonding should be mini golf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booboo_mtl Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Good game last night. Same line up? Halak? Anyone heard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kubby31 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Lots of positives to take from last nights game. I agree,looking forward to tonights game,enjoyed last nights game must say. GOHABSSSSSSSSSSSSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull12 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Lets hope the guys come out hard, back to back games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourtrax Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Having finally realized what they can do when playing assigmnent-sharp hockey through 60 minutes, our beloved Habs buckle down and grind out a 3-2 regulation win against the Pens, with goals from AK46, Saku, and Schneider (PP). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianMike Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Let's make sure the Pens keep losing and won't make the playoffs (poor Bettman) GO HABS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let's see how many times crybaby complains tonight. Guessing Price gets the start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull12 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Carbo going with the same line as last night, Price gets the nod in goal http://habsinsideout.com/main/15797 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4beforeorr Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 We have to continue to attack, be strong on the forecheck and tidy up a bit in a few other area's. I think we need 4 goals to get the win. GO HABS GO!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
concreteveins Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Habs win here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason-Lorette Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 The Habs HAVE to win here...play like last night and they should win. I liked Koivu and Pacioretty playing together, it got someone big in front of the net for Koivu to pass too that couldn't be moved easily. Jason GO HABS GO!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBADHabs Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 The team played with heart last night and played well and if they play 90% of what they played last night it will be a win for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean-1 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Go Habs Go!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habby67 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 If they provide us with the same effort as last night then I will be satisfied... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habsfan_10 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I smell a big win tonight just play hard like last night! go habs goooooo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franck5890 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I'm sticking with my prediction from yesterday (hey Rocket, you never did bring that post back to me! ), as much as I hope we can dig deep and pull this out, we seem to have a knack for being the team that other teams rebound against after going through a slump. I have a feeling this could get ugly; we're not out of the water yet, and playing your grinders for 17+ minutes a night isn't going to succeed for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koivu-num-11 Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I have to say I feel pretty good about this game, and I'm not just saying that. We played really well last night and I thought we deserved a better fate than what we got. Even pierre mcguire while still in the process of over hyping the ovechkin goal admitted that we deserved better. Carey had his best game since before the allstar break and our offense seemed to be there last night as well. Hopefully the boys get up for this one like they did last night and give us something to cheer about! hopefully this time if it goes to a shootout they put in people who can actually score in that situation, i.e not someone who has went 1 for 8 lifetime and a defenseman. I know markov does that back hand move that catches goalies off guard because no one expects something that lame but with Koivu (our best shootout guy in the line up last night) and Kositisyn who has a rocket of a shot, sitting on the bench... I mean you do the math. Anyways give us a win boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.