GDT: Pens @ Stars

[grunthy]

Woot

[LeopardLetang]

Rust with a welcome return. Still unsure what kahun is. What makes him more than a 4th liner? Serious question.

Mitts Murray with 10? glove saves and a SO

Without the emergence of Lafferty and Marino i would feel discouraged. I have no expectations for Galchenyuk but if he cements himself with Malkin then we will have a good team to watch. This is a good team if that second line is legit. I like the youth speed and effort of the second half of the team

[crusherstasiak]

Rust with a welcome return. Still unsure what kahun is. What makes him more than a 4th liner? Serious question.

Mitts Murray with 10? glove saves and a SO

Without the emergence of Lafferty and Marino i would feel discouraged. I have no expectations for Galchenyuk but if he cements himself with Malkin then we will have a good team to watch. This is a good team if that second line is legit. I like the youth speed and effort of the second half of the team

[Rx6687]

Rust with a welcome return. Still unsure what kahun is. What makes him more than a 4th liner? Serious question.

Mitts Murray with 10? glove saves and a SO

Without the emergence of Lafferty and Marino i would feel discouraged. I have no expectations for Galchenyuk but if he cements himself with Malkin then we will have a good team to watch. This is a good team if that second line is legit. I like the youth speed and effort of the second half of the team

Chucky will be just fine. He will be a great compliment to Malkin, and he's got a chance to be a big time goal scorer here.

[willeyeam]

This team seems like it got faster and harder to play against since last year. I'm encouraged

[MR25]

Wtf was Letang aiming at on the play Sid got hit with the puck? That hit 0 sticks and was going about 5 feet over the net.

[dodint]

He is a menace. He is the Sato of the NHL, imo.

[Rx6687]

This team seems like it got faster and harder to play against since last year. I'm encouraged

Tanev has been the primary catalyst for this. He is so fast and outworks everyone.. when he is on the ice, it changes the whole dynamic, much like Hags did back in 2016. Once the lines settle in and healthy bodies return, we'll see if there's a place for him in the top 6.

Also, a big difference has been Lafferty, who I've obviously underestimated. He won't score a ton, but there's a lot of good things in his game. He looks like he's been in the league for 3 years. 52% on draws so far.

[mikey]

Yup ^

[FistOfCaufield]

There was a comment made on an interview with Letang before the team started playing really well... or what we would call similar to how they played a few years ago.

He flat out said it was a renewed mindset... I think this may have been after the home winnipeg loss (3rd game), or even after a few of the wins.

I don't think this is something driven so much by younger guys... but a collective buy in, which to me gives me more hope that this will transcend the injuries. It was something I heard on the fan, and since I've heard it - there really has been a noticeable difference in play.

[Morkle]

The collective buy-in is only going to work if/when the other players come back and agree to it. If Geno doesn't buy-in and it wrecks the second line to make them different than the other three, there's a problem, imo.

It feels like we're finally back to the team understanding and willingly playing the way Sullivan wants, and certainly, it's a recipe for success.

[Gaucho]

Why would Geno not buy in when he was among the most frustrated by how things were going?

[dodint]

He's still waiting for Neal to come back.

[Morkle]

Why would Geno not buy in when he was among the most frustrated by how things were going?

Well if it's anything like last year, he gave into Kessel skating bad, apparently. It'll be interesting, I'm just hoping it doesn't negatively affect the momentum.

[crusherstasiak]

lots of good posts here
they do look completely different this year than last. just like that they're a fast team agin. if not actual footspeed they sure do play fast.
i dont miss phil at all

[mikey]

We have decided to try to insulate our defense more. We fall deep into the category of "NZ trap teams" this year. There's an element of transition to it (which was the original intent...to generate offense actually) so we can still work some skill, we still stretch zones...but we're tidy in the NZ and thrive on turnovers and quick transition...