The Penguins Need a Quick Adjustment

I have been a Penguin fan for 40 years.  I have had season tickets for 37 years. Watching the performance of this team in game 3 has to be the low point of the 40 years for me.

A part of being a Penguin fan has  always included hating the Flyers. We hated the Flyers because of the stupid and childish things that they did. On Sunday I had to watch the Pens do stupid and childish things. The stupid things are too numerous to mention. The most childish act was Crosby knocking the Flyer’s glove away. He should be ashamed of himself. This is certainly no way for the captain of a hockey team to behave. I understand the frustration of being the Stanley Cup “favorite” and getting embarassed by your cross-state rival, but please have a little class.

It is very hard to have the Flyer fans call the Pens babies and be correct. If they think that these behaviors are bad, what must they think of their own team. The stupid and classless thing that their players and organization have been involved in are also too numerous to mention.

Surely Mario is upset by this performance. Here’s hoping that he does something about it.
Now to the source of the team’s frustration and why they are down 3-0 in the series.

1. MAF .798 a number that will give him nightmares. I know the play in front of him has not been good, but c’mon make a key save instead of putting the puck in your own net or coughing of rebounds on shots that should be easy to control. Hockey is a game of momentum and every time the Pens had some he gave it away. He will have to make 86 straight saves to get his GAA up to .900. If this happens they can win the next  4 games.
2. Special Teams I said in my preseries prediction that they needed as much 5 on 5 play as possible’ They did not make that happen.  The Flyers exposed weaknesses in the PK and PP. Dan Bylsma and staff never made the the necessary adjustments.  The Flyers PP burned the Pens all year and the staff did nothing to fix the PK.
3. Linesman  in game 1 Briere’s goal in game 1 was so far offside that the linesman had to have a complete brain freeze to miss it. As I said hockey is a game of momentum and this gave the Flyers their first push. The  subsequent actions are on the Pens, but who knows. No goal there, win game 1, maybe we have a different series.
4. Composure.  As much as the Pens talked about this being a key, they continued to lose theirs. This was supposed to be a plus. Watch the Flyers rookies melt. The wrong team melted
5. Bylsma Since winning the cup the Pens have won 1 playoff series. In fact blowing 3-2 and 3-1 series leads in the last 2 years and now this debacle. I’m not sure if it’s time to replace him or not but one more failure will be his last. Special team failure and losing composure is on him.
6. Defensive  lapses Somehow the Pens have never learned how to cover the player that they are responsible for. Another mark against Bylsma.
7. #71 No goals This is unacceptable for the 50 goal scoring Art Ross trophy winner

I can’t believe that after all of the work that went into this season that this is how it is going to end.  Show up on Wednesday and play hockey. Maybe something good will happen.