Losing to the Penguins in Game 7 Double OT in the Eastern Finals, it feels good to see them lose both games to start the season and one of them being 10-1. I have no clue what happened there, Niemi didn’t look good and Murray, for good reason, looked tired.
Yeah rough game last night. It's hard to analyze a lot from 2 games but so far I'd say this - Niemi and Murray have to be better.
Murray has been my big concern going into this season, I'm still not sold on the guy being a work-horse, nailed on, number 1 goalie that will give you 60 starts a year. He has never, since Juniors, done that successfully yet. Faced with the expansion draft, the Pens did what they had to do this off season and let Flower go, it was the right decision, but sometimes you come to regret even those decisions.
Second thing, I haven't seen the same or similar systems that the Pens found success with over the last couple years in these first two games. The D are trying to create offense but are forgetting about playing defense. If Hunwick doesn't start playing better, he will get benched.
The interesting thing though, is that the "weakness" everyone has been talking about with the Pens going into this season hasn't been one - third line center. We lost Bonino, and weren't able to make a deal before the season started. McKegg has been fine there and will be until they can find someone else. People forget Bonino wasn't much before he got slotted down the middle behind Sid and Geno. Nashville will quickly learn this, they will be paying a guy over $4 million a year to score a couple goals and PK.
I'll be interested to see how Sullivan adjusts to this start. That said - looking at the Pens schedule for the first couple months, the majority of their games are on the road, and they have a bunch of back to backs, some being home and away back to backs. Additionally, the quality of competition through this first stretch is pretty good. Add that to playing more games than any other team over the last couple years, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised or overly concerned if the Pens were a 500 team through the first 15 or so games.