Crosby ... For The Win!: Game 1: Pens Outlast Flyers, 3-1

Main Storylines:

The Pens and Flyers open up the season with their 8^th straight meeting against each other, including an ugly quarterfinals matchup that the Flyers won in 6 games through awful goaltending, special teams, and penalties.
Eric Tangradi starts on the 2^nd line, Simon Despres starts on the 3^rd defensive pairing. Scratches: Vitale, Bortuzzo, Lovejoy.

Result:

Pens 3 Flyers 1

Goals: Kennedy (1) (PP) from Martin, Niskanen

Neal (1) from Malkin

Kunitz (1) (PP) from Martin

Milestones & Stats:

Marc-Andre Fleury earned his 227^th win, moving him into first place in franchise history for wins
James Neal had 10 attempted shots (7 on net), twice as many as anyone else
Martin and Orpik led the team in blocked shots (3 each)
Cooke led with 7 hits

The Good:

First goal celebration of the season...wait, what?

Powerplay: went 2 for 3 including an empty netter. Just as importantly, they didn’t give up any major shorthanded chances and the new look powerplay was competent though they didn’t capitalize on the new setup. As everyone gets up to speed, the new setup looks very promising.
Penalty Kill: Tanner Glass and Brandon Sutter had fantastic debuts on the penalty kill, both using very active sticks at the points. Craig Adams was also solid with a few shot blocks and a save at the goal line.
Paul Martin: Give him credit; that was the best game he has played in a very long time and he was probably the best overall defenseman. He kept guys to the outside, had a couple solid poke checks, and added 2 assists to top it off. If you’re going to rail on him for Giroux deking past him, please youtube how many defensemen Giroux has deked past.
Marc-Andre Fleury: Aside from setting the franchise record in wins, Fleury made 26 saves on 27 shots in a very solid effort. The only goal against was on a defensive lapse that couldn’t really be blamed on Fleury. He showed strong positioning, and though his puck-handling was scary as usual, he got the job done.

The Bad:

"I'll get better, I promise"

Simon Despres: Despres had a very slow start to the game and continued to look lost on the ice like he did in the scrimmage. His 2^nd period improved dramatically as he got used to the pace, but his play eroded through the 3^rd period again. I still question his quickness and anticipation at the NHL level right now. Those deficiencies caused him to take a penalty as well.
Pascal Dupuis: Dupuis had an uncharacteristically bad defensive game, committing multiple turnovers in the first 2 periods and getting out of position in the defensive zone. To his credit, he had a much better 3^rd period and was a big key on the PK late in the game.
Dustin Jeffrey: In a somewhat surprising move, Jeffrey was given the 4^th line spot over Vitale but he didn’t do much to try and keep it. He took a penalty and flat out passed the puck to a Flyers forward in the defensive zone to draw the ire of everyone.

The Ugly:

Eric Tangradi: Tangradi started off with a strong first shift with a legit forecheck before fading into nothing. He tried to add some physicality to the game, but was rotated off and on the 2^nd line as he was ineffective in every role he tried. Tangradi simply looked too slow for the 2^nd line but lost when placed on the 4^th line.

MY Plusses &Minuses:

Plus/Minus is generally seen as a useful but also overrated stat because of how it is calculated. Specifically, players can make the best play possible and still end up with a minus, or they could be on the ice for 1 second and get a plus for doing nothing. I’m going to try and calculate my own +/- stat for the season and see how it compares. For each goal, every player at fault for a goal against gets a minus and every player that helped on a goal scored gets a plus. I will include PP and PK goals as well since this is just a fun experiment anyways.

1^st goal (Kennedy): + for Sutter, Niskanen, Martin, Kennedy
2^nd goal (Neal): + for Malkin, Neal
1^st goal against (Giroux): - for Orpik, Kunitz
3^rd goal (Kunitz): + for Martin, Kunitz
Overall: Martin +2, Sutter +1, Niskanen +1, Kennedy +1, Malkin +1, Neal +1, Orpik -1

Thoughts:

Fleury has the flexibility for this, will Vokoun?

Though the penalty kill was a successful 5 for 5, there was an issue with clearing guys from in front of the crease. Orpik rarely engaged Simmonds into a physical battle in front and the Pens will need to do a better job of clearing the crease to keep the Rangers from scoring on Vokoun using screens in Game 2.
One of the things that popped out across the whole team was each guy on every line is at a different pace for speed and conditioning right now. It will probably be a couple weeks before we see each line gel completely as players catch up to each other.
Normally, I would say give Tangradi 2 weeks before giving up on him. With the shortened season, I say 1 week. If he hasn’t added anything to the team by next weekend, I’d like to see Jeffrey and Vitale in over Tangradi.
For Sunday’s game against NYR, Vokoun starts, and Vitale comes into the lineup for Jeffrey. It’s time to actually see what Vokoun can give the team and how he can play with this defense in front of him. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly concerned with the Rangers coming off of a 3-1 opening night loss.

Pens Record: 1-0-0, 2 pts

Next Game: 1/20 @ NYR, 7pm

Crosby ... For The Win!