Engelland – takes a shot that goes off of
Nabokov and gets tangled up in Cooke’s jersey
Cooke – shoots the puck past Nabokov after it
drops at his skates
2nd Goal For (Neal): + for
Murray – digs the puck out of the defensive
corner and chips it to Malkin
Malkin – makes a pass to Neal in the neutral
zone so he can skate up with it
Niskanen – jumps into the play on the other side
of the offensive zone, causing the defenseman (Streit) to watch the pass and
give Neal room to get a better shooting angle
Quick recap for those new to my blog: Throughout this season, I have dissected every goal (for and against) to determine who contributed to goals for and who is at fault for goals against. I have provided a game by game recap and have kept a spreadsheet with the season totals. This all started because I hate plus/minus as a stat. It's lazy and doesn't actually tell you what is going on for any shift and which players actually did something right or wrong.
I have included powerplay goals for and against because I see no reason players shouldn't get credit (or fault) if they had a hand in a scoring play. Additionally, players in the penalty box during a powerplay goal against automatically get a minus for putting their team down a man.
The NHL +/- stat is next to my +/- stat for comparison's sake. With the recent additions the Penguins have made, I am going to keep track of their NHL and my +/- rating only with the Penguins.
In every post on this site, I will give the full explanations for my goal assessments. Additionally, you can find my post-game thoughts and analysis at The PensNation. Thanks for reading!
+/- Assessment
1st Goal For (Kunitz): + for
Malkin – retrieves puck after it hits the referee
in the corner, passes behind the net to Crosby
Orpik – takes a pass at the point and sends it
across to Martin
Martin – takes a shot that goes wide and bounces
to Crosby behind the net
Crosby – passes the puck to Orpik from Malkin,
then takes Martin’s missed shot and makes a no look pass back to Kunitz
Kunitz – one-times Crosby’s pass past Montoya
2nd Goal For (Malkin): + for
Murray – keeps the puck in the zone after it’s
blocked by the Jets, passes it to Niskanen
Niskanen – sends the puck down low to Neal
Neal – passes across the crease to Malkin
Morrow – gets in the way of 2 defensemen as Neal’s
pass glides by
Malkin – has the puck go off his skate, off
Montoya, off his skate, and in for a goal
3rd Goal For (Dupuis): + for
Crosby – passes the puck up to Kunitz off the
boards as they leave the defensive zone
Kunitz – passes across to Dupuis on a 2 on 1
Dupuis – initially retrieved the puck and sent
it to Crosby in the defensive zone, then one-times Kunitz’s pass to beat
Montoya
4th Goal For (Dupuis): + for
Glass – joins Dupuis on a 2 on 1, pulling
Enstrom away from Dupuis
(everyone goes where they are supposed to go,
Vokoun looks off of his angle a bit)
1st Goal For (Vitale): + for
Adams – takeaway at the offensive blue line
Glass – makes it a 2 on 1 with Vitale and pulls
Hamonic a little bit out of position away from Vitale
Vitale – snipes the corner on Nabokov
2nd Goal Against (Bailey): - for
Dupuis – failed clear with the puck sitting in
front of him
Crosby – failed clear, then doesn’t skate out to
Hamonic at the point OR shadow Bailey (lack of attention to what Kunitz is
doing)
Kunitz – gets caught wandering in the zone, too
far away from Hamonic at the point OR Bailey skating to the crease (lack of
attention to what Crosby is doing)
2nd Goal For (Kunitz): + for
Crosby – wins puck battle in the defensive zone
to Dupuis, eventually sets up Kunitz
Dupuis – takes puck from defensive zone and
passes it along to Crosby, then drives to the net causing a 3 player screen on
Nabokov
Kunitz – beats Nabokov 5 hole as the screen
clears away
3rd Goal For (Sutter): + for
Orpik – retrieves puck in the defensive zone and
clears it out to Neal
Neal – passes the puck from the neutral zone up
to Cooke heading into the offensive zone
Cooke – patiently waits for Carkner to go down
and end up out of position before passing the puck across the crease to Sutter
Sutter – beats Nabokov from point blank
4th Goal For (Dupuis): + for
(Vokoun – clears the puck to the blue line)
Crosby – knocks the puck to the offensive blue
line where Dupuis picks it up
Dupuis – beats Chara to the puck behind the net
and spins away from him, passing to Kunitz
Kunitz – makes a quick pass across the slot to
Crosby
Crosby – shoots the puck past Rask, who was
sprawling out of position
1st Goal Against (Seguin): - for
Eaton – extended sequence begins when Eaton
clears it up the middle directly to Boston so everyone starts scrambling in
coverage, eventually covers the same guy as Sutter leaving Seguin by himself
Cooke – not playing anywhere near the points for
defensive coverage
Kennedy – not playing anywhere near the points
for defensive coverage
Sutter – slides towards Eaton’s position where
neither one of them adjusts
2nd Goal For (Vitale): + for
Orpik – makes the lead pass from the defensive
zone up to Vitale
Adams – takes a shot that Rask can’t handle with
his glove that leads to a rebound
Vitale – drops puck off for Adams, skates in for
the rebound and puts it over Rask
Crosby – bad line change leads to an uncovered
defenseman entering the Penguins zone
Dupuis – bad line change leads to an uncovered
defenseman entering the Penguins zone
Kunitz – releases coverage on Bozak when he’s
unsure of what to do with the open man
1st Goal For (Dupuis): + for
Martin – moves the neutral zone faceoff win over
to Niskanen
Niskanen – slaps the puck in around the boards
for Kunitz forechecking on the other side
Kunitz – wins the forechecking battle and feeds
the puck to Sid at the faceoff circle
Crosby – makes a ridiculous backhanded spin pass
to Dupuis
Dupuis – turns the pass to his forehand and
scores
2nd Goal For (Dupuis): + for
Crosby – gets a clutch stick deflection on a
Leafs cross-crease pass in front of Fleury in the D zone (puck deflects to the
glass and rolls up the boards)
Kunitz – retrieves the puck off the boards in
the D zone and takes it into the O zone, pulls up and feeds the puck to Dupuis
in the high slot
Dupuis – takes a quick snap shot that beats
Scrivens
3rd Goal For (Adams): + for
Adams – blocks a shot, gathers the puck, and
shoots it into an empty net from his own zone
Crosby – too many men penalty: he was the 6th
man and easily could have / should have seen Kunitz go on a couple steps before
him
Martin – fails to retrieve the puck in the corner
and then shifts a little high, leaving 2 guys on the crease for Orpik
Orpik – doesn’t even attempt to keep Bergeron
from screening Fleury
2nd Goal Against (Seguin): - for
Cooke – has Bergeron on the crease and releases
on his coverage as Bergeron skates behind the net to open himself up for a pass
Letang – has Seguin on the crease and releases
on his coverage as Seguin goes to provide an outlet for Marchand, then leaves
the crease area to go after Bergeron once he receives the pass behind the net
Kennedy – is left with coverage on Seguin due to
above abandonments by Cooke and Letang, but doesn’t follow Seguin closely or
try to tie up his stick
1st Goal For (Kunitz): + for
Engelland – gives Letang a passing option and
feeds the puck back to him
Letang – gives Kunitz a perfect pass to one-time
Dupuis – skates the opposite direction of Kunitz
to pull Chara completely out of position with him
Kunitz – does the forechecking job to retrieve
the puck and pass it back to Letang on the point, then gets into shooting
position on the other side of the ice and scores on a one-timer
2nd Goal For (Sutter): + for
Bennett – carries the puck into the offensive
zone and passes it to the left to Neal
Neal – pulls the puck to the right to move a
defender towards him and then passes it to the left to Sutter with an open
shooting lane
Sutter – made the initial pass off the boards in
the neutral zone to spring Bennett and then took Neal’s pass and shot it past
Khudobin
3rd Goal For (Sutter): + for
Crosby – forces the defender to drop to the
ground to cover a pass on the 2 on 1
Sutter – intercepts the puck inside the
offensive zone and rips it past Khudobin
Niskanen – shoots the puck, which gets blocked,
but makes it to Neal
Bennett – provides traffic and a screen in front
of Reimer
Neal – fires the loose puck past Reimer
1st Goal Against (Van Riemsdyk): - for
Bennett – in the penalty box for a high sticking
penalty
Orpik – nowhere close to JVR on the crease to
even get a stick on him
2nd Goal For (Crosby): + for
Bennett – sends the breakout pass to Letang
Letang – rushes the puck into the offensive
zone, gets a shot on Reimer and picks up his own rebound which he throws at the
net off the post
Crosby – corrals the puck off the rebound off
the post and shoots it into an open net
3rd Goal For (Martin): + for
Orpik – pinches in slightly to keep the puck in
the zone
Neal – provides support to keep the puck in and
whacks it past 2 defenders
Malkin – picks up the loose puck and throws it
across to Martin
Bennett – draws Gunnarsson’s attention on
defense, which leads to him putting the puck into his own net
Martin – takes the shot which glances off of
some sticks and into the net
2nd Goal Against (Franson): - for
Crosby – in the penalty box for tripping
Letang – stands next to JVR in front of Fleury,
adding to the screen Fleury tries to look around unsuccessfully
4th Goal For (Dupuis): + for
Kunitz – forechecks in the corner to win the
puck battle
Crosby – forechecks in the corner to win the
puck battle and passes it up to Orpik
Orpik – passes the puck over to Martin
Martin – gets the puck deep into the zone to
Dupuis
Dupuis – originally kept the puck in the zone to
start the sequence, gets a shot on Reimer, grabs his rebound, and banks the
puck in off of Fraser’s skate
3rd Goal Against (MacArthur): - for
Niskanen – hesitates as MacArthur comes in and
neither steps up to him nor goes for the shot block
4th Goal Against (Kessel): - for
Martin – doesn’t follow Kessel moving to open
space while everyone else has a guy/spot covered, tries to take Niskanen’s
defensive position
This will be a little out of order because I was out of town this past weekend. Here is the goal assessment for the Tampa Bay game. I will post the Montreal game on Tuesday (Game Center Live doesn't allow you to watch games until 48 hours afterwards) and update the season spreadsheet after that.
Full thoughts are at The PensNation.
+/- Assessment:
1st Goal For (Kunitz): + for
Crosby – wins the puck battle in the corner,
feeds Kunitz
Kunitz – slides into open space for a one-timer
goal
1st Goal Against (Stamkos): - for
Vitale – doesn’t get back into the play to cover
his guy, St. Louis
Engelland – goes to the wrong guy and never
actually covers his man, Stamkos
2nd Goal Against (Pyatt): - for
Engelland – beat by Palat behind the net
2nd Goal For (Malkin): + for
Malkin – forces turnover in the neutral zone and
makes a beautiful power move to get through 2 defensemen and beat Lindback
3rd Goal For (Crosby): + for
Letang – takes the puck behind the net and waits
patiently for Sid to open up
Crosby – steals puck back in defensive zone, feeds
it to Letang, then slides into open space for a one-timer goal
4th Goal For (Neal): + for
Letang – clears puck out of the zone to Malkin
Malkin – enters the zone with the puck and
passes it off to Neal
Neal – scores on an empty net
3rd Goal Against (Stamkos): - for
Glass – is completely unaware of Stamkos
sneaking past him to stand alone next to the net
As I make my transition to The PensNation, I'm going to start putting my thoughts on their site and the full +/- assessments on this blog (with links on each page). Also, if you are going through podcast withdrawal, subscribe to theirs here. Meanwhile, here are highlights and your goal assessment (if you have no clue what I'm doing with this goal assessment, visit http://www.crosbyftw.com/p/plusminus-spreadsheet.html).
+/- Assessment:
1st Goal For (Kunitz): + for
Niskanen – leads breakout through the neutral zone
Crosby – takes puck into the offensive zone and
passes to Kunitz
Neal – draws defenders deeper into the zone to open
up a passing lane
Kunitz – one-timer goal
1st Goal Against (E. Staal): - for
Crosby – left his guy (Staal) after the faceoff
and then doesn’t keep up with him going behind or to the net
Letang – over-pursues Tlusty for a hit instead of playing the puck
2nd Goal Against (Tlusty): - for
Crosby – doesn’t follow Staal / miscommunicates
with Niskanen
Niskanen – miscommunicates with Crosby / gets
caught between Staal and Tlusty
3rd Goal Against (Skinner): - for
Vitale – turnover in neutral zone
Adams – turnover in neutral zone
Bortuzzo – misses puck on a bad step up at the blue
line, then has a tough time getting to Dwyer on pass to Skinner
Martin – doesn’t step up to Skinner in the slot
4th Goal Against (Tlusty): - for
Bortuzzo – gets manhandled and loses the puck
Crosby – skates to empty area and doesn’t get
back in the play
Neal – leaves passing lane between Semin and
Tlusty
(Martin was not at fault for this goal, he was
tripped on the crease and couldn’t do anything)
