Goal Assessment: Game 46 - Sabres 4 Pens 2

Link to Game 46 Thoughts: The PensNation



+/- Assessment

1st Goal Against (Vanek): - for

• Sutter – loses Hodgson on a spin move on the boards behind the net
• Murray – leaves his assignment of Vanek in the slot to cover Stafford, who is already covered by Niskanen

1st Goal For (Kunitz): + for

• Orpik – clears the puck up to the defensive blue line to Cooke
• Cooke – moves the puck up to center to Sutter
• Sutter – skates through center and moves the puck to Kunitz on the left wing
• Kunitz – fires a wrist shot that goes off of Miller’s glove and in

2nd Goal Against (Hecht): - for

• Jokinen – leaves his lane to help Bennett with a puck battle on the boards, loses the battle and isn’t there to cover Hecht
• Eaton – leaves his position to help Bennett with the same puck battle, doesn’t get there in time and isn’t in place for Hecht’s shot
• Murray – doesn’t react quickly enough to Hecht rotating back to the slot for the loose puck and can’t get there in time

2nd Goal For (Iginla): + for

• Morrow – corrals the puck behind the net and moves it to Malkin by the right side boards, then goes to screen Miller
• Malkin – circles with the puck and passes it across to Iginla at the left point
• Letang – feeds the puck back to Iginla
• Iginla – passes the puck to Letang and sets up in a one-timer position, then one-times Letang’s return pass into the net

3rd Goal Against (Ott): - for

• Jeffrey – instead of dumping the puck in, turns the puck over at the offensive blue line while the Pens are changing
• Eaton – jumps up to bat the puck down, but then gets out of position/flat-footed and misses on a poke check
• Cooke – doesn’t follow his man (Ott) into the zone, forcing Kunitz to try to cover him and he can’t get there in time

4th Goal Against (Vanek): - for

• Letang – turns the puck over with an empty net behind him

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet

Goal Assessment: Game 43 - Pens 6 Canadiens 4

Link to Game 43 Thoughts: The PensNation



+/- Assessment

1st Goal For (Sutter): + for

• Letang – sets up play in defensive zone, passes up to Niskanen
• Niskanen – one-time passes the puck to Sutter skating up the middle
• Sutter – enters the zone and backs Subban off before just beating Budaj with a wrist shot

2nd Goal For (Morrow): + for

• Murray – backchecks and pokes the puck to Despres
• Despres – moves the puck over to Adams to head into the offensive zone
• Adams – skates the puck into the offensive zone and passes it to Dupuis
• Dupuis – draws 3 Canadiens and slides the puck into open space where it ends up on Morrow’s stick
• Morrow – beats Budaj with a quick wrist shot

3rd Goal For (Iginla): + for

• Letang – brings puck into the zone and throws it back to Bennett at the point, eventually passes the puck down to Kunitz on the goal line as well, then drives to the crease to create a passing lane
• Bennett – raced to the point to keep the puck in and passes over to Kennedy
• Kennedy – drew a defensemen over and passed the puck to Letang
• Kunitz – waits and passes the puck across the crease to Iginla
• Iginla – settles down the rolling puck and beats Budaj

4th Goal For (Morrow): + for

• Niskanen – throws a long stretch pass off the boards to Bennett entering the zone
• Bennett – beats his man at the blue line and takes the puck in on a 2 on 1, passes to Morrow
• Morrow – slides the puck in past Price

1st Goal Against (Gionta): - for

• Dupuis – released on coverage on Eller when no other defenseman was in position to take him
• Letang – didn’t get Gionta tied up quickly enough

5th Goal For (Sutter): + for

• Letang – brings the puck out from the defensive zone and passes to Morrow
• Morrow – skates down the left wing and fires a wrist shot that Price can’t handle
• Sutter – skates to the crease and taps in the rebound

2nd Goal Against (Galchenyuk): - for

• Sutter – loses his guy at the offensive blue line when he tries to stop the puck and misses
• Despres – shows no awareness that there is an odd-man against him and misses on a poke check to throw him completely out of position

3rd Goal Against (Dumont): - for

• Glass – loses Desharnais in the corner and misses the puck
• Kennedy – lets Dumont skate right past him without any thought to following him
• Cooke – lazily glides to Dumont and thus doesn’t get there in time
• Orpik – is slow to leave the crease to try and block Dumont’s shot, ends up having the puck go off of his stick and in

6th Goal For (Murray): + for

• Iginla – wins faceoff back to Murray
• Murray – shoots the puck and has it deflect off of Plekanec and in past Price

4th Goal Against (Markov): - for

• Kennedy – drifts off of Markov and misses a pass interception attempt

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet

Goal Assessment: Game 41 - Pens 6 Lightning 3

Game 41 Thoughts: The PensNation



+/- Assessment

1st Goal For (Jokinen): + for

• Niskanen – pins Purcell with the puck against the boards so he can’t move it anywhere
• Dupuis – steals the puck in the defensive zone on the boards and chips it up to the neutral zone
• Morrow – chips the puck into the offensive zone, then wins a race to get the puck, drives to the net, and puts a shot off of Bishop’s pads
• Jokinen – has the rebound go off of his skate and into the net

2nd Goal For (Dupuis): + for

• Niskanen – sends a breakout pass to Kennedy in the neutral zone
• Kennedy – skates into the offensive zone and fires a wrist shot on Bishop that creates a rebound
• Dupuis – drives to the net and puts the rebound past Bishop

1st Goal Against (Purcell): - for

• Malkin – in the penalty box for tripping
• No one else - on replay it was just a beautiful setup and goal by TB’s powerplay. Everyone was in position.

3rd Goal For (Kunitz): + for

• Letang – brings the puck out of the defensive zone, passes it to Kunitz entering the offensive zone, takes a pass back and sends it over to Iginla, eventually takes another pass from Iginla and feeds him for a one-timer
• Malkin – passes the puck back to Iginla
• Iginla – fakes a one-timer and then passes to Malkin, gets it back from Malkin and passes to Letang while shifting into one-timer position, then one-times Letang’s pass back
• Jokinen – draws the crease defenseman off of the crease and away from Kunitz
• Kunitz – takes the puck into the offensive zone and passes back to Letang, tips Iginla’s one-timer into the net

2nd Goal Against (Connolly): - for

• Bennett – in the penalty box for hooking
• Jokinen – gets drawn out of position on the initial rush into the zone and never quite gets back into position
• Dupuis – doesn’t cover the 4th man in the zone wandering to the slot even though he’s the 4th defender on the play
• Murray – gets too far away from his crease position and doesn’t have the quickness to recover

4th Goal For (Malkin): + for

• Malkin – in position to steal a bad pass by Killorn and beats Bishop on the far side

5th Goal For (Jokinen): + for

• Morrow – retrieves his rebound in the corner and passes it out to Jokinen
• Dupuis – sends the puck to Murray at the point
• Murray – takes a wrist shot from the point
• Jokinen – taps Morrow’s pass to Dupuis, redirects Murray’s shot past Bishop

6th Goal For (Glass): + for

• Iginla – helps out on faceoff to win the puck back to Malkin, eventually passes the puck across the crease to Jokinen
• Malkin – passes over to Letang at the other point
• Letang – fakes a pass to the right to open up a passing lane and sends the puck down to Iginla in the corner
• Jokinen – puts a shot on net that rebounds out in front
• Glass – buries the rebound

3rd Goal Against (Purcell): - for

• Engelland – in the penalty box for roughing
• Glass – standing flat-footed in the slot, doesn’t follow Purcell to the crease
• Murray – moves to hit St. Louis instead of looking for or playing the puck

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet

Goal Assessment: Game 38 - Rangers 6 Pens 1

Link to Game 38 Thoughts:  The PensNation



+/- Assessment

1st Goal Against (Boyle): - for

• Kunitz – puts the team on the PK with a slashing penalty
• Murray – fails to clear the puck at his feet
• Engelland – fails to clear the puck at his feet
• Dupuis – gets a piece of Richards’ shot but it glances off of him and bounces past Fleury

2nd Goal Against (McDonagh): - for

• Glass – failed chip to clear the puck on the boards, then doesn’t attack the puck carrier later
• Morrow – failed chip to clear the puck on the opposite side boards
• Murray – gets drawn completely out of position which causes confusion with Niskanen
• Niskanen – backs away from the net and McDonagh instead of trying to block the shot or get in his way

3rd Goal Against (Clowe): - for

• Orpik – loses the puck to Stepan’s forecheck without any attempt to clear it or pass it away

4th Goal Against (Brassard): - for

• Malkin – in the penalty box for slashing

1st Goal For (Dupuis): + for

• Despres – feeds the puck up to Dupuis in the neutral zone
• Morrow – runs interference to let the puck get to Bortuzzo at the point
• Bortuzzo – takes a long shot from the point that creates a rebound
• Dupuis – dumps the puck in around the boards, eventually puts the rebound past Lundqvist

5th Goal Against (Clowe): - for

• Cooke – in the penalty box for tripping
• Sutter – doesn’t rotate down quickly enough to get a strong stick on Clowe

6th Goal Against (Moore): - for

• Vitale – loses a puck battle on the boards
• Cooke – doesn’t get out to his man at the point and deflects the puck on its way to Fleury
• (also a soft goal for Fleury to let up)

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet

Goal Assessment: Game 36 - Pens 2 Isles 0

Link to Game 36 Thoughts: The PensNation



+/- Assessment

1st Goal For (Cooke): + for

• Kennedy – wins the faceoff back to Engelland
• 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
• Neal – rips a shot past Nabokov

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet

Goal Assessment: Game 35 - Pens 4 Jets 0

Link to Game 35 Thoughts:  The PensNation

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
• Dupuis – fires a shot short-side to beat Montoya

Season +/-:  Click here for the Season +/- Spreadsheet