Will the streak continue?

The Penguins are undefeated at home in the playoffs this year, going 6-0 so far. They've won 14 straight games on home ice, dating to the regular season. Those streaks are on the line tonight in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final.

Penguins Center Maxime Talbot has been cleared to play, and Penguins coach Michel Therrein has announced he will return to the lineup for game 2. He declined to say who would sit in his place, but it will likely be either Gary Roberts or Adam Hall. It says here that Hall will be the one to sit because Roberts brings more of the physical elements necessary to a series against the Flyers. Also, keeping Roberts in the lineup allows Therrein to continue giving the Malkin the occasional extra shift with Roberts on the wing, something he has been doing the last few games, and particularly in game 1 of this series.

Also, the Flyers are going to insert physical winger Steve Downie in the lineup tonight on their 4th line, in place of useless winger Patrick Thoresen. The idea here is apparently to give the Flyers more energy and send Downie out there to bang some bodies. However, Philadelphia better hope he doesn't take stupid penalties because the Penguins power play is capable of inflicting damage. The Flyers were smart to limit the number of times they were in the box in game 1. That probably will be hard for them to maintain, regardless of whether Downie is in the lineup or not.

Much has been made of the need for the Flyers to take away the time and space of the Penguins superstars and get more traffic around Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in game 2. What hasn't been said is that the Penguins also have areas they need to improve in. They need to be more physical and puck-aware in their own zone, and are capable of generating more scoring chances. As mentioned above, if they manage to draw more penalties and get their power play going, Flyers goalie Martin Biron may end up wishing he was back in game 1.

It would be great for the Penguins to take a 2-0 lead into Philadelphia for game 3 on Tuesday night because the Flyers are going to have an intense crowd there.

It would be great to keep the streak going ...