Penguins v. Capitals: Round 2 Breakdown/Analysis

It's hard to not be excited about the NHL's second round marquee matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals.

There should be drama, emotion, and excitement to virtually every game.

Oh, and it just so happens that the world's 3 best hockey players will be sharing the same sheet of ice in this series for the better part of the next 10 or so days.

Naturally, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are going to draw a lot of the attention in this matchup, and rightfully so.

When you have the last 3 Art Ross trophy winners, likely the last 3 Hart Trophy winners as league MVP, and the Rocket Richard winner for the last 2 years running, there are bound to be fireworks on the ice. And that's before you even factor in the dislike factor among those star players.

And while there's certainly a significant chance that any of those three players can single-handedly lead their team to victory in any one game, the truth of the matter is that the other players on each of the two squads are likely to make the difference over the course of the entire series.

You know that all 3 are going to bring their "A" game, but who's going to step it up among the supporting cast?

That's going to be the key to the series.

Like I did with the Penguins' first series against the Flyers, I'm going to break down the matchup position-by-position, list my 3 players to watch on each team, talk about how each team can win the series, then offer my prediction.


FORWARDS

This won't require an extensive breakdown. Both offenses were among the best in the league this year, and we all know what Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin bring to the table. Crosby is the playmaker, Ovechkin is the shooter, and Malkin is probably the best 2-way player in the group, and he can score as well as he can feed the biscuit around. And while the Penguins might seem to have the edge because they have 2 players in that group, Washington has a couple other meaningful contributors in LW Alexander Semin and Center Nicklas Backstrom. Backstrom had 88 points this year and finished 3rd in the league in assists behind Malkin and Crosby, and Semin also scored at greater than a point-per-game clip in the regular season. On top of that, Semin tallied 8 points in round 1. He's a serious talent and wicked around the net with the puck.

Beyond that, there's a little bit of a drop off for Washington up front. Victor Kozlov and Sergei Federov are probably next in line among the players to watch for the Capitals, and then you get into their 2-way players on lines three and four. Washington has good role players here -- Brooks Laich, Thomas Fleischmann, and Matt Bradley among them. Laich, in particular, is someone to keep an eye on, and really more than just a role player for Washington. He had 23 goals in the regular season.

The Penguins run a little deeper than Washington down the middle because of Jordan Staal, but otherwise the Penguins are very similar to the Capitals up front. After the 2 stars, they have good complimentary options on the wings in LW Chris Kunitz and RW Bill Guerin. If they can get production from LW Ruslan Fedotenko, RW Tyler Kennedy and either of RW Miroslav Satan or RW Petr Sykora, they'll be difficult for the Capitals to contain. Guys like center Max Talbot, LW Pascal Dupuis and RW Craig Adams do as good a job on the 4th line as almost any in the league.

ADVANTAGE: Even


DEFENSEMEN

The Penguins trot out basically the same top 6 they've been running with since last season, and all of them form a capable and complementary group. Sergei Gonchar, one of the better two-way defenseman in the game, and Kris Letang lend offense, while Brooks Orpik and Hall Gill lend physicality. Rob Scuderi and Mark Eaton are the shot blockers and defensive stalwarts, although Eaton pitched in with 2 goals in the Flyer series and Scuderi also had a tally. They are a well-rounded experienced group, but are going to have to be on their toes defensively in their own zone beacuse of how dangerous Washington is up front.

The Capitals, meanwhile, lead from the backline with Norris Trophy nominee Mike Green, who was the first defenseman in over 15 years to score 30 goals from the blueline. He's clearly like a 4th forward out there and the Penguins will need to watch out for him. He struggled a bit early in the Capitals' first round series against the Rangers, but seems to be coming around. Defense isn't his strong point, so the Penguins will need to pressure him and be physical with him when he has the puck.

Behind him, the Capitals rely on a fairly pedestrian group. Tom Poti is often paired with Green. Poti has skill but also isn't terribly physical or the most reliable defensively. Behind him, Washington tries to get it done with the likes of Brian Pothier, Milan Jurcina, John Erksine and Shane Morrisonn. None are overly impressive, although Erksine is a battler. The Penguins should be able to take advantage of this group with their speed.

ADVANTAGE: Pittsburgh


POWER PLAY

The Penguins continue to underachieve on the power play, clicking at about 12% in their first round against Philadelphia. They have a ton of talent and sufficient personnel to be successful on the man advantage, but occasionally get too pretty with the puck and don't do enough dirty work to score. They need to get the puck to the net and work on causing havoc in front.

Washington finished 2nd overall in the league on the PP in the regular season, and it's obvious why. They have top end skill players and Green is like a 4th forward from the point. Another reason for their success is that, unlike the Penguins, they shoot the puck. Ovechkin had approximately 525 shots this year, only about 30 off the league's all-time record held by former Boston Bruins LW Phil Esposito. He knows how to get the puck to the net and does it from all angles at great speed. He will move around on the power play, and the Penguins will have to know where he is at all times.

ADVANTAGE: Washington


PENALTY KILLING

Washington was an average penalty killing unit, at best, during the regular season. Part of their problem is that they aren't as strong around the net defensively. They did a decent job against the Rangers in round 1, but that's terribly deceiving because New York had the worst power play in the league and is lacking in offensive talent. The Penguins will pose a lot more challenges to their PK unit.

Since Dan Bylsma took over the Penguins' ship, they have been one of the better penalty killing teams in the league, and they did a great job against a really good Philadelphia Flyers power play in the first round. They were excellent at getting their sticks in the lanes and blocking shots against the Flyers and will need to do the same thing again against Washington.

ADVANTAGE: Pittsburgh


GOALTENDING

This will be one of the more interesting areas to watch in this series.

Everyone knows what Marc-Andre Fleury is capable of doing. He led the team to the Stanley Cup Final last year and has picked up in this year's postseason playing just about as well as he did then. He made several spectacular saves in the first round against the Flyers and one could argue that he was directly responsible for 2 of their victories against Philadelphia.

Going into the post-season, I and many other people had fair question-marks about Washington's goaltending with Jose Theodore. True to form, Theodore had a bad first game in the Capitals' series-opening loss to the Rangers and Washington coach Bruce Boudreau made a gutsy call in sitting him after just one game and instead going with rookie and 2006 #1 draft pick Simeon Varlamov, who had only started 5 or 6 games in the regular season after a mid-year call up.

Varlamov did not disappoint. He took the helm and ran with it beginning in game 2, finishing with a 4-2 record, a 1.17 GAA and a .952 SV% in round 1. Clearly, he'll be Boudreau's guy unless he stumbles badly in this series. However, the Penguins are going to test him a lot more than the popgun Ranger offense did, and the fact remains that, even though he had a good first series, and even though the NHL has a history of goaltenders coming out of obscurity to have some success in the postseason (SEE: HEDBERG, JOHAN ... aka, THE MOOSE, circa 2001), Varlamov can still be considered raw. He'll need to show he can handle traffic and deal with the Penguins' skilled offensive players. Until he actually does it, there's going to be a question mark there.

ADVANTAGE: Pittsburgh.


COACHING

Dan Bylsma, now Pittsburgh's "permanent" head coach, did a good job in his first career playoff series in round 1 against Philadelphia. Boudreau only has one more series in the NHL under his belt (a loss last year in round 1 against the Flyers), so he's not infinitely more experienced than
Bylsma. Boudreau also has a different, more loud personality. He's more likely to make comments to the media, either trying to inflame the other team and it's players, be critical of the officials, etc. Bylsma is more focused on the task at hand. But that doesn't mean Boudreau is at any disadvantage. He's well-liked by his players and they respond to his style and his system. It will be interesting to watch this series and see how the coaches play it tactically.

ADVANTAGE: Even


INTANGIBLES

This is probably going to be brought up a lot in this series, so there's no reason to hold back on it now.

The Penguins have owned the Capitals in their playoff history. They've played 7 series' and the Penguins have won 6 of those. The only one Washington prevailed in was in 1994. During the Penguins' dominance over the Caps' in the post-season, there have been amazing victories (the 1992 4 OT win on a goal by Petr Nedved in 'The Pajama Game'), and more than one comeback. You've probably heard the statistic this year that there have been only 20 or so comebacks from a 3-games-to-1 series deficit in the history of the league. Well, the Penguins are responsible for 2 of those, and in each case, the Capitals were the victim.

The Penguins also have fared quite well against Washington in the Ovechkin/Crosby era, with the Penguins winning 11 of 15 games overall. That said, as I pointed out yesterday in this space, the Penguins struggled against Washington this season, losing 3 of 4 games. It's worth noting, however, that all of their losses were under former coach Michel Therrein and that their victory was under Bylsma and his aggressive, skating style -- something the Capitals may not have been used to seeing from the Penguins.

The Capitals do have home ice in this series, and that's also worth something at this time of year. But only if the series goes 7 games.

Foreshadowing here boys and girls.

ADVANTAGE: Pittsburgh


PLAYERS TO WATCH

WASHINGTON:

1) Alexander Ovechkin, RW: He'd be the #1 person on this list in any series, for obvious reasons. I certainly don't need to talk about his offensive pedigree, but what will be curious is to see how he handles the 'rivalry' he has against Crosby and, perhaps now to a lesser degree, his countryman, Malkin. Ovechkin has a history of running around a little bit against the Penguins and not focusing on his game. Crosby and Malkin haven't allowed any of the "distractions" he and the Capitals have tried to lay at their feet affect them. If Ovechkin does the same thing again in this series, it could be trouble.

2) Alexander Semin, RW: Semin is extremely dangerous. He has some of the best hands in the game and a rocket shot. He scored a goal in round 1 against the Rangers by taking a puck at the top of the circle off a cleanly-won faceoff and, in the blink of an eye, whizzed a wrister to the far top corner behind New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist, who had about .1 seconds to react and, obviously, failed to do so. That's just one example of Semin's great skill. The Penguins would be wise to play him physically and see how he responds.

3) Mike Green, D: Green is a guy who can make the difference in any series because he's as much like former Penguin Paul Coffey as any defenseman who has come into the league since. You always have to watch him trailing the play. Unfortunately for Washington, he also can make the difference in a series defensively, and not in a good way. If he's not caught pinching offensively, he can be worked over down low in the defensive zone. Green is not a Norris Trophy candidate because of his defense. There are holes in his game.

PENGUINS:

1) Sidney Crosby, C: Everyone knows that Crosby will step up on the big stage in this series. His intensity, focus and desire to win is unmatched in this league and I personally can't wait to see how he does in this series. He won't be affected by the publicity the series will get and, in fact, it will likely only drive him to play even harder because his will to succeed is so great. He'll want to show everyone that, when the series is over, he's the Captain who will have led his team to the next round.

2) Ruslan Fedotenko, LW: Fedotenko scored a huge goal for the Penguins to start their comeback from a 3-0 hole in game 6 of the opening round against the Flyers and it looks as if the Russian Tank may be starting to find his game. He's a noted playoff performer and with the current revolving door on Malkin's RW, the Penguins need Fedotenko to play well in this series. He has to get in on the forecheck, create turnovers and then capitalize when he gets close to the goal. If he has a big series, the Penguins' chances of winning will be improved immensely.

3) Marc-Andre Fleury, G: Fleury was strong in round 1 against a good Philadelphia offense and he's going to have to be just as good in round 2 against Washington if the Penguins are going to prevail. He will need to have his head on swivel at all times to know where #8 of the Capitals is, and he's going to have to be strong with the glove hand against Washington's sharpshooters, because many of them (Semin, Kozlov, Federov, among them) all like to shoot there.


HOW THE CAPITALS CAN WIN

If their defense holds up in their own zone, if they get another strong performance from Varlamov, and if they find a way to get enough scoring from their complementary offensive players, Washington will stand a great chance of reversing some of their franchise's tortured playoff history against Pittsburgh.


HOW THE PENGUINS CAN WIN

If the Penguins are physical against Washington, continue to get dominant play from their third line, and have Crosby and Malkin shine on the NHL's dream stage, the playoff gorilla they have on the backs of the Capitals will likely weigh much heavier 2 weeks from now.


PREDICTION

As I said at the oustet of this piece, the star players in this series may, essentially, cancel each other out, leaving the support players and goaltenders to win the series. The Penguins certainly have the better goaltender, and as a team, they are already pressure-tested. Washington is not. Don't discount that, especially with the additional hype that this particular matchup provides. I expect a great series, but the Penguins will continue their postseason dominance over Washington on their way to the Eastern Conference Finals for the 2nd straight season.

PENGUINS IN SIX

World War III: Penguins Draw Capitals In Round 2

It's what I wanted.

It's what most partisans of the two teams would have wanted.

It's certainly what the NHL has been waiting for and dreaming of the last several seasons.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins will face off against Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in a Stanley Cup Playoff series.

The Penguins' drew the Capitals last night when Washington prevailed in game 7 over the New York Rangers, winning 2-1 with a Sergei Federov goal with about 4 and 1/2 minutes to play, while the Carolina Hurricanes overcame a 3-2 deficit in their game 7 against the New Jersey Devils by scoring 2 goals in the final 80 seconds of the third period to win, 4-3 and advance to play the Boston Bruins.

The Pens'/Caps' series begins Saturday at 1 PM at the Verizon Center. The NHL is wasting no time showcasing these two squads, nationally televising that game on NBC.

Game 2 is Monday in Washington, while games 3 and 4 are Wednesday, 5-6 and Friday, 5-8, respectively, at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.

If necessary, game 5 is on a back-t0-back day, Saturday, 5-9, in Washington at 7 PM, while game 6 would be Monday, 5-11 at Mellon Arena and game 7 would be Wednesday, 5-13 back at the Verizon Center.

I can't wait for this series. It's full of storylines, rivalry and star power.

First, you have Ovechkin's history with Malkin. Although that seems to have dissipated, don't underestimate the inner drive that both of these countreymen will have to play better than the other.

Then, you have the recent "feud" between Ovechkin and Crosby, stemming from comments made by Ovechkin about the way Crosby acts on the ice.

Of course, who could forget the comment Capitals' forward Alexander Semin made about Crosby earlier in the year when he said that Crosby was "nothing special".

It should be a hell of a matchup with a ton of emotion on both sides.

The Penguins have owned the Capitals in the playoffs over the years, but had trouble with the Capitals in the regular season this year, losing 3 of 4 games, although all of the losses came with former coach Michel Therein behind the bench, while the win came with new "permanent" head coach Dan Bylsma there.

I will post a detailed series preview tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens'

Penguins Remove Interim Tag From Bylsma; Sign Him To 3-Year Contract

Today, Penguins Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero formally did what many Penguin fans knew only was a matter of time.

He removed the 'interim' tag from coach Dan Bylsma and made him the permanent head coach for next season by signing him to a 3-year contract.

With the Penguins finishing the regular season 18-3-4 under Bylsma, and after knocking off the tough Philadelphia Flyers in round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Bylsma was going to be given the coaching gig permanently. It was more a matter of when that was going to be announced.

Shero ended any and all suspense in this regard today, saying that Bylsma made his decision "easy", and frankly, he did.

Bylsma has done a fantastic job since stepping behind the bench and it would have been difficult for Shero to decide to go in a different direction at this point. Bylsma's done nothing to indicate he isn't ready for the job and, more to the point, has earned the right to stick around.

Dan the Man has proven to be a good motivator, a good X's and O's coach and, with the recent decision to bench respected veteran Petr Sykora after a long string of poor play, a guy who isn't afraid to make the tough decision. Other than just plain experience, and potentially the question of how well he'll handle true adversity, the issue of whether Bylsma may be too much of a "player's coach" was just about the only doubt remaining about him. After deciding to sit Sykora, that's no longer an issue. At this point, it's just about Bylsma growing with the team.

That's something Shero was looking for, and it clearly looks like he has his man.

3 Things The Penguins Must Do Better In Round Two

As the Penguins still await the identity of their second round opponent in these 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, I thought the time was ideal for a short post on what it is the Boys of Winter need to do better in the next round.

Before I get to that, however, there's one additional thing I need to get off my chest about the Penguins/Flyers series.

Kimmo Timonen.

The fans and many in NHL media circles treat this guy as a Norris Trophy Candidate. NBC's coverage personnel -- particularly analyst Pierre McGuire -- praises him at every opportunity.

Last year, in the Eastern Conference Finals between the Penguins and Flyers, all the talk was about how disadvantaged the Flyers were after Timonen developed a blood clot in his leg and missed just about the entire series. The same was said, although to a lesser degree, after defenseman Braydon Coburn took a puck in the face early in the series and missed several games.

Having both of those guys -- especially a two-way stud like Timonen -- in the lineup would have made the difference for the Flyers, everyone said.

How much of a difference did Timonen make this year?

Oh, he made a difference all right.

He was one of the bigger reasons why Philadelphia lost to Pittsburgh.

Timonen was mostly a non-factor in round 1. He had a single assist in the entire six game series.

With all the skilled forwards the Flyers have, one would have thought he could put up more on the board than that.

On top of his sole helper, he was a minus 3 in the series.

So much for his strong two-way play.

Maybe now people will step back and realize that, while he's probably an above-average defenseman with decent two-way skill, Timonen is simply not a #1 defenseman in this league. He's arguably not even a #2, because he doesn't have the size or strength to be a physical force.

I'd like to smack McGuire in his bald head every time he opens up his mouth about Timonen. What he should have done in game 6 was talk about how poorly Timonen played. Maybe he would have except for the fact that, oh yeah, they're giving Darren Pang some screen time now.

Sharpen up the analysis Pierre.

ANYWAY, let's look forward to round 2, shall we?

Here are 3 things the Penguins must improve on in the next round if they want to improve their chances of advancing, regardless of who their opponent is:

1) THE POWER PLAY

The Penguins were a pedestrian 4 for 32 against the Flyers, which works out to about 12%. Not only is that worse than they were under interim coach Dan Bylsma in the regular season, it's worse than their ineffective man-advantage for most of the season under former coach Michel Therrein. More importantly, it's just not good enough. At some point, you will need your power play to win you some games in the post-season. The Penguins were good against Philadelphia early in their round 1 series and arguably won game 2 because of it, but they went cold after that, going just 1-for-19 in the last 4 contests. They can't continually perform at an overall 1-for-8 pace and expect to win.

Pittsburgh still isn't shooting enough, generating enough traffic or working hard enough for the dirty goals on the man-advantage. They aren't making things miserable on the opponent's netminder in front of the crease, either. All of that needs to change in round 2; otherwise, whoever they play is going to continually take liberties in slowing them down at even strength without a fear of being burned on the power play.

2) FOCUS AND INTENSITY

As I have indicated in this space on several occasions, the Penguins were outplayed by the Flyers for meaningful stretches in round 1. Although it's fair to say that Pittsburgh played better in games 1 and 6, I also think it's fair to say that Philadelphia was the better squad in games 2-5. The Penguins managed to win the series because they snatched two of those games -- games 2 and 4 -- even though they probably didn't deserve to win them. Don't get me wrong. Good teams do that. But that's a trend the Penguins should probably look to reverse. And quickly.

The Penguins' overall play in round 1 was not up to the same level it was in their final 25 regular season games under Bylsma. They had lapses in concentration, particularly in their own zone, and struggled at times to clear the puck. They need to be sharper with their coverages and maintain their mental focus without straying from the game plan for large stretches at a time. You simply can't afford those lapses on a consistent basis and expect to win. Simply put, the Penguins need to up their intensity level and bring it more regularly.

3) SUPPLEMENTAL SCORING

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby current sit 1 and 2 among the playoff scoring leaders with 9 and 8 points, respectively, and there's no question that they led the way for Pittsburgh in the first round. But the Penguins are going to need more support from their other forwards if they're going to continue to make noise in the post-season.

They did get some support. RW Bill Guerin and RW Tyler Kennedy contributed, for example, with 2 goals each. However, Guerin's goals were both in the same game, and he only added 1 helper in the other 5 games. And the Penguins didn't get meaningful scoresheet contributions from several other players that need to step up in round 2.

Mainly, I'm talking about guys like, LW Chris Kunitz, LW Ruslan Fedotenko, LW Matt Cooke and even center Jordan Staal. Kunitz is the main guy that has to lend a hand. He doesn't have the greatest history of being a goal-scorer in the postseason (1 goal in his last 20+ games) and that has to change if Crosby's line is going to be an impact at even-strength. While he contributed physically in round 1 and the Penguins will continue to need that from him, he has to get on the board occasionally, too. The checking is tighter in the playoffs and Kunitz has to find a way to break through that and score.

Fedotenko's production also will be critical because it doesn't appear that Malkin is going to get any help from the right side of his line anytime soon, whether Petr Sykora gets back in the lineup, or whether Miroslav Satan or even Pascal Dupuis or Max Talbot gets time there. Fedotenko scored his first goal of round 1, finally, in game 6. It was his first playoff goal since scoring the Stanley Cup winning tally in game 7 of the finals in 2004 as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He needs to keep driving to the net and working the corners for Malkin to be successful out there.

It also would be nice if Staal put a few in, but I'm not going to be that critical of him because he had a strong first round overall. In fact, his line may have been the best and most consistent one the Penguins trotted out all series. He and linemates Kennedy and Matt Cooke frequently maintained the puck and generated good scoring chances. Kennedy managed to get the 2 goals that line generated in round 1, but if they keep doing what they're doing, Staal will get a few. Cooke, too. Cooke doesn't need to score a lot, but it would be nice to see him pop on, help the team, and get rewarded for his great work out there on the ice.

Those are the 3 things most pressing for the Penguins to improve upon in round 2.

After tonight's two 7th games involving the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals, and the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes, we'll finally know who the Penguins will match up against.

Once that happens, I'll be able to get up a series preview -- likely Thursday morning.

Let's Go Pens.

Penguins/Flyers Series' Recap: Why The Penguins Won

After the Pittsburgh Penguins' celebrated into the night following their 5-3 game six and 4-2 series victories over the Philadelphia Flyers' on Saturday, leaving their fans with their mouths open in shock and with their heads in their hands in disbelief and disgust (SEE ABOVE), the team will have several days to recuperate, reflect on the series, and get ready for their next opponent.



They may have a little more rest than usual, for 2 reasons. First, their series against the Flyers was about the only one in the league to be on a consistent every-other-day schedule. They played 6 games in 11 days and didn't get a single 2-day break throughout. In part because of that, other teams are still playing.



Also, there are 2 other series' in the East which will go 7 games -- the Washington Capitals/New York Rangers series, and the Carolina Hurricanes/New Jersey Devils series. The Carolina/New Jersey series doesn't finish until tomorrow night, with the end result being that the 2nd round probably won't begin for the Penguins until Thursday. The Penguins won't even know their opponent for sure until tomorrow, although the list of potential victims will be reduced somewhat depending on what happens in game 7 between the Rangers and Capitals tonight.



The Penguins need the rest they're going to get, because they were seriously tested by the Flyers this year, unlike any Eastern Conference playoff series they had on their way to the Stanley Cup Final last season. First round series' are often among the most difficult, and the Pens' 6-game triumph over Philadelphia was no exception. That should harden them somewhat for further challenges they are likely to face.



The biggest reason why the Penguins prevailed over Philadelphia, despite being outplayed by the Flyers for at least half the series, was their star power.





Centers Sidney Crosby (8) and Evgeni Malkin (9) combined for 17 points in the six games, while the Flyers top 2 centers and big guns Mike Richards (6) and Jeff Carter (1) combined for only 7 points.


After scoring 46 goals to finish 2nd overall in the league in goals during the regular season, Carter only potted 1 in this series. He finished the round more known for the goal he didn't score -- the one that Fleury just robbed him on with 8 minutes to go in the 3rd period of a game 2 the Penguins' were down in and ultimately came back to win in OT -- than the one he did.

Richards was a decent player in the series, especially with how physical he played, but he didn't shut Crosby down -- or even come close to it. His line was minus 4 in the series, which isn't all that becoming of a guy who is counted on to center a shut-down unit.

Fleury also was another big reason why the Penguins' won. He doesn't have the statistics that some other goalies in the playoff field -- like Jonas Hillier in Anaheim or Simeon Varlamov in Washington -- have, but there's no disputing that he played a direct, if not leading, role in the Penguins' victories in game 2 and game 4.

His counterpart in the opening round, Martin Biron, didn't play poorly. In fact, he probably was solid enough overall throughout the series for his team to win, but he didn't steal a game like Fleury did in game 4. Even in game 5, when Biron shutout the Penguins, he didn't single-handedly win the contest for Philadelphia. Then, in game 6, with his team up 3-0, he came up lame when his team needed him most. It looked like he couldn't stop a beach ball in the 2nd period.

Another area the Penguins' excelled in against the Flyers was in the face-off circle.

Pittsburgh controlled almost 56% of the draws in the series, which leads the playoffs so far, and Crosby led the way with about 63%. Jordal Staal -- who had an excellent series overall -- won about 57%.

That's just difficult to match up against.

Philadelphia also had problems throughout the series with their in-game focus. For Flyer followers, that's nothing new. They'll tell you that has been going on all season.

But it really hurt them in the playoff series. If it wasn't the penalties in games 1 and 2, it was blowing the big lead in game 6. You simply can't have lapses like that and expect to win, especially against a team like the Penguins that can make you pay.

Here's a few excellent post-series articles about game 6 as well as the rivalry between Pittsburgh/Philadelphia going foward:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4100195

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/43707657.html

Clearly, the Penguins' can gain a lot from their victory over Philadelphia.

According to those in Philadelphia, so can the Flyers:

Nightmares.

Of the team that consistently reinforces a single theme:

BROTHERLY LOVE: Penguins Win Game Six, 5-3; Send Flyers To Golf Course With 4-2 Series Victory

Come on, admit it.

You were worried.

I know I was concerned.

The Pittsburgh Penguins hadn't played the leading role as the better team of their round 1 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the Philadelphia Flyers since the first game last Wednesday, April 14.

They had lost 2 of the last 3 and the victory they did get was only possible due to the heroics of their goaltender.

It was more than reasonable to think that, in front of a raucous Flyer crowd at the Wachovia Center yesterday afternoon in the teams' nationally televised game six, Philadelphia was likely to extend the series to 7 games with all the momentum.

That especially looked true after the Flyers took a 3-0 lead in the game early in the 2nd period.

Then, their season effectively ended.

The Penguins scored 5 unanswered goals the rest of the way in route to a 5-3 victory, a 4-2 series' triumph, and the first leg of their 4-leg "race" -- quoting interim head coach Dan Bylsma.

Mike Knuble, Joffrey Lupul and Daniel Briere put the Penguins in a big hole early in game 6 with their 3 goals and, at that point, the Flyers had to be feeling particularly good about themselves, especially since those three players hadn't really contributed in any meaningful way offensively in the series for the Flyers up to that point.

I can just imagine the fans in the building then:

"We're dominating them! We're going to cruise today, go back to Pittsburgh and pull this off!"

Not quite.

About 15 seconds after Briere's goal, Penguins' center Max Talbot convinced Flyers' tough-guy Daniel Carcillo to make the mistake of dropping the gloves.

Not because Talbot was a real threat to Carcillo's well-being.

In fact, it's more than fair to give Carcillo the victory in the bout he had with Mad Max.

But because, with the Flyers already leading 3-0, there was little Carcillo had to gain by fighting Talbot. In fact, he -- and his team -- had everything to lose if it provided the Penguins just a little bit of something they hadn't had all game up to that point.

A spark.

And that's exactly what the fight did for the Boys of Winter.

About 15 seconds after that, Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin swooped behind the net with the puck before coming out and tossing it on goal. Flyers' netminder Martin Biron stopped Malkin's effort but could not control the loose puck and Pens' LW Ruslan Fedotenko pushed it over the goal line at the 4 minute mark of the second period to begin the Penguins' quest to come back from the brink.

2 minutes later, the Penguins' steamed up ice on a 3-on-1 and, after RW Tyler Kennedy blasted one to the net from about 35 feet, defenseman Mark Eaton of all people, being the 3rd guy on the rush and coming down the slot, got the rebound and whacked it out of mid-air past Biron to put the Penguins' back in the game at 3-2.

Sidney Crosby scored a similar goal with 3 minutes left in the 2nd frame. RW Bill Guerin shot the puck at Biron from an odd angle along the near boards, but the puck never made its way there -- at least not the way it was intended to. It hit defenseman Kimmo Timonen's stick along the way and popped up in the air on its way towards Biron.

Biron tried to backhand it with his glove, but bobbled it and Crosby, after having circled behind the net, was right there to bat it in and tie the score.

The Penguins finished with 20 shots in that second period.

At that point, I bet the crowd was thinking only one thing:

"F-!"

So, with the collective balls of the Flyer faithful in their collective throats, the Penguins went into the 3rd period and did a good job of keeping their foot on the gas for most of the frame.

Pens' Defenseman Sergei Gonchar scored his first goal of the series about 5 minutes in, taking a drop pass from Malkin and drilling one past Biron from just above the right circle to comeplete their comeback and give Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead.

The Penguins didn't sit back altogether after that and maintained their pressure for a lot of the 3rd period, although the Flyers had a few decent chances -- one on a scramble around the net where Fleury was out of position but the Penguins' blocked about 3 shots by the Flyers trying to slam it home.

They also hit the post a few minutes after that.

Then, near the very end when it became apparent with about 2/3 minutes to go that it was time to just slam the door, the Penguins held the fort sucessfully until they sprung a chance for an empty netter with Biron pulled and about 30 seconds to go.

Guess who got the chance?

Philadelphia's favorite son -- #87.

After being bothered enough by a backcheck that he only was able to hit the side of the net with his effort from about 10 feet, he calmly gloved the puck off the side of the cage, took it behind the goal, circled out in front and tossed a backhander into the vacant 4 X 6 to cue the Flyers to schedule their tee time and cue their fans to hate the Penguins -- and Crosby -- even more.

With their 5-3 victory, the Penguins won the series' 4 games to 2 and made sure that Philadelphia not only lost their 2nd straight playoff series to Pittsburgh, but also to make certain that their franchise is now 0-14 in series' during which they go down 3 games to 1.

It also made the Penguins' just the 2nd team in the last 13 years -- and the first since the Dallas Stars did it in 2002 -- to win a single playoff round the year after losing the Stanley Cup Final.

Now the Penguins will get to rest for about 4/5 days -- which actually should be a nice period of recuperation for them -- before beginning the second round against a team to-be-determined. It's likely to be the winner of the New Jersey Devils/Carolina Hurricanes' series, but could still be the Washington Capitals or even the Boston Bruins.

Regardless, the Penguins' can bask in their series' victory over their arch-rivals -- a satisfying result to the opening round of their chase for The Holy Grail.

More tomorrow.

Who Will Man-Up For The Penguins In Game 6?

Going into today's nationally televised game 6 against the Philadlephia Flyers in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series (3 PM EST), the Pittsburgh Penguins have only received goals from 5 forwards in this series:

Of course, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are on that list.

Bill Guerin and Tyler Kennedy, too.

Max Talbot has managed an empty net tally.

And, like Bugs Bunny said, that's all folks.

Which means that the Penguins would be well served to get scoring from some other guys on their roster if they have a desire to finish off the Flyers now and avoid an anything-can-happen game 7 on Monday at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins were tied for 4th in the NHL in goals scored this year. They need contributions on the scoresheet from guys like Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz, Ruslan Fedotenko and even Matt Cooke or Pascal Dupius.

Those players have contributed in other ways, but they need to put pucks in if Pittsburgh is going to stand the best chance to move on.

The Flyers have gotten a handful of goals from their 4th liners in this series -- Daniel Carcillo, Darrell Powe, etc. -- and the Penguins need to match that.

Perhaps if the Penguins skate more aggressively today and get back to their game, they'll make Biron forget about his game 5 shutout.

They also need to be strong and smart in their own zone defensively around goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

It's not going to be easy, of course. The Flyer crowd at the Wachovia Center is likely to be more rowdy than usual, and will give Philadelphia a lot of energy.

But the Penguins are a good club. They haven't lost 2 consecutive games in regulation since Dan Bylsma took over as coach. And they are 8-7 in their last 15 in Philadelphia, which means they can handle the hostile venue.

And in the end, they have 2 of the best 3 players in the game, either one of which is capable of single-handedly leading them to victory, regardless of whether they get contributions from others.

The Flyers have played the better hockey in this series, but given multiple chances to close out any series, I'll still take my chances with our boys. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they came out real strong today and ended the Flyers' season right on their own home ice.

Recap sometime post-game.

NOTES:

RW Petr Sykora is again expected to be a scratch for the Penguins in game 6, but Bylsma was non-committal on whether D Kris Letang would be back in the lineup, or even whether RW Miroslav Satan would continue to play in Sykora's place. If Satan doesn't go, expect RW Eric Godard to make his first appearance of the series.

For the first time in 8 years, the Flyers will not have Lauren Hart in their arena live to sing God Bless America before the game. She will be out of the country adopting a child. The Flyers will play a tape of her and clips of former singer Kate Smith doing the song.

The first sign of MoJo for the Penguins?

Flyers Force Game 6 as Penguins Get Whitewashed, 3-0

Is anyone else as concerned as I am?

Admittedly, I don't feel panic. But I'm not feeling at all comfortable with the way the Penguins are playing.

Prior to last night's game 5 of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, I and everyone else in Penguin land felt it was important that the Penguins finish off the Flyers, so as to give themselves some recovery time before another round of grueling Stanley Cup playoff hockey.

I also felt it was critical because the Flyers have played the better hockey in this series overall, and I wanted the Penguins to stomp on their throats before they continue to believe more and more that they might win.

Last night's 3-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Flyers will give them exactly that confidence.

The Penguins just weren't good last night. They came up lame on thier home ice in a chance to send the Flyers packing and showed the complete opposite of the killer instinct they showed on so many occasions last season.

The title of this article from ESPN's Scott Burnside says it all about the Penguins' performance last night:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4094386

Sure, the Penguins were good in the first period last night. They outshot Philadelphia and had several good scoring chances. Centers Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, for example, were denied by a tall-looking Martin Biron in the Philadelphia goal, who held the fort well.

RW Tyler Kennedy had the best chance, cutting off a pass from behind the net Biron thought was going to go all the way around to Staal, and missing on an open wraparound opportunity he should have buried. Unfortunately, TK just pulled up short trying to get it in.

Had Kennedy scored there, the game might have been different.

As it was, the Penguins' lost the wind from their sails in the last 2 periods, starting with RW Aaron Asham's goal on a 45-foot slapper that beat Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury about 7 minutes into the 2nd period to give Philadelphia the lead.

Pittsburgh thought they had tied the game just a few minutes later on a power play when a Sergei Gonchar rebound came off the back boards and went in off Malkin, but the play was reviewed and overturned --- correctly, I might add -- because Malkin clearly kicked the puck with his skate before it went in and didn't get a piece of it with his stick.

In the 3rd period, things took a turn for the worse for Pittsburgh.

Defenseman Philippe Boucher, inserted into the lineup in place of Kris Letang in an effort to boost the Penguins' power play, failed to clear the puck out of his zone and a Flyer shot caromed off something on the way to the goal right to Philadelphia center Claude Giroux for an easy goal and a 2-0 Flyers lead about 8 minutes in.

Boucher also contibuted to the Flyers' third goal about 5 minutes or so later when his turnover lead to a Philadlephia rush that ended with a 3-0 lead when Fleury kicked out a long rebound from a Scott Hartnell shot right to RW Mike Knuble who deposited the puck into another empty cage from about 30 feet.

Boucher was -2 on the night. Knuble's goal was the last entry on the scoresheet.

The Penguins as a whole just didn't have it in the final 40 minutes. The Flyers did a good job cutting off the Penguins' in the neutral zone and the Penguins didn't do a good job of attacking sufficiently with speed.

The Penguins had 15 shots in the first period, but only 13 in the final 2 periods combined.

Their 3rd line was strong for a lot of the game, but the Penguins need to start getting contributions on the scoresheet from certain players.

LW Chris Kunitz is one. He hasn't scored in this series and, while he's been a physical presence, he needs to contribute more offensively.

LW Ruslan Fedotenko is another guy who can contribute more.

Even Crosby's other winger, Bill Guerin, has been quiet since game 2, which coincidentally, is when the Flyers began playing better hockey in this series. They haven't looked back since, and anyone who thinks that Philadlephia hasn't played better overall than the Penguins despite now being in only a 3-2 hole hasn't been watching that closely or is a homer.

The Penguins' did themselves well to capitalize in overtime in game 2 to complete a comeback win, and to have Fleury steal game 4 for them, but their play over the entire course of this series has not been up to par.

So now, the Penguins have to go back to a hell of an atmosphere for game 6 in Philadelphia. The Penguins have done their share of winning there in recent years, going 8-7 in the last 15 contests in that building, but there's no doubt that they aren't making it easy on themselves. They'll need to play much better in game 6 there than they did in game 4 if they expect to win.

Another victory for Philadlephia in that one will only give the Flyers more momentum heading into a then anything-can-happen game 7 Monday at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.

Clearly that's a game the Penguins shouldn't want to play.

Clearly they should be well-motivated to up their game and finish off Philadelphia Saturday.

But they also should have had that same motivation to do the job last night at home.

In the 14 series' the Flyers' have been down 3 games to 1, including this one, they've now stretched the series to 6 games on 7 occasions. In only 3 of the prior 13 have they forced a 7th game, and haven't done it since the 1987 Stanley Cup Final, which they went on to lose.

Time will tell if Saturday afternoon's nationally televised contest ends up being the 4th.

Penguins Look To Eliminate Flyers in Game 5

In a "whiteout" tonight at Mellon Arena in game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal between the Penguins and Flyers (7 PM EST), Pittsburgh will look to eliminate their cross-state rivals for the second consecutive post-season.

The Penguins are 14-2 against Philadelphia at home, including the post-season, the last 2 years.

That statistic and a lot more make the road look long for the Flyers if they are going to get back into this series.

Even the Philadelphia writers aren't optimistic about their chances:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20090423_Phil_Sheridan__For_Flyers__standing_still_is_falling_behind.html

But if the Penguins are smart, they'll finish the job at hand tonight.

Pittsburgh was good last year at finishing off teams early. They swept their first round series against the Ottawa Senators in 4 games, and beat the New York Rangers in round 2 in only 5 contests.

Then came the 5 game victory against the Flyers.

In each of those series', the Penguins did a good job not giving the other team life. They did lose game 4 against the Rangers and Flyers, but had already run up 3-0 series' leads in each. Given a second chance against New York and Philadelphia in each game 5, the Penguins left no doubt, particularly in the 6-0 whitewashing of the Flyers in game 5 of the East Final.

Pittsburgh showed a good killer instinct then, which they need to show again. They don't want to give the Flyers any life. 3-1 is a nice series lead and, while the Flyers have never come back from a 3-1 deficit in 13 times in their team's history, the Penguins need to exercise the utmost caution not to let Philadelphia think this could be the year they do.

Some say a 2 goal lead in hockey is the worst one -- not enough in the clear, and comfortable enough to ease off the gas pedal.

The same is true of a 2 game lead in the playoffs, especially at 3-1, and especially in this series.

Why?

Let's face it. Philadelphia has played at least on even terms with the Penguins in this series, unlike last year. An argument can be made that they should at least be tied with the Penguins, 2-2, in this one, if not possibly ahead 3-1.

The Penguins won game 4 largely on goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's shoulders and if not for that contest, and the comeback overtime win in game 2, the entire tenor of the series could be different.

That's no secret in Philadelphia:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20090423_Flyers__They_re_in_a_different_kind_of_down.html

And that's another reason why the Penguins have to play their best game tonight.

Pittsburgh hasn't put out a strong 60-minute effort since game 1. If they don't tonight and the Flyers manage to capture game 5 and take the series back to a nasty Wachovia Center for game 6, Philadlephia will think they are right back in this series, and probably feel good about their chances of winning given how well they've played.

In other words, the Flyers certainly aren't as fragile as they have been.

If the Penguins get up on them early tonight, that could change, but the momentum is still there for the taking for the Flyers if the Penguins aren't careful.

To win game 5, the Penguins need to be more successful on the power play. RW Bill Guerin spoke yesterday of the need to move the puck around quicker. Pittsburgh definitely needs to do that, and they need to start hammering the puck on the goal more, too.

In addition to improving their man-advantage, I think the Penguins need to get better in the neutral zone cutting off the Flyers' attack. Their gap control between the defense and the forwards has slipped a bit the last few games.

Do those things and the Penguins' chances of winning game 5 will improve greatly.

I'll say this: The Penguins have done a good job of winning games multiple ways in this series. They have dominated a game, hung tough and came back to win a game in overtime, and had their goaltender steal a game. The diverse way they've been able to prevail is a good sign, because to get 16 victories and your name on the Stanley Cup, you need a little bit of everything.

But the Penguins would be well served by getting back to their game -- skating, being aggressive and being sharp defensively. If they start doing that consistently, they won't need to dip into their bag of tricks as frequently to win games in ways other than by being the best team with the best game each night.

Recap tomorrow. Let's hope the Penguins are staring at round 2.

Who Is That Masked Man? Fleury's 45 Saves Stone Flyers, Give Penguins 3-1 Victory and Series Lead By The Same Count

Going into game 4 of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers last night at the raucous Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, the Flyers had a lot of offensive confidence.

They put 5 pucks behind Marc-Andre Fleury (and an empty-netter) in game 3 Sunday afternoon to the tune of a 6-3 win.

They thought they had cracked Fleury, who had been pretty strong in games 1 and 2.

Last night, they threw everything and the kitchen sink at Fleury but the Penguins' goaltender was nearly impenetrable, stonewalling the Flyers at every turn to the tune of 45 saves on 46 shots, leading the Penguins to a 3-1 win and a commanding series advantage by the same tally.

Fleury was good from the drop of the puck last night. He swallowed up many shots entirely, and rarely left any rebounds for Philadelphia -- at least not any that weren't easily cleared by Pittsburgh's defense.

Overall, the Flyers outshot the Penguins 46-26.

Let's face it. Fleury is making a big difference for the Penguins in this series. His counterpart in Philadelphia's goal, Martin Biron, hasn't played poorly. But you don't see him standing on his head to single-handedly win a game for the Flyers either. That's why the Penguins had a clear edge in this series in goal going into things and, so far anyway, that has proven true on the ice.

Sidney Crosby got things going for the Penguins early in the 2nd period when he drove the net and had a Chris Kunitz' centering feed go off his stick and his body and in after Crosby had lost his balance and slid into the goal to the left of Biron.

After a review, the goal counted, despite some unhappiness from the Flyer faithful about Crosby making contact with Biron and causing him to slide into the net himself on the play.

The call was correct, however. The puck went in before any contact between Crosby and Biron.

RW Tyler Kennedy scored a huge goal about 4 minutes later, steaming towards the net and taking a pass from LW Matt Cooke at the inner edge of the right circle before deking to the backhand and easily depositing the puck behind Biron on the short side to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead.

At that point, the play was relatively even, but the Penguins began sitting on the lead and were pretty much unable to break that trend for the final 30 minutes. That's when the Flyers really turned up the heat.

And when Fleury was at his best.

The masked man wearing #29 for the Penguins made several strong pad saves low to the ice across his body, stopped with his glove a laser from Flyers' RW Simon Gagne in the slot, and even made a stop with a turnaround dive to the post before Philadelphia center Mike Richards could put the puck in on a rebound off the back boards.

It didn't matter what activity was going on in front of or around Fleury -- he was singularly focused on the puck.

The only shot that got by him was a top shelfer by Philadelphia LW Daniel Carcillo, who scored with about 9 minutes to go to give the Flyers some life.

No matter. Fleury held the fort the rest of the way and allowed Max Talbot to seal things with an empty netter with 50 seconds to go.

Fleury's save percentage is now .937 in the playoffs.

Kudos also go to Penguin penalty killers Max Talbot, Craig Adams, Pascal Dupuis, Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke who, together with the aid of the defense, blocked 20 shots and clogged enough passing lanes to shut down all 8 -- that's right, EIGHT -- Philadelphia power plays last night.

Obviously, that's way too many penalties for the Penguins to take. They are playing with fire giving that many chances to the league's 6th best man-advantage this year.

That said, a few of the calls last night were questionable, including a tripping call on Mark Eaton in the 3rd period that was a plain hip check in open ice.

Maybe the official who made that call was too young to even know what a hip check is?

With the victory, the Penguins can wrap up the series in 5 games on home ice -- as they did in last year's Eastern Conference Final.

They'd be wise to try and polish off the Flyers, both so they can get some rest, and so they don't need to go into a hostile environment again for game 6 on Saturday afternoon.

For what it's worth, Philadelphia is 0-13 in series' in which they've been down 3 games to 1.

Unless they can figure out a way to rattle Fleury again, it's going to be a tough road for them to climb.

The Flyers are trying to say the right things, of course. The talk from them now is that, if they play the way they did last night again, good things will happen.

But the chance of that happening again isn't that great. The Penguins have owned the Flyers on home ice the last few years. Certainly, a victory for them in game 5 isn't a given just because of that, but there's no doubt the Penguins are going to have a boost from their home crowd, and probably won't give the Flyers as many power plays.

They'll also have Fleury in goal.

As we've seen, that alone is enough to deliver a victory, and it could be again on the way to polishing off the hated Flyers.

More tomorrow.

Crashing The Home Ice Party In Game 4

The off-day buzz before game 4 of the Penguins/Flyers Eastern Conference Quarterfinal yesterday centered mostly around the Flyers whining over Penguins' LW Chris Kuntiz --- a player-to-watch mentioned on this page before this series started.

With his devastating hit against Flyers' defenseman Kimmo Timonen in game 3, all the Philadelphia Flyer writers could talk about was how cheap the hit was and how Kunitz should have been suspended. To wit:

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inqflyersreport/Penguins_Kunitz_going_unpunished_NHL_rulings_a_joke.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20090421_For_Flyers__Penguins__Kunitz_hit_still_in_their_heads.html

For whatever reason, these blind writers seem to think Kunitz's hit was a high elbow to the head.

They should actually take some time to look at the replay of the collison, because it was nothing of the sort.

Kunitz clearly held his shoulder in to his body when making contact and when following through. Timonen's problem is that he's only 5'10" and had his head down.

But make no mistake. The hit was clean. And that's why there was no disciplinary hearing with the league.

Philadelphia's players have kept the proper perspective -- understanding that the Penguins are going to try and be physical with their top players. All the Flyer writers and their fans should stop acting like babies about it.

On other on-ice matters, if the Penguins hope to be the first team to win a road game in this series, they need to maintain their focus on skating and being aggressive offensively. They also need to try and avoid the between-the-whistle scrums the Flyers enjoy and feed off of so much.

Those things are paramount for Pittsburgh this evening. They still have a big advantage in this series and can push the Flyers to the brink of elimination by going up 3 games to 1.

Good teams bounce back strong from a loss in the playoffs. There isn't time to sort our your play and get back on track over the course of 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 games. You have one bad game in the post-season, and you have to come out with your best effort the next night. That's what contenders do, and this will be the Penguins' first opportunity to demonstrate whether they fit in that category.

It also would be nice to see Petr Sykora get going. Sykora, too, had a lot of attention during yesterday's off day, although for all the wrong reasons. With only 2 goals in his last 20 games, he's doing nothing to help his linemate, Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin is doing a great job on his own, leading all playoff scorers with 4 goals and 7 points thusfar, but if Sykora was producing, Malkin would be that much more dangerous.

You may see Penguins' interim coach Dan Bylmsa spot a few other players on Malkin's wing throughout the course of the game tonight, like he did briefly in game 3 when he put 4th line center Max Talbot up on his wing late in the first period -- a shift which resulted in Malkin's goal after a big hit by Talbot to free up the puck.

I don't think that scenario would work long term, but it might help here or there.

It's also important for the Penguins' 3rd line, led by Jordan Staal, to bounce back. They were terrible defensively in game 3, and I don't expect that to happen again. It would be nice to see that line put one in tonight as well.

It's all still on the table for the Penguins tonight. If they get back to playing their game, I like their chances.

Recap tomorrow.

Flyers Turn Tables On Overwhelmed Penguins; Win Game Three 6-3, Cut Series' Deficit to 2-1

Hold off on that crash cart.

The Pittsburgh enguins had a great chance to virtually bury the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday afternoon in their nationally-televised game 3 clash.

Put the Flyers in a 3-0 hole, and the only question that would have remained is when this week the Flyers should set their tee time.

Insetad of pushing Philadelphia to the brink, the Penguins played their worst game of the series.

In falling 6-3 to the Flyers yesterday, Pittsburgh doesn't have to look too hard to figure out what cost them the game.

Missed defensive coverages.

An off-day by their goaltender.

A killer shorthanded goal.

All of those things and more contributed to the latest chapter in what now, with Philadelphia's victory, is a true series.

The Penguins did a great job from the drop of the puck for the first few minutes. They outhit Philadelphia early and didn't allow the crowd to give the Flyers any momentum.

At the 3 minute mark, that went out the window.

The Flyers rushed into the Penguins zone on a 4-on-3 that quickly ended up with Flyers' leading goal-scorer Jeff Carter toe dragging the puck around RW Bill Guerin and driving hard down the slot all alone. Pittsburgh defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who had been preoccupied trying to cover Philadelphia LW Scott Hartnell, dropped off of him and went down a bit right in front of -- and just momentarily obsuring the view of -- Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. That gave Carter the half second he needed to deke to the backhand at full speed before Fleury could stay with him and bury it on the Flyers' first shot of the game to give the Flyers an early 1-0 lead and get the crowd rocking.

About 2 minutes later, Flyers' center and Captain Mike Richards upped the Philadelphia lead to 2-0 on the power play by throwing thier second shot at a bad angle off of something and through Fleury's legs from just above the goal line on the far boards. I still don't know what the puck hit because of NBC's decision to show that power play from their high-up, end-of-the-rink cam, and the replays don't clearly show what the puck hit either. It may have been Pens' defenseman Hal Gill. Whatever it hit, it wasn't a Flyer, because Richards got credit for the goal.

Just 90 seconds later, Pens' LW Chris Kuntiz steamrolled Flyer' defenseman Kimmo Timonen who was coming around from behind his own net and had his head down with a highlight reel -- but clearly clean -- hit. That blow was not unlike the kind that former Penguin' RW Colby Armstrong liked to make on the forecheck. In the fracas that obviously ensued afterwards at the Flyers' initiation, the Penguins got no man-advantage, despite two cross-checks on Kunitz from Philadelphia defenseman Ryan Parent right after the hit, and then several whacks on him from Hartnell as they skated up the ice before the two of them threw down.

No doubt -- some home-cooking for Philadelphia there.

After that, the Penguins' settled down a bit and, while it looked like they were going to go into the intermission with a 2-0 deficit, Evgeni Malkin halved the Flyers' lead when he took a pass at the far circle from LW Ruslan Fedotenko in the opposite corner and wristed the puck between Philadelphia goaltender Martin Biron's legs for the first Penguin goal 13 seconds before the frame expired.

Penguins' Center Max Talbot made the play happen by making a big hit on the forecheck that freed up the puck for Fedotenko to make the pass.

Malkin's tally had to be a huge boost for Pittsbugh going into the locker room because they came out for the 2nd period and tied the game about 12 seconds in on a point shot from defenseman Rob Scuderi.

That was Scuderi's first career playoff goal, with Crosby and Kunitz assisting.

At this point, it looked like the Penguins had the Flyers where they wanted them.

They withstood the early rush of momentum and had successfully stemmed the tide. If they could have locked into their game at that point, this story may have been written differently.

Instead, the Penguins' picked a bad time to have easily their 2 biggest lapses of the series in a 4 minute span.

The first time it happened was when the Flyers were heading into the Penguins' zone on a 3-on-3 rush that Pittsburgh had covered all the way up the ice. Flyers' LW Darrell Powe carried the puck into the zone and shot the puck on goal. Fleury kicked out the rebound about 5/10 feet in the direction of Flyers' RW Daniel Briere.

Briere was covered by Penguins' defenseman Brooks Orpik but for some reason Pens' center Jordan Staal, who had been following Flyers' center Claude Giroux all the way up the ice, decided to go in that direction too -- likely thinking he could get to the puck.

Unfortunately, that was the wrong decision.

Briere beat Staal (and Orpik) to the biscuit and did the only thing he could have with it, which was feed the wide open Giroux for an easy empty-netter behind Fleury.

Staal was obviously trying to do too much, and he knew he made a bad decision there because he slammed his stick on the boards behind Fleury in disgust when he saw that it was his man -- Giroux -- who scored the goal.

That goal wasn't nearly as bad for the Penguins as what happened when the Penguins' were on a power play at nearly the 8 minute mark, and Giroux again was at the center of the play for Phialdelphia.

Giroux, while on the forecheck, put a hit on Gonchar behidn the Penguin goal and took the puck away. Pens' defenseman Kris Letang arrived on the scene next and since Giroux didn't have any immediate help, the play looked innocuous enough.

Then Gonchar and Letang eased up a bit and gave Giroux a chance to circle back behind the net wtih Letang chasing, fool Gonchar -- who had stopped at the other side of the goal -- just enough with the direction he was going with the puck, and find Philadelphia RW Simon Gagne steaming towards the Penguins net with a pass for another easy goal behind Fleury.

The fact is, that pass should have never gotten through in the first place. If Gonchar didn't seal it off, Fleury should have cut it off with his stick. It sure went close enough to him to do that.

With that shorthanded tally, the Flyer crowd went nuts. Philadelphia led the league in shorthanded goals this season and it probably was only a matter of time before they scored one in this series, but the way they did it this time was inexcusable for Pittsburgh -- in my opinion.

The period finished with the Flyers leading 4-2 and things didn't get better for the Penguins to start the 3rd period when Philadelphia rookie Jared Ross scored by squeezing the puck under Fleury's arm on a rebound after being basically left alone by 3 Penguin players.

That goal upped the Philadelphia lead to 5-2 and pretty much gave the Flyers control of the game for good.

Malkin scored again on a power play at the 8 minute mark to give the Penguins' another pulse, and they had a few chances again the rest of the way -- including one by RW Petr Sykora, who also had a good chance eariler in the game but continued to come up snakebitten -- but couldn't finish, and Gagne sealed the game with an empty net goal to make the final 6-3 Philadelphia.

The Penguins' were outhit by Philadelphia for the first time in the series, 29-18. Biron stopped 26 of 29 shots in the victory, while Fleury stopped only 25 of 30 shots for the Penguins.

For the Flyers, they had to be happy to see their big guns, Carter and Richards, start scoring. Their 3rd and 4th lines outplayed those of the Penguins in this one, too. Staal was -3 in the game.

Another big factor in the Penguin loss was a power play that came up just 1-for-7. Pittsburgh has to do better with its man-advantage if it wants to get back on track in this series.

The tough part in this one for the Penguins is that Philadelphia didn't play the greatest defensive game. In other words, I think they were there for the taking in this one, despite the support they had from being at home in front of their own crowd. Unfortunately, the Penguins couldn't take advantage of that and made more mistakes of their own.

Clearly, the Penguins' were not on top of their game yesterday. Pens' radio color man Phil Bourque said after the game that the score wasn't indicative of the play. I disagree. Pittsburgh wasn't good out there with the puck and they were extremely sloppy with their coverages. Do that to a good scoring team like the Flyers and you're going to get burned.

One thing is for sure -- the Penguins' have no reason not to come out and play their best game on Thursday. They'll be looking to bounce back and I'm anxious to see how they do that. That's what a playoff series is all about. You stem losses by immediately getting back out there in the next contest and playing your best game t0-date. The Penguins know they were subpar in this one and I'd be surprised if they didn't bounce back. They've had too much mojo the last 2 months not to do that. It will be interesting to watch their response on Tuesday night.

The Penguins still have the upper hand in this series and a win in game 4 will give them a road split in Philadlphia and send them back home with a chance to finish the Flyers off.

I think if you asked the Penguin players coming in if they would take that, they'd say yes.

So would I.

Thoughts In Advance of The Series-Turning Game 3

With the Penguins set to face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers in their nationally-televised game 3 this afternoon at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, the series is poised to turn.

With a victory, the Penguins will take full command of the series. Only 2 teams in the history of the National Hockey League have ever come back from down 3-0 to win a best-of-seven.

Meanwhile, if the Flyers win today, they'll be back in things down 2 games to 1. In most series', some team is down 2-1 after 3 games. That's usually the way they go, so a Philadelphia victory will put them back in more of a comfort zone.

Which is why the Penguins need to be on top of their game today. The Flyers remain fragile. They are anxious to get back in front of their home crowd, because their hands are full against our Boys of Winter. They know they need every advantage they can get.

In truth, they may be fooling themselves. It's not the crowd that's going to help them win, or better treatment from the officials -- which Flyer defenseman Kimmo Timonen was complaining about yesterday.

Timonen alleged that the referrees did a lot more yelling at the Flyers bench, and a lot more talking to the Penguin players.

I'm sorry. Comments like that are for losers. Play the game.

If Philadlephia concentrated more on what they needed to do to match the intensity, physicality and speed of the Penguins, they might not be in a 2-0 hole.

As it is, they've been overwhelmed in those areas in this series so far.

I mean, the Flyers simply haven't scored in this series so far, plain and simple.

The Flyers' 2 top guns, centers Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, have 1 point.

The Penguins' duo of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby has 8 points.

Malkin, in particular, leads the playoffs with 5 points despite getting zero production from his regular linemates, RW Petr Sykora and LW Ruslan Fedotenko.

Overall, Philadelphia has a meagher 3 goals in the first 2 games.

The Penguins have 7.

If those raw numbers don't change soon, the Flyers will be looking at an early exit.

The Flyers also haven't found an answer for the dominating performance of the Penguins' 3rd unit centered by Jordan Staal. He's making a big difference for the Penguins all over the ice.

Expect Daniel Carcillo back in the lineup for the Flyers today.

The Penguins won't be intimidated this afternoon, that's for sure. They've had good success in Philadelphia in recent years and, after heading there last year with a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Confernece Finals, didn't blink in taking game 3.

In the same racuous environment the Flyers believe will help them today.

With the same opportunity to bury the Flyers.

Make no mistake. Momentum can change quickly in a series. When a team is down, it's best to keep them down. The Penguins demonstrated an excellent killer instinct in all 3 of their initial playoff series' last year before the Cup Finals. That's why they went 14-2 in those games.

They'll need the same killer instinct from the drop of the puck today.

The Flyers aren't quite yet on life support.

But the Penguins may be calling for the crash cart.

Recap tomorrow.

Guerin Plays Hero As Pens' Win In OT, 3-2; Head To Philadelphia Leading Series, 2-0

It must have been tough to be in the visitor's dressing room at Mellon Arena on Wednesday night following the Penguins' 4-1 beating of the Philadelphia Flyers in game 1.

And not just because the room is old and cramped.

If it was bad Wednesday, I can't imagine how it must have felt last night after Pens' RW Bill Guerin delivered a 2-0 series lead to Pittsburgh by scoring on a 5-on-3 power play to win the game for the Penguins in overtime, 3-2.

The Flyers were a much improved outfit overall in game 2. They skated better, made less mistakes, and had more emotion.

And it still wasn't enough.

The Flyers actually led on 2 occassions in this one, initally thanks to a power play goal on a deflection by carrot-top (Scott Hartnell) in the first period that opened the scoring then, after Guerin got his first of the night by finishing off a nice 3-on-2 rush with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby by beating Flyers' netminder Martin Biron short side, on a goal by new 3rd liner and no-name Darrell Powe early in the 3rd period.

Then, Marc-Andre Fleury stepped up with the save of the playoffs so far, preserving the game for Pittsburgh.

Fleury was pretty sharp the whole game (Powe's goal -- which I'm sure he'd like to have back -- notwithstanding), but he saved his best for when it was needed most.

A little less than halfway through the final frame, Jeff Carter had a wide-open net to Fleury's right with #29 a little out of position, but when the NHL's second leading scorer this season shot the puck, Fleury flashed out his right pad at the last second and just caught a piece of the puck with his skate before it crossed the goal line.

Incredible.

Fabulous.

Outstanding even.

Then, with time winding down in the final frame and Philadelphia trying to protect their 2-1 lead, Penguins' center Jordan Staal did what he's been doing so well the last few months. He went to work down low in the Flyers zone and, ironically, drew a penalty against Carter after getting a half step on him.

With about 3 and 1/2 minutes to go on the resulting power play, defenseman Kris Letang ripped a shot from about 45 feet that first deflected off the skate of Flyers defenseman Brandon Coburn, then hit Malkin before going behind Biron to tie the score.

In overtime, the play was fairly close to the vest, but the Penguins' were getting the better of the chances overall. Then, the Flyers got a power play with about 3 minutes to go on what was a pretty weak call on Penguins' defenseman Brooks Orpik for cross-checking. However, the Penguins' did a great job killing that penalty. The Flyers hardly had a chance to set up in the Pens' zone and, when they did with about 30 seconds left in the man-advantage, the Flyers couldn't resist having flashbacks. They reverted to their undisciplined ways and Mike Knuble cross-checked Orpik right in front of Fleury -- and the referree -- and got nailed for it.

About 25 seconds later, with LW Chris Kunitz barrelling up the ice with the puck on the resulting 4-on-4, Flyers' rookie center Claude Giroux took another obvious and undisciplined penalty when he slashed and broke Kuntiz' stick, giving the Penguins' an almost-unheard of 5-on-3 playoff OT man-advantage.

About 1 minute into that penalty, Guerin sent the Flyers back to Philadelphia with their collective tails between their legs, taking a pass from defenseman Sergei Gonchar to Biron's right, moving in, surveying the scene, and then beating the cheating Biron low on the short side from about 5 feet for the victory.

The Mellon Arena crowd went nuts, and I just about did the same at home.

As I mentioned, Philadelphia played much better in this game -- arguably good enough to win. However, the truth of the matter is that the Penguins' probably had the better of the overall play. They outhit the Flyers by a massive margin, 50-29, and ousthot them, 49-40. For the second straight game, they also won more faceoffs.

It has to be demoralizing for the Flyers to have made their adjustments after game 1 so successfully, but still lose. All overtime playoff games have extra momentum built into them, but after game 1 and the blown lead late in game 2, the fragile Flyers had even more riding on the outcome last night.

Instead of going back to Philadlephia with home ice, the Penguins made their great effort in game 1 count and just about doubled the pressure on the Flyers to sweep their home set or likely face a quick end to their season. If the Flyers can't find a way to get production from some people in this series -- like Carter, Richards and Gagne, among others -- they're going to struggle to avoid the brooms coming out. But their problem is that Fleury has played well -- he's now undefeated in his career in playoff overtime games (3-0). It remains to be seen if they're going to be able to crack him.

Meanwhile, Malkin has 5 points in this series, including 3 last night, to lead all scorers. The Penguins' are getting production from their top guys, and they're getting contributions from everyone elsewhere up and down their lineup.

All the pressure is now squarely on the Flyers going into Sunday afternoon's nationally televised game 3 (3 PM EST). They'll have a lot of momentum in their home barn early on Sunday, and the Penguins will have to work harder than they have so far in this series just to stem the tide early in that one.

If they can do that -- or even better -- silence the crowd and make the Flyers doubt themselves even more by getting on the board early, the battle of Pennsylvania could end up being even shorter than it was last season.

More on gameday tomorrow.

In Their Heads Already?

On yesterday's off-day, the collective storyline surrounding the Philadelphia Flyers continued to be how undisciplined they were in game 1 against the Penguins.

In fact, there's been so much talk about it, I wonder if the Flyers may be overly preoccupied with watching what they do on the ice tonight, and not focusing on their game enough.

The Flyers may or may not be able to stay out of the penalty box tonight. Certainly, it would surprise nobody if they had another implosion. After all, this is a team that led the NHL in minor penalties this season, and had 4 players in the top 25 league-wide.

But let's face it. If Philadelphia is so worried about staying out of the box, they're going to have a difficult time getting into any offensive flow. They should be foucsing on their skating and puck support, not on staying out of the box.

You constantly hear teams say, "We have to play our game", or "We have to focus on what we're doing out there". But if you have to pay such close attention to one thing, you may lose sight of the other things you need to do to win.

For the Penguins, that doesn't appear to be an issue right now -- at least after game 1. They seem to be clicking on almost all-cylinders. They are skating, being physical, creating opportunities, playing solid positional defense, and getting good goaltending.

And it looks like it comes natural for them.

Philadelphia?

Not so much.

One player who won't be doing anything on Mellon Arena ice for game 2 tonight (7 PM EST) is Flyer forward Daniel Carcillo, who was suspended one game for his actions late in game 1 when he delivered a blow to the head of Penguins' center Maxime Talbot right after a face-off when Philadelphia was trying to send the proverbial message to the Penguins that they were tougher.

The only message that sent was how dumb they were.

Hopefully Carcillo got the message when the suspension was announced, because he sure didn't sound like he believed he did anything wrong earlier in the day.

Carcillo's claim yesterday was that he knew he didn't hit Talbot with his stick. He said after practice he didn't think he'd be suspended. And this was all after acknowledging that one of the officials told him not to do anything stupid right before the face-off.

No matter. The Flyers are probably going to insert rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa into the lineup in Carcillo's place, play him out-of-position at forward, and they probably won't be worse off.

For the Penguins, don't expect interim head coach Dan Bylsma to make any lineup changes.

That means we should still expect to see RW and tough guy Eric Godard as a scratch, despite the late-game shenanigans by the Flyers.

Here's are 2 ominous stats for Philadelphia fans to chew on:

In their last 15 home games against the Flyers, counting playoffs, the Penguins are 13-2.

Teams that win the first 2 home games of a series go on to win the series nearly 88% of the time.

As I said yesterday, the Penguins will need to up their game tonight because, whether the Penguins are in the Flyers' heads already or not, they have to expect Philadelphia to bring a stronger game. Remember, the Flyers lost game one of their opening series against Washington last year and came back to win the series in the 7th game. They did one better in round 2 against Montreal, losing the opener, then taking the next 4 from the Canadiens.

Of course, they also lost the opening game to Pittsburgh in the Confernece Finals and just got waxed much the same way the rest of that series.

There's such a fine line in the playoffs -- if the Penguins lose tonight, everything they did well in game 1 will mean nothing. For them to truly get the benefit of how dominating they were to start the series, they have to take tonight's contest and go up 2-0 on the Flyers.

During the playoffs, I'll probably be posting more links to other articles of interest. Here are 2 for today, the first from the Canadian Press (via TSN.ca) and the 2nd from a columnist who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Usually Canadian Press articles are as lame as those from the Associated Press in the U.S., but for some reason, I just liked the way this one was written:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=275317

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20090417_Phil_Sheridan__Flyers_must_change_their_ways.html

Recap late tonight or, more likely, tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens'!

Penguins Own Flyers To Start Series, Win 4-1

If Penguins' interim coach Dan Bylsma stood in front of his team yesterday with a script of how he wanted his players to open the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it probably would have went something like this:

Set the physical tone early.

Get an early lead.

Skate aggressively at both ends and control the Flyers in the neutral zone.

Be disciplined.

And so it was at Mellon Arena last night in game 1 of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal between the Penguins and Flyers -- a game which Pittsburgh pretty much controlled from the drop of the puck in winning 4-1.

Really, it's hard to think the Penguins could have started this series better.

For all the talk in the Philadelphia camp about how this year would be different ... about how this series wouldn't go like last year's Eastern Conference Final, where the Flyers were dispatched easily in 5 games by the Penguins, the game looked exactly like what played out last season.

The series may very well be long; after all, last night's game was only the first.

But if the Penguins continue to play the way they did last night, the Flyers will be on the golf course in less than a week.

Among others, LW Chris Kunitz -- a proud new dad as of yesterday morning -- got the Penguins rolling early with his physical play, hammering Flyers' defenseman Kimmo Timonen on his opening shift, leaving Timonen with a charley horse and, really, a non-factor the rest of the game.

Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead on a power play about 5 minutes in, when a goal that went in off his skate was reviewed and upheld by the NHL in Toronto. Malkin tried to stuff the puck in to the left of Flyers' netminder Martin Biron, just as Crosby was crashing the goal. The puck squirted out and went off Sid's foot, but then went off the far post, and then off Biron's right skate before sliding across the goal line.

The Flyers were extremely undisciplined in the first period -- and throughout the whole game really. They took 4 penalties in the opening frame, living up to their reputation as the most penalized team in the league this season.

Tyler Kennedy stoked the Penguins' to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period when he led a 3-on-1 rush after a giveaway by Flyers' defenseman Brandon Coburn in the neutral zone. Rather than pass it, TK decided to shoot it. He flubbed it a bit, but was able to beat Biron under the arm for the all-important 2nd goal.

Early in the 3rd period, the Flyers made another mistake when RW Mike Knuble, along the far boards about 10 feet from the blueline in his own zone, tried to pass the puck off the back boards behind his net to a teammate to avoid a forechecking Evgeni Malkin.

Problem was, the puck caromed off the backboards and the near side of the goal instead, squirting right out to Malkin, who corraled the biscuit on the backhand, then shielded himself from a lunging Biron before despositing the puck into an empty cage to give the Penguins' a huge 3-0 lead.

After the game, Knuble called his pass there just a "lazy play".

Minutes later, Mark Eaton scored a goal on a shot from the point that was deflected past Biron off a Flyers' defenseman to up the Penguins' lead to 4-0.

Simon Gagne scored a meaningless power play goal for the Flyers with about 5 minutes left, but by then, the Penguins had it in the bag.

True to their classless form, the Flyers started running around at the end of the game, taking cheap shots at Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Bill Guerin and Max Talbot, among others.

No matter to the Penguins. They were the ones with the 4-1 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 26 saves for Pittsburgh, and was sharp when the Penguins needed him to be.

Crosby and Malkin both added helpers in the game.

Game #2 is tomorrow night at 7 PM at Mellon Arena.

Overall, the Penguins had NINE power plays in the game. If the Flyers continue to be that undisciplined, they will have no chance in this series. All the penalty killing takes a lot of energy from guys like Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, who Philadelphia uses on the PK.

Scott Hartnell, in particular, was true to form last night, taking 3 minors and then a 10-minute misconduct at the end of the game. Hartnell himself described the last penalty as a "brain cramp".

The Penguins also were big winners in the face-off circle in this one, winning 38 draws and losing only 21.

If they keep up those numbers, that will do wonders for their puck-possession style.

Craig Adams, who got the nod over Eric Godard on the Penguins' 4th line last night, had a strong game. He had several checks in the game and was good defensively. As I said yesterday, he's the right play in this series -- not Godard. That still holds true despite the rought stuff that happened at the end of the game.

With double-digit scorers like Max Talbot and Pascal Dupuis, the Penguins 4th liners are markedly better than the likes of rookie Jared Ross, Darrell Powe and former Penguin prospect Daniel Carcillo -- the Flyers' 4th liners -- and that may be something Pittsburgh can take advantage of against Philadelphia.

Obviously, the Flyers better get it together if this is going to be a series. They weren't smart with the puck, were undisciplined, and were generally outclassed in game 1. Even their own writers came down hard on them. My favorite quote was from one of them who said:

"this series will be quick and dirty if things don't start to change pretty quickly".

Here are a few other pieces of interest:

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inqflyersreport/

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20090416_Phil_Sheridan__Flyers_fail_to_heed_recent_lessons.html

In game 2, the Penguins now need to work harder to be sure that their success in game 1 doesn't go for naught. They have to assume Philadelphia will be better, and the Penguins will have to be sure they match their intensity. With another strong game -- and another bucketfull of goals -- they might start to get in Biron's head.

More tomorrow on gameday.