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:
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.
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1 comment:
Less than one hour til game 4. This is going to be a slug fest, and I think the Pens are the more dangerous squad right now. I agree with Mario that it would be nice to see Sykora pick up his game. That would be a huge advantage. Kudos to Chris Kunitz, who has the hit of the series on Kimmo Timonen. A CLEAN hit by the way. Those fans in Philly claiming a cheap shot, sound like the pot calling the kettle black! Go Pens!
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