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.
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