The Penguins game 5 is what winning one game at a time looks like. No one expected them to make the playoffs. No one expects them to climb out of a 3-1 hole. It doesn’t matter. The Penguins won their first elimination game of this series on Saturday night and got back to playing their hockey. That is all this has ever been about.
One of the biggest takeaways from Saturday was Sid woke up. If there was ever a player to have faith in while down 3-0 in a series, it’s Sidney Crosby. Sid started the scoring on the Power-Play, and he assisted on the game winner with a FIFA level pass to Kris Letang.
The other takeaway, and possibly the biggest, is that Dan Muse got through to his team. Something was said, or done, about the players constantly engaging with the Flyers after the whistle. Sure, playoff hockey is always going to have more scrums than the regular season, but you cannot let it derail your play on the ice. For the first three games, the Penguins were going out of their way to partake in every little thing the Flyers did, and it cost them. Now, the officiating of those scrums hasn’t helped either, especially when Rust was assaulted by Konecny and ended up with the only penalty. However, if you disengage the refs simply cannot put you in the box. The Penguins did a much, much, better job at avoiding the scumbags. See the Flyers are playing good hockey, and have been for a while, but they aren’t the better team. The Flyers need to rely on getting the Penguins off of their game and they resort to what they’ve always resorted to, being scumbags. They are going to throw elbows, they are going to hit you late, and they’re going to touch your goalie. If you’re the Penguins you need to just accept that and realize the retaliatory penalties are the only thing the refs are calling. If you stick to the old Mike Sullivan slogan “just play” because if they just play their game, they are better than those losers on the other side.
Tonight the Penguins will host game 5 and you better believe that the Flyers will be doing everything they possibly can to mentally shake the Penguins. Just don’t give in to whatever bullshit they attempt to pull, and you have a chance to win another hockey game. Pay no attention to Garnett Hathaway, he’s a useless hockey player, his only value is being a rat. If that little twerp Travis Konecny tries to do anything just line him up while he’s in the neutral zone, no need to pay him any time after the whistles. You can bet your last dollar that those two in particular are going to try to stir it up, fine let them, just don’t retaliate. The only two times the Penguins retaliated last game resulted in two penalties. Luckily, the second time Karlsson also got Hathaway to the box with him which set up the 4-on-4 that Letang scored on.
Now if the Penguins do decide to walk away from the scumbag hockey tonight, they need to be better on the power-play. The Flyers were essentially useless in the offensive zone in game 4, they honestly have been for most of the series, but the Penguins allowed both of their odd-man rushes against during power-play action. Simplify the power-play. Work the puck around the perimeter and never try passing through the formation. The longest pass that should be completed is from the sidewall to the bumper player. If that look isn’t available, then work the puck around the outside until a one-timer lane is open or until a jam play down low presents itself. There is just no reason to take big risks on the man advantage, the coaching staff if Philadelphia has too much knowledge on our superstars to allow for “fancy” puck movement during the man advantage.
The Penguins got back to their game in game 4 which showed the fourth line dominate again. If the fourth line can continue to play with that level of tenacity, a level in which they showed all regular season, it’s a good sign for the Penguins. The Flyers fourth line has been good defensively, but it’s obvious that they aren’t going to drive play. The Penguins fourth line just absolutely took it to Philadelphia on Saturday night; they need to do the same tonight. Muse properly put that line on the ice to protect the one goal lead late and they were rewarded.
Another key to victory is waking up the depth. Malkin, Rust, Crosby, Letang, Rakell, and Karlsson have all scored goal. That is great because you need those guys to be producers. However, this was the third highest scoring team in the league. This was the highest scoring Penguins team of the Crosby era. They got goal contributions from everywhere in the lineup. Anthony Mantha led the team in the goals; he has zero goals in 18 career playoff games. Ben Kindel scored as many goals at 18 as Jaromir Jagr, but he is scoreless in this series. Egor Chinakhov has had a few chances to unleash his insane shot in every game but has failed to score or even hit the net. Those guys need to put one on the board. If the depth awakens, things can swing fast in the Penguins favor. The Flyers cannot compete with the depth that Penguins roll out onto the ice, so they need to take advantage of that.
Artus Silovs played a great game on Saturday. The Penguins dominated most of the game, but when they faltered Silovs was there. Skinner was undoubtedly the best Penguin player through three games, but sometimes you need to make a change. Silovs has a decent history of performing well in extremely meaningful games, expect him to get the start tonight. If Silovs can bring out the form, he had in the AHL playoffs last season there’s another reason to have some hope.
Down 3-1 in the series. Previously down 3-0. The chances of advancing are still bleak. However, you make it 3-2 and all of the pressure swings to Philadelphia. They might already be feeling the pressue as fat Russian boy Matvei Michkov is being health scratched. The 8th overall pick from a couple of seasons ago, the player the fans wanted Tocchet fired over, and their presumed golden boy isn’t getting a sweater on Monday night. Sure, Michkov has been awful this series, but Flyers fans are emotionally erratic when it comes to this guy. They have bitched all day since the news came out. The entire focus of those morons is a fat third liner being benched, and not the fact that Sidney Crosby seemed to have woke up. I want their priorities to be off, and they sure seem to be off. Michkov has not helped this team at all, but Tocchet should have understood the firestorm from the fans for benching him. It comes off as a panic move, and the Penguins could use some panic in the Flyers game.
7pm tonight and opportunity to win two in a row. If you win two, you can win three, and if you can win three you can win four. A win tonight shifts all the dialogue onto Philly. This team was counted out all season long and never blinked. Don’t blink tonight. Win this game and find a way to survive another day. Penguins in 7.
