Quick Notes:
- The recap style I tried for Game 1 doesn’t work when there are 13 goals scored and no form of defense or opposition. (I’m a defenseman by nature and I am offended and irritated by that 8-5 ridiculousness)
- If you read my last recap (and I hope you did: http://crosbyftw.blogspot.com/2012/04/start-strong-relax-blow-lead-repeat.html), you saw that I called out the line matchups as not making sense in Game 1. Well, they still didn’t make sense, and it worries me that I can call it out but Bylsma didn’t bother changing it. He knows far more about hockey than me and is far more qualified than I am to do anything, so how does he miss it or why does he ignore what he sees? More on this below…
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| Stop handicapping yourself, Disco. |
- Lastly, I hope you listen to the podcasts I’m trying to come out with! Give them a shot, and feedback is encouraged! The first 2 are in the previous post. Thanks as always for reading and listening!
Result:
Flyers 8 Pens 5
Goals: Crosby (2) from Sullivan, Dupuis
Kunitz (1) (PP) from Neal, Malkin
Martin (1) from Crosby, Dupuis
Kunitz (2) (PP) from Neal, Malkin
Kennedy (2) from Cooke, Staal
Interesting Stats:
- Craig Adams had 5 hits and a takeaway in 10 shifts over 8 minutes
- Kunitz was a -5, Malkin -4, Neal -4, Sullivan -3
- Letang and Neal lead attempted shots with 6. Letang only got 2 on net, Neal had 5.
The Good:
- The Pens did a great job sending a message physically with some huge hits by Neal, Letang, Adams and others. Their playoff intensity was there at least.
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| If only physicality meant wins. |
- Well, an offensive output of 5 goals is solid, and 2 of them on the powerplay erased the offensive PP questions that everyone had from Game 1. Bylsma took Sid off the 1st PP line and Neal-Kunitz-Malkin combined for 2 PP goals. They looked much more comfortable at times…
- The 1st period was yet again, a great period top to bottom. The Pens were up 3-1 by the end of it and had yet again survived a Laviolette timeout.
- Best 3: Dupuis, Kennedy, Adams. Great game by all 3, Duper was somehow a +2 in this debacle with 2 assists. Kennedy scored a weak goal admittedly, but he was solid all over the ice. Adams was crushing people all game despite limited time.
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| "Woah buddy, pull it back a little" |
The Bad:
- Of course, another 2 goal lead was blown as the Penguins continue to get destroyed defensively. This team does not know how to drop into a strong/aggressive defense stance when they are in the lead. They only know how to either attack at full speed or how to be completely passive. Their inability to transition between the two stances is giving Philly a lot of leeway to adjust to the Pens’ style and then attack in different ways.
Malkin/Neal/Kunitz – The +/-‘s say a lot on their own about how this line played. They are doing a great job hitting, but the puck possession for this line has been dismal. Their 2 goals together were on the powerplay; at even strength they are being fully dominated by the Flyers’ checking line. The reason this line was so successful in the regular season was 1) natural talent, and 2) their ability to work with the puck in the offensive zone, wearing down the D with their size, and sneak into open areas. They are generally losing even puck battles and the guys away from the puck don’t seem to be working towards open ice to provide passing outlets. It’s not like we’ve seen these 3 missing on great chances, they are simply just trying to do too much on their own looking for a spark.
Lovejoy/Engelland – Lovejoy will obviously get called out right off the bat for his turnover to Couturier in the slot that led to an easy goal against Fleury. That isn’t all though, this pairing was also on for a breakaway that began at the Flyers blue line but luckily Fleury saved. Engelland had a very poor game in my opinion as I counted at least 5 missed hits where he slammed into the boards but did not touch the guy he was aiming for, pulling him out of position. This pairing has low expectations to begin with, all we ask is they not make mistakes…they failed.
Rest of the Defense – The defense simply looks like they do not communicate with each other at all. On the Couturier goal with 3 seconds left in the 2nd period, THREE guys were covering Eric Wellwood in front and no one paid attention to Couturier on the back door. Not only is that clearly a vast misuse of resources and failure in coverages, but how is Fleury expected to see a puck clearly through 3 of his own guys. This isn’t rocket science, if the team is looking around then they will realize that at least 2 guys are uncovered in that situation. Just like I harped on in my last recap, heads on a swivel! Every defenseman hears that phrase a billion times growing up, I’d like to see the Pens act like they know what it means.
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| Ike Taylor would have had this covered. |
The Ugly:
- The powerplay, defensively. Two short-handed goals…are you kidding me? The first one was a mess, Crosby turned it over at the point on the powerplay and Giroux went in on a semi-breakaway with Sullivan chasing him. Fleury stopped the breakaway but the rebound went to Talbot who buried it into a basically empty net. Two issues: 1) Sullivan was the guy following Giroux, Crosby had no business still chasing Giroux and should have been watching Talbot, horrible defensive awareness by Sid. 2) Where were the other 3 guys on the ice? Martin was the only defenseman on that line, but he and the other 2 forwards were doing anything but hustling back to the play. No one bothered to chase Talbot at all. Lack of effort there is inexcusable in a vital playoff game, everyone should have put their heads down and skated as hard as possible. For the second short-handed goal, Letang, Malkin, and Sullivan were back to cover 3 Flyers. No one knew who to cover and it turned into 3 Penguins back covering no one. Lack of communication, lack of awareness, I’m not sure what to call it. But the coaching staff should be concerned when 3 players who are defensively capable don’t know what to do in that situation.
- The penalty kill had another dismal performance, allowing 1 powerplay goal on 2 chances. They were acting very passively and again seemed unaware of their surroundings at times. The Flyers had Voracek circling to the left of the faceoff circle by himself just like where he was at for the OT winner in Game 1. The Pens simply ignored him for most of the powerplay (the whole team did this all night for some reason actually) and when the Flyers finally gave him the puck, no one knew how to react. He had time and space to move towards the crease, draw everyone in, and flick the puck back to Giroux for an easy PP goal. The Pens made the Flyers PP good on that chance by giving them all the time and space to work with in the world.
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| Fleury shouldn't have to act as a defenseman and a goalie. |
- Normally I would say hindsight is 20/20 for line matchups, but seeing how I was questioning it in Game 1, it’s really inexcusable that line matchups were a problem in Game 2 when the Pens get last change. Couturier’s line owned Malkin’s all night, but Bylsma kept putting Malkin out there against him. My seats are behind the Flyers bench, so I tend to pay more attention to this than most, but Laviolette had his way with matchups. He predicted what Bylsma wanted to do and placed the line he wanted out first. Bylsma then did not adjust to it. By the 3rd period, I was hitting at over 80% for picking the lines that were coming out. Even before the game, I was a fan of how Couturier played. Talbot said he looked like Staal in his rookie year, and I tend to agree, actually I think that’s undercutting him. Couturier has Staal’s ability plus he is far more physical than Staal was his rookie year. Bylsma did a massive disservice to his season long MVP in game 2 (don’t worry, I don’t absolve Malkin, that’s below).
Thoughts:
- The goaltenders have been solid. It sounds ridiculous, but it is very true, these results should be much worse for both teams but Fleury and Bryzgalov have made some huge saves at times. With that being said, Bryz is outplaying Fleury. He has made bigger saves and has improved as the game goes on. None of this is necessarily Fleury’s fault, but the Pens are going to need him to make some absolute steals if they want to stay in this series. Bryzgalov did it twice, once to Letang on the backside, once to Sullivan alone in front. Fleury does stop some breakaways, but the Pens need more sadly.
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| Bryz has had to bail the D out just like Fleury. |
- Bylsma, Granato, and Reirden are being outcoached, very badly. I mentioned the line matchups earlier, but the powerplay and penalty kills clearly don’t know what they are doing either right now. Laviolette and his crew just appears to be one step ahead in all facets. Not to mention, Laviolette seems to be okay allowing his team to play the Pens style until Pittsburgh makes enough mistakes that the Flyers take advantage and take the lead. The game last night was run and gun, the Pens style dictated as the Flyers kept playing catch up. Once the Flyers took over, they went into lockdown mode and played strong playoff hockey. The Flyers are letting the Pens screw up their own game before forcing what they want and it is working masterfully. That being said, I am not calling for Bylsma’s head or anything crazy like that. I am just saying Laviolette is doing a better job.
- How much of a difference do you think Talbot is making by the way? There is literally no better scouting report in existence than what he knows about the Pens, their style and their coaching staff. Years ago, people said the Flyers signed Chris Pronger so they could beat the Penguins and neutralize Crosby. It didn't work. GM Paul Holmgren may have done it right with a second chance by signing Talbot over to neutralize everything.
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| I don't hate you and I won't boo you, so please stop. |
- I’m prefacing this with I’m not throwing Malkin under the bus, but if he’s the best player in the NHL, he needs to adjust. He will definitely see a lot of Couturier’s line in Game 3 and clearly the 1st 2 games haven’t gone well. I would like to see him pushing the puck and finessing less. Malkin needs to start crossing the blue line, pulling up, and firing the puck. It will give him space and make the Flyers question how much they should press on him. He starts doing that, and everything will fall into place better as they start giving him room to work with. He’s capable of changing this series; he just needs to adjust quickly to do it. His coaching staff should be helping him with this too, by the way.
- Another note on Malkin, and this is one that if I was Laviolette, I would have flipped out on (probably moreso after a loss). I counted (by the way, every time I say I counted, it’s because I literally keep a tally on things on the notepad app on my phone while I’m at games), 4 penalties that Geno got away with. Two slashes, a trip, and a hook, so not necessarily judgmental penalties either. This isn’t a slight against Malkin, I just want to point out how the refs are calling the game. So don’t go complaining if they don’t call something against the Flyers, they are giving the Pens plenty of leeway as well.
- Despite how ugly everything looks right now, this series is far from over. All it takes is one game to change a series around (go back to 2000 when the Pens went up 2-0 against the Flyers on the road and came home to lose Game 3 in OT, and then Game 4 in 5OT and then Games 5 and 6). If anyone can predict the future of this series, you would have predicted the 2-0 deficit for the Pens right now. Absolutely no one did that. So just keep faith and watch Game 3, see what happens. It’s a best of 7, crazy things are possible.
- Finally, while I want to burn Consol to the ground right now, home ice disadvantage isn’t unique to the Pens, Consol, or us as fans. So everyone stop harping on fans for it. Aside from potentially the Pho-Chi and NJ-Fla series’, home ice has already been rendered a moot point in every other series. It just simply isn’t what it used to be now that everyone has made cookie-cutter arenas. I tend to hate the crowd at Consol as much as most, but it has nothing to do with them unless every other home crowd sucks too.
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| Let's build a new arena with white seats for these whiteouts. |
Keys to Game 3:
- I want to see a defensive start, not an offensive one. Forget pushing the tempo and just play solid, opportunistic defense. Let the Flyers make their mistakes and capitalize on it rather than pushing the offensive play to the point of mistakes. Given the same amount of opportunities, I would pick a more talented Pens roster to score more goals than the Flyers, stop giving them more opportunities as the equalizer. The Flyers are a very solid team, but we are making them look amazing on our own accord.
Flyers lead series 2-0. Next Game: 4/15 @ Phi, 3pm, NBC
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