Quick Notes:
- I think it’s hilarious that the most popular hashtags
lately are PensIn7 and RememberTheIgloo.
If the Pens took that attitude, they would be out by now; it’s gotta be one
game at a time - no looking ahead. Also,
the Pens couldn’t win a cup in the igloo and had some difficulty there aside
from 2008 and 2009, but that’s what we push?
I realize they are just in fun, I just find them amusing for different
reasons.
- Five games, Five times the team that scored first lost the
game. Who’s excited for the inevitable
0-0 game going to OT as neither team wants to score?
- #PensInGame6 now.
Result:
Pens 3
Flyers 2
Goals: Sullivan (2) (PP) from Letang, Neal
Staal
(6) from Kennedy, Letang
Kennedy
(3) from Cooke, Staal
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| TK's been working on his vertical. |
Interesting Stats:
- Crosby went a staggering 16 for 22 in the faceoff
circle. Despite this, Jordan Staal took
the last 2 faceoffs of the game in the D zone against Giroux. I have no clue what Bylsma was thinking on
that (Staal lost both faceoffs).
- The Flyers haven’t scored a 5 on 5 goal since midway
through Game 3. The Pens should perhaps
adjust to that and keep it 5 on 5 a little more.
The Good:
- Start with the easy one yet again, PENS SEASON ISN’T
OVER!!! Half way to a series win, but
still a ways to go.
- This was finally a playoff type game with a playoff
atmosphere in the arena. Both teams were
much better in terms of fundamentals and pace which made a huge difference in
overall gameplay, as reflected in the score.
Marc-Andre Fleury – You had to assume Fleury would
need to steal at least a game for the Pens to comeback in this series and he
certainly put in his work in this one. The
last 3 PKs that the Pens dealt with were full of beautiful saves by Fleury.
He looked strong all game, proving that the end of Game 4 wasn’t just a
fluke because of the score. Two biggest
changes in his game compared to the start of the series: 1) He challenged
shooters much more and was at the top of his crease for most shots, cutting
down the angles completely and 2) he allowed his athletic ability and reaction
time do the work rather than overthinking and overplaying pucks. His confidence will only go up after that
game, so that is a great sign for the Pens.
 |
| What are the odds Staal is yelling "WOO!"? |
Jordan Staal (with Cooke and Kennedy) – Staal put
together another wonderful game, scoring on his only shot and making an impact
on almost every shift he took. Staal and
the rest of the 3rd line were by far the most successful group when
it came to stretching the ice and powering through the neutral zone. They gave the Flyers’ defensemen fits deep in
the zone, which is what led to TK’s goal as all 5 Flyers dropped down to Staal
and Cooke on the crease. This line is in
2009 Cup Finals form, where they became the huge difference makers for the
Pens.
Steve Sullivan – Sullivan only played 11:52 in this
game, and less than 8 minutes were at even strength, but I was very impressed
yet again with his defensive zone coverage when he was on the ice. He is leading by example with just how badly he
wants this playoff run to continue and how hard the team needs to work to keep
it going. His goal was of course a nice
touch as he continues to help the powerplay click, but his general awareness of
what is going on around him on the ice is what impresses me the most about his
game right now.
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| Sullivan looks so tiny in Neal's arms. |
Other notable performances: Despres, Niskanen, and Michalek
played very very well, especially with Michalek on the PK. It was nice to see Kunitz go a game without
taking a horrendous penalty. Dupuis had
another great game in the defensive zone.
The Bad:
- The Pens REALLY need to eliminate the stupid/unnecessary/pointless
penalties they are taking. Engelland got
called for a roughing penalty, mostly because he gave Briere an extra
unnecessary shove down while Briere was already going down. Malkin’s penalty on Schenn was after the play
and absolutely needless. The team knows
that penalties will be called tight, so they need to adapt for how poorly the
PK is playing. Some claim Schenn dove,
but in my opinion, it’s pretty hard to dive sideways when your skates are
perpendicular to where you are being hit from.
He was off-balance, so it looked worse, but that was hardly a dive. Finally, TK took an awful retaliation penalty
as he broke his stick on a slash. The
team needs to show more discipline to survive right now.
 |
| Hitting? okay. Driving him into the ice? Probably a penalty. |
Kris Letang – Letang did have 2 assists and has
looked pretty good in the offensive zone, but his defensive zone coverage and
especially his puck movement has been off.
His pass up to Staal was simply brilliant to set Staal on a 2 on 1 which
he scored on. For that one play though,
Letang countered it with at least 3 or 4 turnovers and bad plays in his own
zone. Letang is smarter and better than
he is playing right now; we’re all just waiting to see it.
Evgeni Malkin – Malkin simply played one of his worst
games of the series and the season. He
took 2 completely unnecessary penalties and had an astounding 5 giveaways. To put that into perspective, most box scores
have players with at most 2 or 3 giveaways.
I already discussed how the Schenn hit was needless; his second penalty
was after he lost the puck and interfered with Couturier. Everything Malkin did in Game 4 he did not
follow up on in Game 5. He went back to
selfish puck possession and trying to skate through 2 or 3 guys. He needs to give the puck up more to earn
more space from the Flyers D if he wants to keep playing this style. The stupid penalties just have to stop. Also, it'd be awesome if he didn't steamroll Crosby, whoops. More on Malkin later as well.
The Ugly:
- The penalty kill needs to stop leaning on Fleury
completely to survive. He was brilliant
at the end of the game, which was necessary because the PK was pretty much useless. The first goal that the PK allowed was
because of nice Dupuis screen which had Fleury leaning the wrong way. The second one came during a 5 on 3, where
Orpik was essentially caught on a 2 on 1 at the crease and the Flyers made some
nice plays to score there. The Pens
still look a little too passive on the PK (5 on 3 aside) and really need to
start challenging the points as hard as the Flyers have done to the Pens
PP. No matter how bad anyone is playing,
this kill rate is pathetic. This is all
with the PK actually improving in this game to stopping 3 out of 5 instead of
the usual 2 out of 5.
 |
| Help this man!!! |
Thoughts:
- Don’t expect the lineup to change at all. Bylsma will stick to what’s working as long
as it works, he hates changing his lineups during winning streaks. So it’s pretty safe to say 7 D, Tangradi
still in (and he has earned it) for Game 6.
- Both goalies played much better in Game 5, but Bryzgalov
can still be beaten more than he was in Game 5. He
looked very shaky with his rebounds and the Pens didn’t test him as much going side
to side in this game. I was rather
disappointed with the low shot total for the Pens, the need to attack Bryz
harder with his rebound control as shaky as it is right now.
- The reffing was inconsistent as usual. But my problem with it was actually how the
Flyers were screwed over. Brooks Orpik
held JVR for a solid 20 seconds late in the 3rd period in front of
the net, and then knocked him over from behind.
Easily could have been one, if not 2 penalties. When JVR was knocked over, he ended up
hitting Letang in front of him and people clamored that Letang showed great
restraint. Letang showed great
restraint? JVR should have attacked
everyone for the abuse he took on that play.
I have no clue how Orpik got away without being called for all kinds of
penalties on that shift.
 |
| Orpik was getting away with murder on the crease all night. |
- Though the Malkin hit on Couturier was clean, the Flyers
are still quite upset about his elbow on Grossmann and many people started
talking about Malkin’s track record. If
you have been reading these posts, you probably know my thoughts, if not, check
out Game 2’s recap. Malkin isn’t the
cleanest player by a longshot, he is very sneaky about getting hits in and
tends to do a lot behind the play. He’s
a brilliant player, but he’s very emotional and that’s going to catch up with
him eventually. I think it’s safe to say
that the league will be watching for it right now, so he needs to be careful
moving forward and tone it down a bit.
He’s probably overdue for supplemental discipline already.
- That brings me to the Torres suspension. 25 games is quite a bit, but I honestly don’t
care about this suspension one way or another.
The key will be how the next 2-3 suspensions turn out. If the next few are 1 game apiece, then players
won’t learn anything. The NHL’s
inconsistencies in this department make the next few rulings incredibly
important in regards to taking them seriously.
- Finally, so glad that Hartnell scored and we didn’t lose –
making me both right from my last game recap and happy that it didn’t hurt us.
 |
| Keep quiet... |
Keys to Game 6:
- Fleury is looking sharp, so the team simply has to help
him out by taking fewer stupid penalties and strengthening up the PK. It’s time for the special teams to actually
take over a game on both sides because it’s damn tough to win a series while
losing the special teams battle. The PK
MUST pull its weight to survive Game 6 in Philly.
Flyers lead series 3-2. Next Game: 4/22 @ Phi, 12pm, NBC
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