Rd. 1 Playoff Series Thread: #4 Penguins vs. #5 Flyers

[WaukeeBlues]

If you guys aren't watching the Penguins Flyers game right now you really should be.

This $hit is crazy.

[theohall]

If you guys aren't watching the Penguins Flyers game right now you really should be.

This $hit is crazy.

How is it different from the first two other than the Penguins did not start with a 3-1 first period lead?

The Flyers have dominated this series 5 and 1/2 of the 8 periods played, thus far. It's actually kind of boring knowing the Flyers are going to win, regardless of what the Penguins attempt to do.

[glen a richter]

I think it's pretty fair to say the Penguins are finished. Now what happens if the Flyers run into a team that can actually play defense? Pittsburgh has had a lot of holes exposed in this series: shit defense, shit goaltending, a complete inability to adjust and extremely poor coaching. Philly will not have such offensive luck against teams like Boston and NY.

[theohall]

I think it's pretty fair to say the Penguins are finished. Now what happens if the Flyers run into a team that can actually play defense? Pittsburgh has had a lot of holes exposed in this series: shit defense, shit goaltending, a complete inability to adjust and extremely poor coaching. Philly will not have such offensive luck against teams like Boston and NY.

Considering the Flyers went 1-7-2 against those two teams in the regular season, it is a safe bet they won't beat either of them in the playoffs. Meawhile, they were 4-2 vs the Pens with one being a shootout win and one of the two losses being the final game of the season when the Flyers actually rested several of their starting forwards.

From the NHL recap on the Pens-Flyers last game of the season

First up, the Flyers, who treated the meaningless regular-season finale as little more than an exhibition. Claude Giroux sat out as a precaution, as did No. 1 goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

[goon attack]

I dislike the Pens, but I really don't like Hartnell either. These announcers are freaking drama queens. "OMG, he pulled his hair!"

Adams pulled Hartnell's hair for like 3 seconds and it looked accidental. He let go of it right away.

And screw you, Hartnell. You look like a freaking woman, you pansy... the ugliest woman alive. Cut your hair, douche.

Geez... 8-4 now. Johnson, YOU SUCK.

[theohall]

I dislike the Pens, but I really don't like Hartnell either. These announcers are freaking drama queens. "OMG, he pulled his hair!"

Adams pulled Hartnell's hair for like 3 seconds and it looked accidental. He let go of it right away.

And screw you, Hartnell. You look like a freaking woman, you pansy... the ugliest woman alive. Cut your hair, douche.

Geez... 8-4 now. Johnson, YOU SUCK.

Why aren't you bitching about the pussy Penguins and Crosby?

Crosby grabs Hartnell drags him away and has hold of him, then Adams starts throwing punches at Hartnell - who had done nothing - because Crosby grabbed him???? That's pussy shit from the Penguins "protecting" their Cindy when he started shit on his own. Let that pansy Crosby fight his own battles when he starts them.

[goon attack]

We'd do the exact same thing for AMac. Just sayin. Crosby will fight. I appreciate the fact that he's a little chippy. It starts brawls like what we saw today. That's my kind of hockey!

[dmiles2186]

I dislike the Pens, but I really don't like Hartnell either. These announcers are freaking drama queens. "OMG, he pulled his hair!"

Just from reading this, I'm going to surmise that Pierre McGuire was betwixt the benches today?

[Kreegz2]

At the end during the last major brawl, when literally every other person on the ice was locked up with someone , Crosby half-heartedly clutches giroux and is content with the referee being between them. That is not the way a captain should be acting. If I were a coach and I saw my captain not fighting while literally every single one of my other players on the ice was, he would be stripped of his captaincy by the next shift.

I would have given anything to have seen Pronger dressed for that game.

[philco_3]

At the end during the last major brawl, when literally every other person on the ice was locked up with someone , Crosby half-heartedly clutches giroux and is content with the referee being between them. That is not the way a captain should be acting. If I were a coach and I saw my captain not fighting while literally every single one of my other players on the ice was, he would be stripped of his captaincy by the next shift.

I would have given anything to have seen Pronger dressed for that game.

He's too much of a pussy. One bunch in head and he might be a vegetable for life. lol

[WaukeeBlues]

I think it's pretty fair to say the Penguins are finished. Now what happens if the Flyers run into a team that can actually play defense? Pittsburgh has had a lot of holes exposed in this series: shit defense, shit goaltending, a complete inability to adjust and extremely poor coaching. Philly will not have such offensive luck against teams like Boston and NY.

It's not just the defense, I've never seen Marc Andre-Fluery play this bad. His confidence is toast and did you see that first goal? Reaches for it with his glove and squirts in behind him.... I mean you're basically cursed when those are going in against you

I just think it's hilarious that the Vegas cup-winner favorite could easily be swept out of the first round. That's why it's called gambling folks! haha

[drwoland]

The pens are a bunch of boys trying to play a man's game. They're just bad at it.

Uppercuts while a linesman is there
Punching people on the ground
Cross checks to the neck
Pulling hair

Crosby should be suspended for pushing giroux's glove alone - one of the stupidest, most unsportsmanlike actions I've ever seen.

Then Bylsma has the nerve to act like the flyers started it and the officiating is why it got out of hand. Please.

[WaukeeBlues]

The pens are a bunch of boys trying to play a man's game. They're just bad at it.

Uppercuts while a linesman is there
Punching people on the ground
Cross checks to the neck
Pulling hair

Crosby should be suspended for pushing giroux's glove alone - one of the stupidest, most unsportsmanlike actions I've ever seen.

Then Bylsma has the nerve to act like the flyers started it and the officiating is why it got out of hand. Please.

Not that I had a ton of it to begin with but I lost a lot of respect for Crosby when I saw that. Utterly classless and as you said, completely unsportsmanlike. At least when he was smacking at Bryz's glove he was trying to get to the puck or shove it lose. That thing with Voracek was just BS and I would be pissed if I was Bylsma.

[xbleed83bluex]

I think it's pretty fair to say the Penguins are finished. Now what happens if the Flyers run into a team that can actually play defense? Pittsburgh has had a lot of holes exposed in this series: shit defense, shit goaltending, a complete inability to adjust and extremely poor coaching. Philly will not have such offensive luck against teams like Boston and NY.

That's the problem with this damn cap. With expensive superstars like Malkin, Neal, and Crosby, there's not much spending money for a top notch back end. Sometimes I wonder if having 2 superstars on a team is more of a curse than a blessing.

[TheoSqua]

What I was really surprised by was how terrible the Penguins played defense. Fluery was sucking and let in a few soft ones, but giving up 20 goals in 3 games is horrific. I watched some highlights of game 3 and the position/shots that Pittsburgh was giving up was crazy. A big reason for Halak/Elliott's success is they get to face a lot of easy saves, and the Blues defense limits quality shots a lot. Pittsburgh gave up way too many easy shots for a talented Philly team.

Before this year I thought the Blues needed a point-per-game forward to anchor the offense. After seeing the lazy defensive play of Malkin/Crosby and the Penguins inability to play even basic defense i'm starting to think the deep defense oriented teams like St. Louis, Nashville, and Phoenix is the way to go.

[theohall]

For the vast majority of the history of the NHL, defense and goaltending have won championships. Yes, there was an era where ridiculous offensive teams were winning (the Oilers), but for the most part the better defensive teams tend to win.

[Kreegz2]

4 games for Asham, and only 1 game for Neal.

What a joke. Shaw suspended 3 games for Smith flopping the greatest flop ever flopped and taking way too long to play the puck behind the net, plus not giving any player any room to pass, while Weber only gets fined one shifts worth of his pay for trying to put a players head through the glass, And now Neal gets suspended for 1 game for throwing a jumping blindside late hit targetting the head, and then turning around and doing it again 45 seconds later.

What a (Frank) joke. Time to start letting the players police themselves again. The NHL has been trying to do it for two decades and have failed miserably, and the on-ice product has suffered because of it.

[theohall]

Time to start letting the players police themselves again.

Which is exactly what the Blues did at the end of Game 2 vs the Sharks. Did anyone notice Sharks players attempting to take liberties by intentionally targeting the heads of Blues players in Game 3? I did not. When Moore winds up with a broken nose from Sobotka - it was not a sucker puch - both players were facing each other and dropped the gloves at the same time. Braun winds up beaten into submission by Polak. That's two of their "tough" guys getting their asses handed to them. Result - the Sharks aren't so free with the elbows and head targeting hits.

[not_a_wings_fan]

Time to start letting the players police themselves again.

Which is exactly what the Blues did at the end of Game 2 vs the Sharks. Did anyone notice Sharks players attempting to take liberties by intentionally targeting the heads of Blues players in Game 3? I did not. When Moore winds up with a broken nose from Sobotka - it was not a sucker puch - both players were facing each other and dropped the gloves at the same time. Braun winds up beaten into submission by Polak. That's two of their "tough" guys getting their asses handed to them. Result - the Sharks aren't so free with the elbows and head targeting hits.

This. Broken noses are a better disincentive than suspensions or penalties.

Toss the instigator rule and let's play hockey.

[Portland Blues]

Both of these teams might as well be playing without a goalie. Both of them have sucked tremendously in this series.