Pens-Flyers: Pittsburgh misses upwards of five players heading into Game 4
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It’s do or die time for the Penguins on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center. Little has worked for Pittsburgh in the first three games of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Philadelphia has scored more times on the power play (6) than the Pens have stopped it (4). The Flyers have the same number of short-handed scores (3) as Penguins power-play goals.
As if the Penguins haven’t had a tough enough time against Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier, a Philadelphia newspaper photo-shopped an outdated Penguins helmet and the face of Sidney Crosby into a Wizard of Oz photograph of the cowardly lion and captioned it
"The Cowardly Penguin".
Whether or not the Flyers “finish off sniveling Sidney” as the newspaper’s caption suggests, there’s a chance that the outrageous shot provides the bulletin board fodder Pittsburgh needs to give Philly a run for its money.
And that’s what it’s all about. Lost in the off-ice theatrics is the fact that the Penguins can’t seem to do anything right on the ice.
Even when the team gets off to a lead the game ends up going Philly’s way. During the regular season, the Pens went 35-8-4 when scoring the first goal. Philadelphia lost more often than not when it allowed the game’s first goal, going 20-22-4.
Pittsburgh will be featuring a different lineup than in the series’ first three contests for a variety of reasons.
James Neal, Craig Adams and Arron Asham were all suspended for at least one game for their participation in Game 3 shenanigans and are out.
Defenseman Paul Martin is also expected to miss Wednesday’s game with an undisclosed injury. Rookie Simon Despres will likely get his first taste of NHL playoff action in his place.
Forward Eric Tangradi, a Philadelphia native, will also make his postseason debut in Game 4.
These are the lines Pittsburgh used Tuesday for practice per the
Penguins’ Web site, but Neal is out.
Kunitz-Malkin-Neal
Sullivan-Crosby-Dupuis
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Tangradi-Park-Vitale
Asham-Jeffrey-Adams
Jeffrey scored a goal in his last game against the Flyers in February, but the team has only considered using him as a last resort.
On Wednesday morning, Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that both Martin and Zbynek Michalek are missing from the gameday skate. One player that might’ve helped promote a defensive philosophy during the series is Robert Bortuzzo. Bortuzzo is a defensive-oriented player who might better help the Pens protect leads. At the time of this writing, it’s not known why Michalek is not available for the skate.
Molinari also reports that Kris Letang and Steve Sullivan are at the points on the Pens’ top power-play unit. Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin are up front and Sidney Crosby has taken James Neal’s place.
One line during the skate features Staal centering Tangradi at left wing and Matt Cooke on the right.
The top line has Crosby centering Sullivan and Pascal Dupuis. Malkin is in the middle of Kunitz and Tyler Kennedy and the fourth unit features Jeffrey-Vitale-Park.
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Pens-Flyers: By the Numbers
Goals For/Against
Pens: 4.00-6.67 (per gm)
Flyers: 6.67-4.00
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio
Pens: 0.78
Flyers: 1.29
Power Play
Pens: 25 percent, 3-for-12
Flyers: 60 percent, 6-for-10
The Pens (3) and Vancouver (2) are the only teams to have allowed short-handed goals in the playoffs.
Penalty Kill
Pens: 40 percent, 4-of-10
Flyers: 75 percent, 9-of-12
The Pens and New Jersey share the worst penalty kill in the postseason, interesting for two of the top three penalty kills during the regular season.
Hits-Blocks-Missed Shots-Giveaways-Takeaways
Pens: 112H-36B-50M-26G-10T
Flyers: 113H-48B-28M-17G-13T
Only Phoenix (52) has more missed shots than the Penguins. New Jersey (10) and the Pens are tied for the fewest takeaways.
Faceoffs
Pens: 52.2 percent, 105W-96L
Flyers: 47.8 percent, 96W-105L
Pens lead the playoffs with eight first-period goals while the Flyers have the most third-period scores (8).
Shots, Shots Allowed
Pens: 91-91
Flyers: 91-91
The Pens were 34-21-3 during the regular season in games they outshot opponents; 17-4-3 when they were outshot.
Philadelphia 31-18-6 when it outshot opponents, 16-8-3 when they were outshot.
Penalty Minutes
Pens: 32.3 (per gm)
Flyers: 28.3
Pittsburgh has the highest penalty minute total and the Flyers have the third-most. During the regular season, Philly averaged 16.1 penalty minutes per game – most in the NHL – while the Pens took the 19th fewest at 10.7 per contest.
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Individual Leaders
Goals
Pens: James Neal (2), Sidney Crosby (2), Chris Kunitz (2), Jordan Staal (2), and Tyler
Kennedy (2)
Flyers: Claude Giroux (4), Daniel Briere (4), Sean Couturier (3), Max Talbot (3)
Assists
Pens: Evgeni Malkin (4), Neal (3), Crosby (3), Pascal Dupuis (3)
Flyers: Giroux (4), Jaromir Jagr (4), Brayden Schenn (4)
Points
Pens: Neal (5), Crosby (5), Kunitz (4), Staal (4), Dupuis (4), Malkin (4)
Flyers: Giroux (8), Briere (5), Schenn (5), Jagr (5)
Giroux leads the NHL in playoff points.
Hits:
Pens: Matt Cooke (14), Brooks Orpik (12), Neal (10), Staal (10)
Flyers: Scott Hartnell (13), Braydon Coburn (12), Wayne Simmonds (11)
Hartnell only has two assists in three games but shows up in the hits category.
Blocks
Pens: Orpik (7), Zbynek Michalek (6), Kris Letang (5)
Flyers: Nicklas Grossmann (10), Matt Carle (6), Andreas Lilja (6)
Missed Shots
Pens: Malkin (10), Crosby (9), Cooke (5), Letang (5), Staal (5)
Flyers: Giroux (7), Jagr (4), 7 players tied with 2
Seven Penguins have scored at least one goal while Malkin still has yet to light the lamp.
Faceoffs
Pens: Malkin (56.9), Crosby (52.5), Staal (44.7)
Flyers: Couturier (59.6), Giroux (52.2), Briere (45.8), Schenn (45.8)
Malkin with a surprising win percentage but so far it hasn't helped win any games.
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Here’s my take on Sunday's fiasco after watching the tape. Remember, this isn't a gameday report rather my thoughts on what I saw.
Brooks Orpik and Zac Rinaldo started the unpleasantries in front of the Pittsburgh net after an early whistle.
Claude Giroux attacked Matt Niskanen after Max Talbot scored his shortie on Marc-Andre Fleury. Niskanen kept Talbot pinned down after he flipped the weak shot toward Fleury and Giroux overreacted, in my opinion, and went crazy on Niskanen – all after Talbot’s goal and after the whistle. This occurred before Sidney Crosby did anything.
Kris Letang is then called for a cross-check on Sean Couturier 7:24 into the first. What a bush league call this was. Check out the replay. Couturier got a better cross-check on Letang than vice-versa.
The Flyers then score on the ensuing 5-on-3. After the goal, Wayne Simmonds initiates a push on Orpik after Daniel Briere’s goal and after the whistle.
While slowing the tape down, I happened to notice that the TV game clock skipped from 9:04 remaining to 9:02. Not sure how that plays into any conspiracy stories on either side, but it’s something worth noting.
With 8:43 left in the first, NHL fans are greeted with a stirring Flyers greeting during a TV timeout from Scott Hartnell, who introduces his linemates, Jaromir Jagr and Claude Giroux, for the 21-second spot. Could you imagine if the Penguins had gotten that air time?
Right after the Philly infomercial, Hartnell knocks his own net off at the 8:31 mark. Jordan Staal complains and looks for a delay of game penalty to no avail. Two Penguins were camped out in front of the Philly net looking for the puck when Hartnell dislodges the net. No penalty.
Asham gets taken down by Andreas Lilja on the next play in the Philly end. Asham embellishes his fall and the Flyers take the puck up ice 3-on-2 and score. Briere comes up with a beautiful tip of a Wayne Simmonds pass. How Briere was ever on waivers remains a great mystery to me.
Letang then dumps the puck on net from center red. Steve Sullivan swoops in and taps Matt Carle on his way by. Crosby camps out in front of Bryzgalov but doesn’t do anything. Kimmo Timonen takes exception and gives Crosby a little bump. End of play.
Action resumes. Crosby whacks the puck from behind the Philly net. After his first whack, Bryzgalov seemingly covers up. Crosby whacks a second and third time and then the whistle blows during the third whack. Play to the whistle apparently isn’t allowed in Philly as the Flyers converge on Crosby.
Crosby sticks away Jakub Voracek’s glove in the worst display of sportsmanship the game has ever seen (in the last two or three minutes of play). Timonen takes exception to that. He whacks Crosby’s stick with a downward motion of his own stick. Crosby responds to Timonen and the ensuing Crosby-Giroux, Letang-Timonen dances begin.
Former Flyer and NBC Analyst Keith Jones had no problem with anything Pittsburgh did in the first period Sunday except for Arron Asham. Asham deserves whatever he gets. That said, his cross check wasn’t to Brayden Schenn’s adam apple, as Pierre McGuire postulated, it was to his upper chest. The cheap hit Asham then delivered after that was more of a glancing blow than anything else. It wouldn’t have won a battle a rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots, for those old enough to remember that kids game from the 1970s.
Schenn made a quick comeback, skating exactly two minutes after the Asham hit. He saw ample power-play time after the hit in the first period, too. The hit can’t be justified. Asham will almost surely get suspended. But in Brendan Shanahan’s crazy little world the damage Asham inflicted on Schenn wasn’t very severe.
Looking back at the play of James Neal, it’s easy to see why he went over the edge late Sunday. With 7:02 left in the first he gets tripped, but since the Pens were already on the power play, no call was made. Then, seven seconds later Braydon Coburn pushes him over Ilya Bryzgalov’s skates, no call. Neal takes at least 10 seconds getting up.
Neal shows heart taking puck straight up the gut between and around two Flyers defenders, beating Bryzgalov for a pretty goal.
With 3:58 left in the first, Sean Couturier levels Neal in the neutral zone with a huge hit. Problem was, Neal never had the puck in a blatant interference no-call.
Evgeni Malkin looked dismal carrying the puck 4-on-4. Max Talbot confronted him just inside the Philly blue line and Malkin gave the puck away as if he was afraid Talbo was going to beat him up the ice again – even though Geno had the puck. Very strange. I thought perhaps it was at the end of Malkin’s shift, but he stayed out and Neal scored 30 seconds later.
One sign that coach Dan Bylsma appeared to have missed -- or just didn’t think was a big deal – was the ugly decision-making by Marc-Andre Fleury with the puck. With the Flyers on the man advantage, the Flower passes the puck from behind his net right onto Jaromir Jagr’s stick 15 feet away. Philly nearly scored on the play. Such poor decision making would’ve made other coaches think long and hard about benching Fleury sooner than the third period.
Wrapping up the first 20 minutes, Neal laid the lumber with a late hit on Talbot at the 19:45 mark. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see the forward get two minutes for the late hit but nothing was called.
Regarding the Penguins defensive corps, it appears too compartmentalized. Zbynek Michalek blocks shots but excels at little else. Paul Martin moves the puck, Deryk Engelland uses his toughness, but they lack all-around skills. Matt Niskanen, on the other hand, doesn’t do anything great, but plays a decent all-around game. Brooks Orpik has little offense but is one of the better defensive defensemen in the NHL. Kris Letang is a risk taker that looks great with his smooth glides but sometimes makes bad and unnecessary decisions.
Period 2
Jordan Staal is whistled for a ticky-tack hooking penalty after he turns the puck over. Another terrible call.
Sorry, I can’t take any more of this game. It was a disgrace on so many levels there’s no point in replaying it any longer. Onto the Game 4 preview.
(And there you have it. Game 3 was a debacle in more ways than one, something that we can all hope doesn't happen again Wednesday.)
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Treasure Life & Let's Go Pens!
JT
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