Penguins (34-16-3) @ Flyers (23-22-7)
Wells Fargo Center | Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, May 4 | 7:00PM Eastern
NBCSN | NBCSP | AT&T-PGH | SN | TVS
For the final time this season, we have to watch the Philadelphia Flyers play ice hockey and it couldn’t come a day too soon.
After laying an egg the size of Uranus last night, the Penguins will be looking to bounce back, as they have done all season long after an affair like that, and leave Wells Fargo with just their 3rd win against their cross-state rivals this season.
Seems very weird to think, for as good as the Penguins have been this year and how they’ve managed to just win games in some of the most outrageous ways, that they’ve only managed to beat the Flyers twice this year and have given up 5 or more goals 4 times.
Last night was really no different as the Penguins gave up 13 high danger shots on goal and their goalies gave up 3 goals on those shots. Casey DeSmith, who left the game with a lower body injury prior to the start of the third period, gave up 4 goals in 40 minutes on 2.73 expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick.
Not gonna win many games playing like that.
On the plus side, Malkin made his long awaited return from injury. His minutes were managed, playing a team-low 9:54 at 5v5. In his stead, the Aston-Reese – Blueger – Sceviour line carried the mail and were the best line for the Penguins last night by a pretty wide margin.
The Crosby line:
Just like most of the rest of the team, 87 looked off last night. He still had the 3rd most individual shot attempts in his 20:10 of play with 6, but only 2 came at 5v5.
Blueger, Kapanen, Sceviour, and Carter were all bright spots individually at 5v5, amassing 8, 5, 4, and 4 individual shot attempts and 5, 4, 3, and 2 shots on goal respectively to lead the team. Blueger had a wild amount of scoring chances at 5s, generating 7 of his own. Kap and Carter each had 4.
Getting some contributions from 87’s line and a repeat of those performances will go a long way tonight.
LINES
Forwards
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Zucker – Malkin – Kapanen
McCann – Carter – Gaudreau
Aston-Reese – Blueger – Sceviour
Defense
Dumoulin – Letang
Friedman – Ceci
Pettersson – Ruhwedel
In Net
Jarry
Flyers
The fact that the Flyers have been so good against the Penguins kinda sucks, but would be a lot worse if the Flyers were a playoff team. They’re not, so these wins feel more like moral victories than actual ones despite being actual ones.
This is a team that was close to doing something great last season only to have the chance to maybe finish at .500 this year. They wrap up their season with a Friday-Saturday back-to-back in Washington before playing a make up game at home next Monday against the Devils.
As always, Jake Voracek (8 assists in his last 5 games) and Claude Giroux (5 goals in his last 5) will be the Guys To Watch tonight. Voracek’s 3 assists last night brought him to 24 goals and 27 assists (51 points) in 50 career regular season games against the Pens. Meanwhile, Giroux’s 2 goals and 1 assist last night gave him a cool 20G-40A-60P in 58 games vs. the Penguanos.
Brian Elliot gets the start tonight, whose stat line against the Pens (10-5-3 with a .907 SV% and 3.09 GAA) looks awfully similar to his stat line on the season (13-8-2, .890 SV% and 3.02 GAA).
He also looks like a dad that would show up to his son’s youth soccer game and get extremely mad when his son Tanner lost The Big Game.
Of course, if you still have questions, comments, or concerns about the city of Philadelphia, feel free to continue to direct them to Josh’s email.
things i know about philly
monarchy; fresh prince
that bell that doesnt work
cheese + steak
4 wheelers r main mode of transport— El JUEZ (Formerly REZ:Blocked by F1 Mobile Racing) (@ReZhockeytweets) May 3, 2021
Forwards
Giroux – Couturier – Konecny
Farabee – Hayes – Voracek
van Riemsdyk – Patrick – Aube-Kubel
Lindblom – Laughton – Allison
Defense
Provorov – Braun
Sanheim – Myers
Gostisbehere – Hagg
In Net
Elliott
Get out of Philly and
Go Pens.
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