PITTSBURGH PENGUINS VS PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
THE PAINT CAN. PITTSBURGH, PA
7:00 PM EST. NBCSN
One week ago tonight these two teams squared off in Pittsburgh for game 2 of this series. In that game Brian Elliott played out of his mind, there were some interesting decisions made by the officials and the penalty killers gave up 2 goals on 3 opportunities as the Flyers cruised to a 5-1 win. The series then went to Philly where the Penguins horrible regular season road record meant that they would come back to Pittsburgh with a tied series if they were lucky. Some felt the Flyers would win both games in Philly, those people should see a psychiatrist. Instead the Penguins waltzed into the Legion of Orange and turned it into the county library in back to back games while putting up 10 goals to the home teams 1 while turning in an impressive 10/10 on the penalty kill. Now the series returns to where it started, the Penguins will appropriately be wearing their home black jerseys as they attend the Flyer funeral.
The Penguins were again without the services of Patric Hornqvist at practice yesterday so all indications point to him not playing tonight. There isn’t an update on the Flyers Sean Couturier as of this writing and it doesn’t really matter anyways. If the Penguins continue to play their game the series ends tonight. Pierre McGuire is hung up on Brian Elliott’s game 2 performance, he has mentioned it in every game since then while Elliott has been getting lit up. Now Dave Hakstol needs to choose which C-rate goaltender he will put between the pipes for an elimination game. Unfortunately for Hakstol his decisions will be even tougher tomorrow:
Overall Flyers fans should be thrilled with the way their team has performed in the series considering they weren’t even supposed to make the post season int he first place. They then managed to put up a strong performance in game two to make some of the weaker minded Pittsburgh media members freak out a little bit. The main concerns in Philadelphia should be focused on looking for Claude Giroux instead of hating Sidney Crosby. Now the Flyers only hopes land on the chances that the Penguins completely forget how to score while Matt Murray forgets how to stop pucks for 3 straight games.
The Penguins are 99.99999% likely to start this game with the same lines they used in game four. The Flyers are 100% likely to not know how to match up against the Penguins. This series has been a matchup hell for Hakstol and Co which was predicted from the onset by everyone except Mike Rupp, who made the egregious claim on live television that the Philadelphia top 9 is every bit as good as Pittsburghs…
The Penguins have a chance to wrap this thing up tonight while the Capitals evened things up in Columbus last night which promises the Penguins get at least 4 days off before the start of the next series which may get stretched into a week. Don’t overestimate how crucial that week of rest could be for the champs, and they know they can earn it with a win tonight. The potential near death of Philadelphia Stanley Cup hopes should have you on the edge of being barely able to function today. Please be sure to pay your respects, come to the visitation and sign the guest book. Don’t bother putting any Flyers logos in the urinals though, they are more of a shit the bed organization.
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