Flyers Force 7, Habs Take Out Pens: Wednesday Recap
This year’s NHL postseason has been full of excitement and surprise, and last night’s action in Pennsylvania did not disappoint. If you can’t get excited over what is happening in the east, you have no pulse. Let’s start in Pittsburgh. I had predicted the defending Stanley Cup Champs to find their game and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals yet again. I had also said for that to happen, Sidney Crosby would need to step up as a leader, and Marc-Andre Fleury would have to be solid. Fleury was anything but solid last night. He allowed four goals on 13 shots in the first two periods of action, including a short-handed goal to Travis Moen before being pulled in favor of Brent Johnson. Crosby was held pointless again in this game, and he was completely unable to play his game the way Pittsburgh and their fans had hoped. Evgeni Malkin was also unable to score, leaving the Pens to rely on their second and third lines to bring them back into the game, and it was just too big of a deficit to overcome. Montréal’s heroes up to this point in the playoffs showed up with their capes on again. Jaroslav Halak had 37 saves on 39 shots, Michael Cammalleri had one goal and one assist and Hal Gill and PK Subban played outstanding defense, garnering 23 and 22 total minutes of ice time, respectively. Pittsburgh defensemen Brooks Orpik said it best after the devastating loss and final game at Mellon Arena: “You’ve just got to start giving credit to this team, this is a good team we lost to here.” An eighth-seeded team has never won the Stanley Cup, but if there’s one team this year looking to rewrite the history books, it’s Montréal.
The second game of the night, Game 6 between Boston and Philadelphia, proved to be another shocker, in this postseason full of electricity. Boston, after leading 3-0 in the series against the Flyers seemed to be in control. Sure, both teams are working with limited rosters due to injuries, and lines are being changed and tweaked during the game, but what really happened to Boston? If you really look into this series, it’s not all that surprising. Boston has won one game convincingly – Game 3 in Philly where they beat the Flyers 4-1. Philadelphia has won one game convincingly – Game 4 in Philly where they beat the Bruins 4-0. Besides that, all games have been decided by one goal, with two games won in overtime. This has been a much closer series than given credit. Boston took an early lead, but this is playoff hockey. No team is out of it until that fourth game is won (see: Montréal vs. Washington).
Tuukka Rask has been given a lot of the credit for Boston’s success and ultimately, their demise in the series, but I don’t think the goaltenders are really the big story. I mean, who is in Philly’s net now? They’ve gone through so many goalies this season that I’m not even sure if they have any left. I think they just slapped pads on their equipment guy and sent him out there. All joking aside, Michael Leighton, the man who was in net for Philadelphia, played a great game, stopping 30 of 31 shots he faced. I don’t know where the Flyers find all these goaltenders. They must be growing them in a farm somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside, but it’s working for them. The Philadelphia Flyers are now in position to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, after beating the New York Rangers by shootout in their final regular season game to give them their ticket to the postseason, the last team to get one. This is playoff hockey. Check your pulse.
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