Faceoff Factor

Analysts Say Flyers Must Outscore, Outmuscle Penguins

Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins

May 10, 10:22 AM | Hype this story!

They’re the kind of comments that are made generically throughout the season, the kind that really have no substance.

But last night, when Brian Engblom emphatically announced on the Versus Network that the only way for the Philadelphia Flyers to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins is to outscore them, anyone with any hockey knowledge knew there was plenty of substance — stupidity.

Sure, the Flyers may have scored 245 goals in the regular season to finish sixth in the league, five goals better than the Penguins, but this isn’t the same Penguins team it was most of the season.

Sidney Crosby missed several months while recuperating from a high ankle sprain, and Marian Hossa didn’t arrive until just a month remained in the season. And that’s not even mentioning the emergence of Evgeni Malkin as possibly the most explosive and most skilled player in the world.

In other words, the Penguins are much more potent now than the were, say, two months ago, and especially at the beginning of the season, when nothing seemed to work.

Then there’s all this talk that the Flyers have seven 20-goal scorers from the regular season, an impressive stat to say the least, but the Penguins managed five 20-goal scorers, one of whom had 47 goals. Clearly, they are no slouches in the depth department.

So when I heard Engblom go off on his first intermission tangent, I said to myself, “If the Flyers try this, they’ll get burned.”

And burned they were.

After Brooks Orpik took a questionable second period penalty, Malkin was hit hard by Mike Richards, leaving the hulking Russian behind on a Flyers breakout.

The problem was that the Flyers tried to go for Engblom’s approach and left Malkin all alone behind the play.

The Flyers’ lack of defensive awareness haunted them and gave the Penguins the cushion needed to secure the victory.

As if Engblom’s stupidity wasn’t enough, Don Cherry added a bit more during his “Coach’s Corner” segment on ESPN, shown below.

Cherry suggested that the way to beat the Penguins isn’t to outscore them, but rather to outmuscle them by playing “Bobby Clarke hockey.”

For those unaware, Clarke was a physical Flyer in their early years who eventually became general manager. His preferred method was to intimidate the opponent into submission. His method always results in plenty of penalties.

Apparently Cherry is unaware of the Penguins’ power play, which is clicking at 22.4 percent in the playoffs.

Apparently he’s also unaware of the Flyers’ lackluster 78.0 kill rate in the playoffs, which surely will not get any better with top defender Kimmo Timonen out of the lineup.

If he was aware of these two very important statistics, he clearly wouldn’t make such bold statements. Then again, this is Don Cherry we’re talking about.

Is it just me, or is the solution to beating the Penguins somewhat obvious — yet difficult?

The way to beat the Penguins is to stifle them with a strict defensive system, one that gives Malkin, Crosby and Hossa little room to be creative.

When teams do this, you don’t see Malkin sitting alone at the blueline with a 15-foot buffer zone between him and the first defenseman, because the focus is on defense.

When teams do this, Crosby isn’t in position to make a redirect off of a beautiful Hossa pass, because the pass probably isn’t made in the first place.

And when teams do this, Petr Sykora and Malkin aren’t given prime shooting space on the right wing boards after carrying the puck into the offensive zone, because the puck likely has to be dumped in for retrieval.

This defensive method isn’t exactly easy to achieve for the Flyers, though, as their defense isn’t exactly mobile and their team hasn’t utilized much of a strict defensive system most of the year.

Regardless, if the Flyers plan to beat the Penguins, the idea shouldn’t be to outscore the most talented offensive team in the league and it shouldn’t be to “goon it up” Bobby Clarke style with a penalty parade.

Both methods will get them nowhere.

Instead, the Flyers have to play smart, methodical, defensive hockey — and that’s why the Penguins will win this series with relative ease.