Round 1, Game 6 Preview: Penguins at Flyers

Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins

Apr 24, 11:17 PM | Hype this story!

Round 1: Game 6

Pittsburgh Penguins
3
 
Philadelphia Flyers
2

3:00 at Wachovia Center
TV: NBC, CBC
Big Screen Outside Arena: No
Radio: WXDX Radio, FM 105.9
Probable Goalies: Fleury (Pit), Biron (Phi)
 

Inside The Game

Have no fear, loyal FF readers, I won’t be at this one — which means the odds are significantly better the Penguins will walk away with a win.

Then again, they are returning to the hostile Philadelphia environment after sacrificing the series momentum to the Flyers by way of a 3-0 shutout Thursday.

As Jesse Marshall said so well yesterday, if the Penguins are to win the series, a Game Six victory may be their only chance — as strange as that may seem, considering they’d return home for Game Seven, if needed.

The Flyers, coming off of an extremely-well played loss, a game they would have won had Marc-Andre Fleury not morphed into a brick wall, rebounded with a huge win in Pittsburgh.  Surrendering two in a row to the Flyers this late in the series could give them all of the confidence they need to put the nail in the coffin in Game Seven at Mellon Arena.

So, as the Penguins take the ice today, they’ll need to regain focus and begin doing what got them to the playoffs in the first place: playing north-south, in-your-face hockey.

Setting the tempo early is mandatory.  Taking every opportunity to finish a check is not an option.  Putting the puck on net is a must.

Do this, and the Flyers will be on their heels — as they were for the majority of the first period Thursday.  Don’t do this, and the Flyers will capitalize on every mistake — as they did during the second and third periods Thursday.

There are no more excuses.  The time is now, and the Penguins must win today.

Other Games On Schedule…

  • (5) Calgary at  (4) Chicago – 9:00 (TSN, RIS)
    Series tied at 2
  • (1) San Jose at (8) Anaheim – 10:00 (Versus, CBC, RDS)
    Anaheim leads series 3-1
 
Projected Lineups
Penguins Flyers
Guerin-Crosby-Kunitz
Talbot-Malkin-Fedotenko
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Dupuis-Adams-Godard
(Sykora, Satan)

Orpik-Gonchar
Scuderi-Gill
Letang-Eaton
(Boucher)

Fleury
Garon		 Gagne-Richards-Knuble
Hartnell-Carter-Lupul
Briere-Powe-Giroux
Carcillo-Ross-Asham
(Nodl)

Timonen-Parent
Coburn-Carle
Alberts-Jones
(Sbisa)

Biron
Niittymaki
 
Playoff Team Statistics
  Record PP% PK% Home Away Streak
Penguins 3-2 13.8 88.9 2-1 1-1 1 loss
Flyers 2-3 11.1 86.2 1-1 1-2 1 win
PP% (power play percentage), PK% (penalty kill percentage), Home (home record), Away (away record)
 
Playoff Team Statistics (continued)
  GF G/G GA GA/G S S/G SA SA/G
Penguins 13 2.60 13 2.60 165 33.0 169 33.8
Flyers 13 2.60 13 2.60 169 33.8 165 33.0
GF (goals for), G/G (goals-for per game), GA (goals against), GA/G (goals-against per game), S (shots), S/G (shots per game), SA (shots against), SA/G (shots-against per game)
 
Playoff Team Statistics (continued)
  PIM PIM/G Hits BkS GvA TkA FOW FO%
Penguins 77 15.4 143 82 37 25 184 55.3
Flyers 103 20.6 142 78 37 17 149 44.7
PIM (penalty minutes), PIM/G (penalty minutes per game), BkS (blocked shots), GvA (giveaways), TkA (takeaways), FOW (faceoff wins), FO% (faceoff percentage)
 
Playoff Team Leaders
Penguins Flyers
  Stat Player     Stat Player
Goals 4 Malkin   Goals 3 Gagne
Assists 4 Crosby/Gonchar   Assists 3 Carle/Coburn/Richards
Points 7 Malkin   Points 4 Giroux/Richards
+/- +3 Gill   +/- +3 Carcillo
PIMs 10 Cooke   PIMs 23 Hartnell
Hits 31 Orpik   Hits 17 Alberts
BkS 13 Orpik   BkS 14 Timonen
Wins 3 Fleury   Wins 2 Biron
GAA 2.27 Fleury   GAA 2.29 Biron
Sv% .929 Fleury   Sv% .927 Biron
SO 0 –   SO 1 Biron
PIM (penalty minutes), BkS (blocked shots), GAA (goals-against average), Sv% (save percentage), SO (shutouts)
 
Injuries/Suspensions
Penguins Injury Status
Zigomanis, IR Shoulder surgery Out for playoffs
Flyers Injury Status
Cote, IR
Hatcher, IR		 Finger
Knee		 Out for playoffs
Out for playoffs
IR (injured reserves), DTD (day-to-day), Sus (Suspended)
 
Regular Season Team Statistics
  GF GA PP% PK% Home Away L 10 Streak
Penguins 264 239 17.2 82.7 25-13-3 20-15-6 7-2-1 3 wins
Flyers 264 238 22.5 83.0 24-13-4 20-14-7 4-5-1 1 loss
GF (goals for), GA (goals against), PP% (power play percentage), PK% (penalty kill percentage), Home (home record), Away (away record), L 10 (record in last 10 games)
 
Regular Season Standings
  GP W L OTL Pts Division Conference League
Penguins 82 45 28 9 99 2, Atlantic 4, Eastern 8, NHL
Flyers 82 44 27 11 99 3, Atlantic 5, Eastern 9, NHL
GP (games played), W (wins), L (losses), OTL (overtime losses), Pts (standings points), Division (divisional rank), Conference (conference rank), League (league rank)
 
Regular Season Team Leaders
Penguins Flyers
  Stat Player     Stat Player
Goals 35 Malkin   Goals 46 Carter
Assists 78 Malkin   Assists 50 Richards
Points 113 Malkin   Points 84 Carter
+/- +23 Scuderi   +/- +23 Carter
PIMs 171 Godard   PIMs 254 Carcillo
Hits 309 Orpik   Hits 157 Alberts
BkS 164 Scuderi   BkS 164 Timonen
Wins 35 Fleury   Wins 29 Biron
GAA 2.67 Fleury   GAA 2.76 Biron/Niittymaki
Sv% .912 Fleury   Sv% .915 Biron
SO 4 Fleury   SO 2 Biron
PIM (penalty minutes), BkS (blocked shots), GAA (goals-against average), Sv% (save percentage), SO (shutouts)
 
Note: Info up-to-date as of 11:15 pm, Friday, April 24, 2009.

Comments

  1. Pens1967

    Apr 25, 03:10 PM

    Sykora, Godard out, Satan in.

  2. Pens1967

    Apr 25, 06:15 PM

    Just listening to Rich Walsh interviewing Max Talbot. Talbot said when he and Carcillo skated near the Philly bench all the Flyers were telling Carcillo to go ahead and go with Mad Max. Instead of, as we speculated, Carcillo was stupid by himself, the whole team was too dumb to figure out a fight was the wrong idea.

  3. Matt Bodenschatz

    Apr 25, 06:41 PM

    @Pens, thanks for the roster updates and the Talbot/Carcillo tidbit.

    The series wasn’t pretty, but the Pens now have a few days to regroup and get back on track.

  4. bag o' pucks

    Apr 25, 07:11 PM

    The ’08 ECF was the exception, and we shouldn’t expect any series with the Flyers to be pretty. This was a much more typical playoff series, especially with a club that likes the kind of play that Philly likes.

    Plenty of both positive and negative in this series, but the bottom line is the Pens finished the Flyers again and are through to round two with, as Matt says, a few days to rest, regroup, and work on some of their issues.

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