FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The Pittsburgh Penguns were quiet for 44 minutes of the hockey game tonight, then poured it on for the last 16, leaving the Flyers with nothing to do but cry into their playoff beards.

Although the Penguins played a pretty solid first period, they did not elevate their play to "Penguin Level" until after Max Talbot dropped the gloves and fought a mis-matched battle against Daniel Carcillo.

If this were a fight, and I were a Vegas fight judge, I would give the edge to Carcillo on points. He managed more overhand shots and eventually had Talbot down (although Max gamely fought on from his back).

Unfortunately for the goon Flyers, this wasn't Vegas, and it wasn't a fight. It was a hockey game, on ice, in Philadelphia, and the Flyers were helpless specators as the Penguin Machine suddenly roaded to life and scored five unanswered goals.

You got the feeling that the Penguins could do it at any time... but after watching the weak effort in Pittsburgh, and a second period that had them sleep-walking through their assignments, you wondered if they were ever going to remember that "Hey, you know what, we're really better than these guys..."  (BTW, the shot total shows the Penguins outshot the Flyers by a good margin in the second period -- but it didn't feel like that at all... They gave up too many rushes and were lazy clearing the zone. The Flyers could have had twice as many shots if they just learned to hit the net...)

If the Penguins are to hoist the Stanley cup, they had better learn that a great team does not play down to the they level of their opponents. A great team will keep things on their level and watch the lesser team struggle to keep up. If anyone watched the Red Wings' series against Columbus, they saw a prime example of this.

But, something about that fight woke the sleeping Penguins and from there on out, the Flyers were left gasping for their playoff lives. The Ice tilted back at a heavily over-matched Marty Biron.

Oh, the Flyers Faithful did their part... chanting "Crosby Sucks" led by the organist at the stadium. They might want to take a moment and remember that Sydney Crosby -- ever since Ken Hitchcock made that idotic comment about him -- has made a career out of tourturing the Flyers. Maybe chanting his name isn't such a good idea, eh?

Crosby was again Crosby... which is to say heads and shoulders above anyone wearing orange.  Evgeni Malkin may have gotten the #1 star, but Crosby put on a show, smacking a puck out of mid air and past Biron who was clawing empty air like a man swatting at a swarm of imaginary bees. The Flyers fans may want to think twice before trying to get under the skin of Sydney Crosby. It has the same basic effect of Saddam Hussein telling the US Military: "Come and get me." The defiance might feel good at first, but there has to come a time when you say to yourself "Holy S#*@! what did I do?"

The best sign in this game was that Malkin seemed to come out of his funk. It almost felt like he kept waiting for someone on his wing to finally start producing, and then remembered: "Wait a minute... I'm Evgeni Malkin. Scoring champion of the NHL. I don't need no stinking winger!"

I can't wait to hear Steven's excuses for this one. I am sure that he will have all sorts of reasons why the NHL doesn't like his team and they conspired to steal the series from them. Again. He will complain about every penalty -- as he always does -- never mind that the PIM were equal, and the cross checking call on Malkin in the third was so bad that even the NBC sportscasters felt obliged to comment.

But now, after the ritual annual drubbing of the lesser team from Pennsylvania, the Penguins get to sit back and watch the rest of the games play out.

FWIW, I'm thinking that the Rangers suck it up and beat the Caps (who will think they can win just by showing up again -- like they did in the first two games) leaving the Penguins to face the winner of NJ vs Carolina. I'm hoping for NJ, since the Penguins have alwasy sseemed to get to Marty Brodeur -- even though he is arguably the best goalie of all time.

Time will tell...

For now, I will say that the Penguins get the win -- and Max Talbot gets the assist. That was the best non-win fight I have ever seen. He fights about the same way that he makes car commercials... but I always get a kick out of watching both...