For a brief time in Game 3 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, it seemed like the Penguins were finally starting to turn a corner.
Earlier in the day, I published a piece about how the Penguins getting the first goal was vitally important, and they did manage to do that. Evgeni Malkin capitalized on the Penguins' first power play of the hockey game, and the Penguins were asserting their will for most of the opening frame.
But, just as the Flyers are known to do, they began to get under the skin of the Penguins. And it all went downhill from there.
After some penalty shenanigans early in the second period, Philadelphia got to their game and scored three goals in the middle frame to guide them to an eventual 5-2 victory over Pittsburgh. The loss puts the Penguins in a 3-0 series hole, which is something that they have never recovered from in franchise history and something only four teams have ever come back from.
"You don't really have anything to lose," said goaltender Stuart Skinner, who stopped 24 of 28 Flyers' shots on goal. "We've got the bodies in here. We've got a resilient group. I can say that over and over again, but we've proven it, we've shown it. This is the group that can definitely come back from this deficit. I certainly believe that."
Once the penalty trouble began to occur - and the Penguins got rattled emotionally - they got away from what was working early on, and they find themselves in a very tough spot heading into Game 4, which is Saturday at 8:00 p.m. ET in Philadelphia.
"It gives us the time to kind of do a bit more soul searching and figure it out," forward Bryan Rust said. "We don't get these opportunities very often to get in the playoffs and do something special. We've got to recognize that."
Again, the Penguins got on the board early in this one, which was, seemingly, a key element on the way to victory. The power play - which had been 0-for-7 coming into Game 3 in this series - converted when Malkin picked up a loose puck at the doorstep and stuffed it past Philly goaltender Dan Vladar to make it 1-0.
Then, in the closing seconds of the first period, Flyers' forward Garnet Hathaway caught Penguins' captain Sidney Crosby in the face with a high-stick prior to a setup for a faceoff, and Crosby fell to the ice. Hathaway was called for high-sticking, but Crosby was also called for embellishment, which led to a four-on-four that carried over to the second period.
And that's where things fell apart. Four and a half minutes into the middle frame, a brawl broke out around the Penguins' own net front after Flyers' forward Travis Konecny clipped Rust in the face with an elbow. Rust took exception and took Konecny down to the ice, where he continued to throw punches. Multiple scourmishes happened in the peripheral, and there was a point where Rust stopped punching and Konecny attempted to take Rust down by kicking him with his skate blade.
The situation took a while to sort out, and all 10 skaters ended up going to the box, with Rust getting the double-minor for roughing, which gave the Flyers a power play. Trevor Zegras converted on the ensuing man advantage to tie the game, which completely shifted the momentum.
Rasmus Ristolainen followed up less than four minutes later with a goal of his own that snuck under the right pad of Skinner to give the Flyers the lead. And just two minutes after that, Nick Seeler capitalized to make it 3-1.
GAME BLOG: Pittsburgh Penguins V. Philadelphia Flyers, Game 3Follow along with the THN - Pittsburgh Penguins' LIVE game blog for Round 1, Game 3 against the Philadelphia FlyersThere was some pushback by the Penguins in the third period, however. Erik Karlsson converted on a power play opportunity approaching the midway point of the third to make it 3-2, but shortly after that, Anthony Mantha sent a puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. Noah Cates scored on the ensuing power play to make it 4-2, and Owen Tippett added the empty-netter near the end to send the Flyers home with the 5-2 victory.
"An unfortunate penalty and a power play goal against - it hurts," Karlsson said. "Three games in, you can say that they're winning those battles. They're getting the calls with them. That's the way it is sometimes. It's up to us to realize that, hold our composure, and understand that fighting is not always an element that means you're tough. You can do other things as well.
"We haven't done a good enough job of that, in making sure that type of energy also benefits us. That's, obviously, something that we've learned the hard way now."
Young Penguins' Goaltender Recalled From AHL As Emergency Goalie Ahead Of Game 3The Pittsburgh Penguins opted for the convenience factor again in the selection of their emergency goaltender for Game 3 in Philadelphia against the Flyers on Wednesday.
Three Takeaways
- It is absolutely true that the Penguins unravelled after the brawl at the beginning of the second period. Their lack of proper response cost them the game, and they got away from what was working well for them in the first period.
I said that the Penguins scoring first would throw the Flyers out of structure a bit, and it did for a while. But even as the first period went on, they began to revert to some of the habits that were plaguing them in the first two games, and it came to a head in the second.
So, no, they didn't play well enough to win this game regardless. That said, officiating did play a major role in this game, and the way the "brawl" was handled completely turned the momentum of the game.
For starters, Crosby getting an embellishment penalty at the end of the first was questionable at best. It was the first such penalty of his 21-year career, and he was legitimately high-sticked in the face. I get that he went down the way he did, probably to make sure the referee saw it.
But why are we calling embellishment on a legitimate high-stick and one that was completely unsuspecting on Crosby's part given the fact that he was setting up for a faceoff, not even involved in an active play?
"We don't have a single embellishment all year. Sidney Crosby doesn't have an embellishment in 21 seasons," head coach Dan Muse said. "So, the stick's in his face. They take both of them. I disagree on that strongly."
Even that aside, though, it was nonsensical how the Penguins ended up shorthanded after the Rust-Konecny ordeal. Konecny committed two dangerous penalties on the play - first, the elbow, and then, the blatant kick/attempted slew foot, which is supposed to be a match penalty. Sure, Rust went a little overboard, too, as he punched Konecny while he was already down, but the fact that things weren't evened up at the very least is abhorrent.
Not only that, taking every player who was on the ice and throwing them into the penalty box - even if they did nothing - was entirely for show by the officials and was not necessary at all.
"It kind of turned into a bit of a circus there," Crosby said. "Not sure why they decided to put five guys in the box on each end. But, yeah, I felt like that kind of changed the momentum. It took a long time."
I don't have a problem with the Penguins calling out the officials here. They blew both of those calls, and they also blew an embellishment call - clearly an even-up one - on Matvei Michkov later in the period. They weren't blaming their loss on the officiating. But acknowledging that those calls did matter and were very clearly the wrong ones is completely okay, and - in my opinion - should happen more with players and coaches.
The NHL is the only sports league where the officiating and the game itself completely changes in the playoffs, for better or for worse. I'm not sure it would have made a difference in this game, but it certainly didn't help the Penguins. So, it's okay to acknowledge both poor officiating and a poor response by Pittsburgh in this case.
Key For Penguins In Rest Of Series Against Flyers May Be One Simple ThingThe situation may look bleak for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they trail their best-of-seven series to the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0 - but there is one thing that could, potentially, make all the difference for them the rest of the way.- This Flyers' team is a completely different one from the team that the Penguins played four times during the regular season, with the latest matchup a 4-3 shootout loss on Mar. 7.
During the regular season, the Penguins went 2-0-2 against them and outscored them 16-8, largely carrying play. In this series, the Penguins have been chasing nearly the entire time, and head coach Rick Tocchet and the Flyers have perfected their game plan.
The Penguins are a good hockey team. This series doesn't change that or diminish what they accomplished this season, regardless of what happens. But the biggest difference between these two teams is that Philadelphia is adaptable, and the Penguins haven't been.
The Flyers trail for the first time in the series and can't simply just keep full-blown deploying their neutral zone trap because they have to generate offense, so they switch to Plan B, which was clearly to get under the skin of the Penguins' best players. I'm not saying Hathaway's high-stick was intentional, but I'm not going to say it wasn't, either. Once they got the emotional response they wanted from the Penguins, they evened things back up, and they were able to revert to the same neutral zone antics that had been frustrating the Penguins all series long.
The issue with the Penguins is that they struggle to adapt when the game calls for it. If they're not generating offense with regularity and putting pucks in the net, they tend to overthink and force too many plays, resulting in turnovers and exposing Skinner.
What the Flyers have done is impressive, and it goes back to their coaching. This is a legitimately good hockey team, too.
Flyers, Veterans Put Penguins in 3-0 Chokehold with Savvy PerformanceThe <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers">Philadelphia Flyers</a> are just one win away from sending the arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins packing from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they were led by a unit nobody expected to carry the load.
- Heading into Game 4, I'm not even sure there are too many adjustments lineup-wise that would benefit the Penguins enough to help them climb back into this series.
However, there are some adjustments that need to be made regardless.
For one, I did not like the Justin Brazeau-Elmer Soderblom swap. I do think Brazeau deserved a chance at the lineup, but Soderblom had been one of their better players in this series. I would have considered swapping out Connor Dewar instead, but Dewar played a decent game, so I would go back to Soderblom over Brazeau.
Anthony Mantha has been one of the players struggling most in this series, and that penalty was the nail in the coffin for the Penguins. You just can't take that delay of game penalty in that situation, especially with the Penguins pushing hard. He isn't doing much at all to generate, he's making a lot of bad decisions with the puck, and he shouldn't be in the top-six right now in place of Egor Chinakhov, who was deployed on the third line.
And, finally, about Chinakhov: It has been said on here multiple times over that Chinakhov should be on the first power play unit and out for every six-on-five situation. Yet, he's still not out for either.
The Penguins are passing up far too many opportunities to shoot the puck in this series. Chinakhov, like everyone else, has been missing the net a whole lot, but he and Rickard Rakell are the only true shoot-first players in this lineup. And they also have the two best shots on the team, with Rakell being a distant second to Chinakhov, who has one of the league's best shots, period.
It's utter malpractice to not deploy a weapon like that in those situations - especially during six-on-five, when a goal is necessary. It's not as if Chinakhov isn't responsible defensively. He's capable of covering high for Karlsson and Malkin when they pinch. And, again, he will get pucks to the net with shots that approach 90 mph regularly.
Muse hasn't missed a ton as far as coaching decisions and deployment this season, all things considered for a rookie head coach. But this is one that completely baffles me, especially if you're in the position of trying to convince Chinakhov to want to remain in Pittsburgh as a pending-RFA and when your best pure goal-scorer is on the bench in situations where you literally need goals.
The Penguins need to show trust and belief in a player like this. The team is also just much better off with him out there in "must score" situations. So, his lack of deployment in those two situations needs to change in Game 4 and moving forward.
'We're Going To Get It Right Overwhelmingly': NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Talks Goaltender Interference Ahead Of Penguins-Flyers Game 2NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman took to the podium ahead of Game 2 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers and spent a good chunk of time talking about the goaltender inteference controversy, reiterating that the league gets the calls right "overwhelmingly."
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