Penguins Playoff Update: A Tale of Two Teams

During a break in the Penguins’ 5-0 Game 4 thumping of the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center last night, play-by-play announcer Steve Mears turned philosophical.

“Cherish every moment,” he said.

He was referring to the outstanding play of our nonpareil captain, Sidney Crosby. Moments earlier, Sid had undressed Philly defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere to notch his playoff-leading fifth goal and establish a new team postseason scoring mark, breaking the previous record held by a pretty good player named Mario Lemieux. However, ‘Mearsy’ may have been referencing our quest for a three-peat, too.

As the old Seals and Crofts song goes, We May Never Pass This Way Again. We won’t have Messrs. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel to cheer forever. Enjoy it while it lasts.

The Pens’ virtuoso performance reflects their Cup-winning heart. Minus net-front wrecker and power-play demon Patric Hornqvist, the big guns—mentally tough and thoroughly battle-tested—rose to the occasion in true champions fashion. Indeed, Crosby, Malkin, Kessel and Kris Letang each scored to lead the way.

Goalie Matt Murray made 26 saves—several during a critical two-minute stretch of sustained Philly pressure in the first period—to register his sixth career playoff shutout and second in a week. Put in perspective, black-and-gold great Tom Barrasso posted the same number of shutouts in 111 postseason games. It’s taken ‘Murr’ all of 36.

The locals played a sound defensive game, too. In particular, they did an excellent job of taking the air out of the barn…and the Flyers…limiting their somnambulant rival to nine shots during a non-eventful third period.

In fairness to Philly, they skated without two-way linchpin and Selke Trophy finalist Sean Couturier, injured two days ago in practice. Packed with talented but green players like Gostisbehere, Chris Kunitz clone Travis Konecny, Nolan Patrick and Ivan Provorov, the Flyers are building with an eye toward the future under general manager Ron Hextall at the expense of the present.

Yet in many ways, the Flyers seem irretrievably chained to their past. In an effort to connect with their far-removed glory days, Lauren Hart…daughter of late Hall-of-Fame announcer Gene Hart…sang a stirring rendition of God Bless America…a traditional Flyers good-luck charm. Although a wonderful singer in her own right, Ms. Hart was forced to share the spotlight with video clips of a ghost from the past, Kate Smith.

Likewise, the inexperienced Flyers seemed almost robotically conditioned to finish their checks…a mantra hearkening back to ‘Freddy’s Philistines’ and the 1970s…even if it meant taking themselves out of the play. To say nothing of the usual litany of ill-conceived penalties, such as Wayne Simmonds’ mindless slash on Brian Dumoulin eight seconds into a crucial power play.

Ditto Matt Read. With his team trailing by four goals and the game clock winding down, the Philly forward decided to make creative use of his stick. Sneaking up behind Pens counterpart Derick Brassard, he whacked his unsuspecting victim behind the knee in classic ‘Mad Squad’ (or Sopranos) fashion.

When in doubt, give ‘em the lumber. Somewhere Bobby Clarke is smiling.

You can take the Flyer out of the Broad Street Bully. But you can’t take the Broad Street Bully out of the Flyer. Or something like that.

Ever classy, the few remaining faithful cheered Riley Sheahan’s third-period goal and chanted “Fire Hakstol! Fire Hakstol!” in the closing moments, shattering the tomb-like ambience.

Thankfully, we’ll be spared another Philly victory celebration.