It was a chili night in the ‘Burgh on Wednesday. No, I’m not referring to the unseasonably cold weather that’s lingered well into spring.
Back in the day, Wendy’s gave out free cups of chili to ticket stub holders when the Penguins scored seven goals. Although the promotion has long since gone by the wayside, it didn’t make the Pens’ 7-0 skewering of archrival Philadelphia in the latest installment of the ‘Battle of Pennsylvania’ any less tasty or satisfying.
Truly, is there a team you’d rather not clobber than the Flyers?
For starters, there were goals galore, including some real head-turners. I thought Evgeni Malkin’s dynamic backhand tally off a dazzling end-to-end rush with six minutes left in the first period was a thing of rare beauty.
Then Sidney Crosby one-upped ‘Geno’ midway through the second frame with another of his physics-defying deflections, flicking his wrists at the last possible millisecond to swat a Brian Dumoulin drive past besieged Philly goalie Brian Elliott. Perhaps the most stunning display of reflexes and hand-eye coordination I’ve ever seen.
While the Pens celebrated, the cameraman panned to the Flyers’ bench and perfectly caught backup goalie Petr Mrazek’s expression of wide-eyed wonder. The terrified look on his face said it all. “Don’t put me in, coach.”
Mrazek didn’t get his wish. While the beleaguered Elliott scurried to the Flyers’ dressing room for treatment of shell-shock and repairs to his damaged psyche, Mrazek yielded two more goals…both to Sid…including another astonishing re-direct. The little Czech goalie stood glumly by his cage…no doubt cursing his fate…as the PPG Paints Arena faithful showered the ice with hats.
Not that anyone expects to defeat a foe so handily, but I was both stunned and impressed by our exemplary effort. As Kelly, our resident expert at the Pennsbury Pub and Grille, had virtually assured only last weekend, the ‘Playoff Penguins’ showed up. Quite a different breed from the indifferent flock that waddled through much of the regular season and down the home stretch.
No more sloppy drop passes in the neutral zone. No more languid backchecking. Everyone dialed in. Everyone contributed, at both ends of the ice. A virtuoso team performance.
“We executed. We capitalized on our chances,” noted Crosby in the understatement of the century. Boy did they ever.
I was particularly impressed with our penalty kill. We snuffed out four Philly power plays…and yielded only two shots on goal in the process…while rendering Penguin-killers Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux practically invisible. Overall, we did an outstanding job of keeping the potent Flyers on the outside looking in.
When they did penetrate, goalie Matt Murray was airtight. His sprawling, Fleury-esque glove save on Scott Laughton near the nine-minute mark preserved a then precarious one-goal lead and was arguably the turning point of the game.
I also kept a close watch on our defense…Chad Ruhwedel in particular. PenguinPoop readers are well aware that I’ve bemoaned the deadline deal that sent Ian Cole packing to Ottawa on his way to the archrival Blue Jackets. But Chad was solid and fairly mistake-free. Not only does he skate well, but he was smart and patient with the puck. Despite a less-than-imposing frame, he’s not afraid to bump a guy, either.
Speaking of imposing, how about Jamie Oleksiak’s gruesome smear job of Philly rookie Oskar Lindblom in front of the Pens’ bench. Think anyone wants to venture down the ‘Big Rig’s’ side of the ice? Uh uh.
Maybe we’ll be okay after all.
It’s only one game. You gotta’ win 15 more before all is said and done, and plenty of peaks and valleys lie just ahead…perhaps as soon as Game 2 on Friday night. But so far, I like what I see.
Maybe Columbus and New Jersey got it right by resting their regulars and virtually conceding their regular-season finales. You could almost hear John Tortorella and John Hynes thinking, Whoever we face, we don’t want to play the Penguins.
Bet the Flyers wish they had, too.
Puckpourri
Bryan Rust, Carl Hagelin and Jake Guentzel also scored for the black and gold. Picking up where he left off last spring, Guentzel tallied a game-high four points to earn the No. 2 star. Crosby earned top honors with his third career playoff hat trick.
Murray made 24 saves to capture third-star honors. It was his third consecutive postseason shutout.
The Pens outshot the Flyers, 33-24, and held a wide edge in blocked shots (24-13). Philly piled up a 39-27 advantage in hits and won 52 percent of the faceoffs.
OOPS! Where’d they go? That team that played Wednesday?
Hey Rick,
With all the excitement over the Pens game 1 win, something almost slipped past me. Not sure if you saw this so I’ll share because I know you mentioned this name once or twice too, but WBS signed Anthony Angelo to an ATO on April 11. The kid finished his college career and apparently is now on the Baby Pens roster. Tonight I will not only be watching the most important game, but I will take a peak of two at what WBS does tonight. I will be interested in seeing if Angelo gets in a game. I sort of doubt it, but I have been interested in seeing what he looks like as well as the Pens even bigger Russian (bigger in hgt but not necessarily in talent) Nikita Pavlychev.
With Dea, Blueger, Quinney, and Di Pauli already on the roster, I am not sure if they wold put him (Angelo) out there but…..
I also saw some discussion that Maatta may be out and Hunwick in due to injury. Officially the Pens are saying Maatta missing practice was maintenance but others are suggesting injury. I hope the rumors are dead wrong, an injury like that is what I fear the most
Hey Other Rick,
I’m behind the curve on Angello. In fact, I had to look up his stats on hockey db to get a read on him.
Wow…big kid (6’5″ 206)…judging by PIMs, appears to play an aggressive style. I confess, I wish we had one more guy…preferably a forward…who played a legit heavy game. I watch Columbus with guys like Josh Anderson, Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno and just salivate. What I wouldn’t give for even one of those guys.
Zach-Aston Reese isn’t shy about contact, and I really like his smarts and overall game. However, he isn’t quite the physical presence I hoped he’d be.
In the meantime, it’s my eternal lament with our Pens…if we only had one more banger…
Rick
PS–Feel your pain regarding Hunwick. Unfortunately, injuries are a fact of postseason life. He’s going to suit up sometime during these playoffs.
Actually, I didn’t think he played terribly during his recent two-game reprieve. And I thought he showed a lot of guts by taking on Miles Wood…a pretty tough kid. Turns out, Hunwick can fight a little…he TKO’d Justin Williams and gave Evander Kane all he could handle a few years back.
Still, that doesn’t make him a good fit for our style. A rare JR blunder.
PSS–I only wish Hornqvist was 6’3″ 220 instead of 5’11” 189. Imagine the carnage…
If Hornqvist was 6’3 even 210 that would be something.
I have been watching both Angelo and Pavlychev for 2 years now. I could have sworn we talked about Angelo here on Penguin Poop during the off season or prospect camp this past summer.
Pavlychev is actually bigger at 6′-7″ but hasn’t shown much scoring. I think he has 1 more year of college eligibility.
As for Hunwick, Injuries are a part of hockey, particularly playoff hockey. I just wish Sullie would have given some ice time to some others from down in WBS during the regular season, I am sure he would have found at least 1 if not 2 or 3 better. Hunwick may have had a fair game against the hapless Habs and shown grit taking on Wood, but the Caps beat the Pens 3-1 with him out there. If he does get in there, I do hope he turns into a play-off beast but I am afraid right now, very afraid.
Hi Rick, and tOR,
I’ll be checking that out, too, re: Angelo. I’m also hoping to see Sam Meletic, who I really liked in camp, and mentioned on here, make it to WBS next year. He had a great season with the Knights this year putting up 92 points — 35 goals I think. They signed him to a three-year deal back in September.
As for the business at hand, the series, it would be great to do an instant replay of game one for game two. I think Philly may have other ideas, but a start like last game could fry those ideas in short order. Of course, Philly still needs a goalie, for what seems like forever, and that’s going to be the difference in this series, provided we keep up the pace and determination shown Wednesday.
I was impressed by the third and fourth lines performances, and the second power play unit. A second pp unit firing on all cylinders makes this a team you don’t want to take penalties against. Philly hasn’t had that one sink in just yet, but being Philly, maybe they won’t. I like Letang on the second unit, too. With Maatta as the D, he can play rover, which is more suited to his style, and it cuts his minutes.
Mostly, what impressed me is they played pretty good defensively, which has begun chipping away at the reservations I alluded to in a previous post. They were on the puck all night and gave the Flyers no room. By late in the second, Philly was suckin’ wind and their shots from the blue line were like soft, wobbly, noodles. A feast for Murray. We tired them out. Rinse and repeat.
I don’t expect another shut out, though I’d love to see that, but I do expect another solid effort, then heading east up two.
Also liked Columbus taking down the Caps in OT in game one, though I don’t like it too much. I just hope they beat the crap outta one another.
— 55
Hey 55,
Great stuff, as always.
Amazing what a little backchecking and team ‘d’ will do for ya’, huh? I wonder how many Vezinas ‘Flower’ would have won if we’d played any type of defense in front of him?
Speaking of goaltending, Brian Elliott had better not play deep in his net again, or we might put up another 7-spot.
It’s Philly’s Achilles heel. GO PENZ!
Rick
Hey Rick,
The interesting thing about it if Elliot tries to challenge things too much, he opens himself up to the Pens banking shots in off of him. There was that pop-up last game that could have bounced in last game if he had played to far out of his net. The Pens have become masters of the bank shot.
Hey 55,
Militec started to slip out of my radar to you brought his name back up a month or so ago and I started follow both what he was doing and what Bellerive was doing down in the Jrs. Those 2 kids do give some hope for next year.
Bellerive is only 5′-10″ but had 46Gs and 46As in the regualr season and 8Gs with 9As in 9 playoff games in the Jrs and despite only being 5’10 seem to show some grit with 82 PIM in the regular season and 14 more in the playoffs
Militec is a little bigger at 6′-0, not a giant but unfortunately could raise the Pens avg height if he made the big club next season. You are right, like Bellerive he too had 92 points split between 2 teams. He didn’s have as many goals 36, but more As 56. He also seemed to show some grit with 92PIM. His post season wasn’t quite as good 4Gs and 8As in 10GPs.
I am also hoping for CBJ and Was to tattoo each other and whoever comes out of the brawl is crawling not running.
Hey Rick,
Looks like we saw the game pretty much the same way. As I mentioned in my post, there still is a lot of hockey yet to be played in this round alone, let alone trying to look past it, but to quote Frankie Valli “Oh what a night”.