Pre-Game: Penguins @ Flyers Gm 3

The Flyers, though they needed seven games to do so, put a hurting on Washington Capitals. They were tenacious on the forecheck and punished their opponent with heavy bodychecks at every opportunity. On top of that, their powerplay was outstanding.

Daniel Briere was huge in that series and made the Caps pay seemingly every time they went a man down--he went 4-2-6 on the powerplay alone. He put up six goals and five assists in total that round, but has only a measely pair of goals and a single helper since--all three of those points coming in the Semi-Finals against les Habitants.

Despite Briere's cooling off, however, the Flyers were able to rattle the young Carey Price and breeze by the top-seeded Canadiens in five games. Maybe this would've been impossible without an unreal contribution from R.J. Umberger that realistically couldn't be redoubled as he racked up eight goals and an assist for nine points in that quintet of tilts.

I guess the point of this lead-in is that the Flyers are in trouble. Daniel Briere's picture is on milk cartons throughout eastern Pennsylvania but as of the time of this post, he is still missing.

Send out a search party for Mike Knuble too, because, well, he's been a complete non-factor. Where is the Flyers team that so effectively antagonized Cristobol Huet and Price? They were in the faces of both these goalies and got them to wilt under the pressure. Marc-Andre Fleury? The dude is doing sudouku puzzles in his crease waiting for the waves of attackers that rarely come.

If Briere and Knuble aren't found in time for tonight's Game Three, the Penguins are continuing their march to the Stanley Cup Final and Danny is going back to shooting pucks at abandonded warehouses. [Isn't that some type of vandalism?]

The Flyers haven't done any of the things that have won them two series in these playoffs. Their powerplay is one for six against the Penguins, and, at the same time they have allowed the Penguins powerplay to cruise at a 33.3% clip. They had one of the best combined specialty teams metrics in the league (105.0) when you add the PP & PK stats together. Now? Not so much.

It might be time to put on a lifejacket.

Their blueline, certainly a huge strength earlier in the playoffs, has been ravaged by injuries to Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn. I don't think any team can succeed trying to replace around 50:00 worth of ice time formerly played by their top defenders. That aforementioned powerplay doesn't seem able to move the puck with the ease they could before. They seem static and punchless out there with guys like Randy Jones manning the point.

While all of that is true, they played a better Game Two [though, admittedly, anything had to be an improvement over Game One. I think MAF went down to Carson Street at one point in the game to grab a brew and a bite to eat.]

If they have any chances of winning and making this series interesting:

They're going to need to get more pucks toward Fleury--as I still feel no one has adequately tested him this playoffs.

They're also going to have to crash his crease. Not that I want the Flyers to get anywhere in the playoffs, but still, get in his wheelhouse and make those routine saves difficult ones.

And they're going to have to step up on these skilled Penguins forwards or they're going to skate all over them. Easier said than done I guess.



I might do another pseudo-live blog for Game Three. Give me some feedback. Let me know if it was at all worthwhile the last time and maybe some things I could use some work on.