|
Fleury, Gronk lead Penguins as they live to fight another day |
|
|
|
|
|
By Ryan Wilson (Gunner Staal)
Follow me on Twitter:
The Pittsburgh Penguins are not going to go away without a fight. By defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in game 5 they push the series back to the City of Brotherly Love. As the series shifts location one would have to believe, at least to a certain extent, that momentum is now starting to fall in the Penguins favor. For the first time in this series the Flyers are starting to show visible signs of frustration as shown by Giroux snapping his stick over the post. Previously to this point the Flyers were a team that stayed cool and stayed the course, even with the shenanigans of Game 3. Credit the Penguins for rechanneling their game with a more businesslike approach and they have been rewarded with two wins to keep the season alive.
Jordan Staal continues to come up big for the Penguins in the past few games. Gronk is now leading the NHL in playoff goals with 6 and is only 2 points behind league leader Claude Giroux. Staal is as complete of a player as there is in the league. The fact he is red hot can only help if the Penguins are to dig themselves out of the big hole they put themselves in. Most nights if Crosby and Malkin are held off the score sheet, it won’t bode well for the Penguins. Jordan Staal has stepped up to the plate in a big big way. He is playing like a star player.
One of the major stories in this series continues to be specials teams. The Flyers once again strutted out their amazing power play unit in Game 5 and netted another 2 power play goals. Against the Penguins in the regular season the Flyers were clicking at a 22% rate (6/27) against the Penguins 3rd best PK in the league. During this series, the Flyers are clicking at a 55% rate (11/20), unreal. The Penguins are going to have to put the clamp down at some point if they realistically want to come all the way back in the series. They are playing with fire. The silver lining is that the Flyers have not scored an even strength goal since Claude Giroux scored 27 seconds into the 3rd period in Game 3. The Penguins have won both games that the Flyers were unable to score at even strength.
On the flip side the Penguins power play in this series has not been bad in its own right. They are successful 33% of the time (8/24) and have decided to stop giving up the killer shorthanded goals that they were allowing early on in the series.
Most importantly to the Penguins potential success moving forward in this series is Marc Andre Fleury getting a little bit of his swagger back in net. Fleury was back to playing at a high level and was awarded the game’s #1 star. This is huge moving forward for the Penguins, if indeed he finds his groove. He does have the big game ability to steal a game. Hopefully the Penguins continue to help him out when he does leave a rebounds around. The fans were excellent in supporting The Flower. The last time Fleury was in a funk, he credited the fans for sticking behind him and giving him the motivation to fight through it. Is that the game that spring boards his confidence? Time will tell.
The Penguins are 1-3 with Paul Martin in the series, and 2-0 with Simon Despres and Brian Strait in the lineup (7 defensemen lineup).
Manbearpig (Kennedy) is tied with Sidney Crosby with 3 goals, which is good for 5th place in NHL goal scoring in these playoffs. He has certainly saved his best hockey of the year for the playoffs.
If nothing else the Penguins have turned what was a damning bleak outlook, into a manageable situation. They are plenty capable of winning 2 games in a row. Game 6 should be another great game.
Lastly, one of the game’s greatest stars of all time might have played in his last game with Detroit’s series ending loss to Nashville. A huge congratulations goes out to the classiest guy in the sport, Nick Lidstrom. Thankfully, I do not believe it was his last game as the Red Wings are hosting The Winter Classic next Janurary. I believe that will keep him around for at least one more season. Here is to hoping.
Thanks for reading.
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»