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Flyers Playoff Gameday: Game 2 @ PIT

April 13, 2018, 8:03 AM ET [972 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME 2 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ PENGUINS

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers will look to put a 7-0 humiliation in Game One behind them quickly as they take on Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday at PPG Paints Arena. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.

Including the regular season series, the Penguins have scored 27 goals against the Flyers in five meetings this season. Following the Game 1 annihilation, all the adjustments must be made on the Philadelphia side. Apart from allowing perhaps a couple too many quality scoring chances for the Flyers in the opening period -- none of which resulted in goals, and several of which didn't even result in shots on net -- there really isn't too much Pittsburgh has to address.

In most every key category -- goaltending, forward play, puck management, team defense, special teams -- the Penguins dominated Game 1. Shots were 33-24 in Pittsburgh's favor. The Penguins blocked 24 shots overall to 13 blocks by the Flyers. The Flyers missed the net 11 times to six misses by Pittsburgh.

The Flyers went an ugly 0-for-4 on the power play, failing to put even a single shot on goal. Pittsburgh went 1-for-4 on their power plays. Actually, the top Pittsburgh power play unit (the deadliest in the NHL this season) can do better than they did in Game 1. The Pittsburgh top unit was not in top form in Game 1, but the second unit carved up the Flyers' PK for a rather easy goal.

Game 1 faceoffs were 27-25 in the Flyers' favor (Sean Couturier was 9-for-12 for Philly, Claude Giroux was 7-for-9, Derick Brassard was 10-for-14 for Pittsburgh). Credited hits were 39-27 Flyers (Radko Gudas led with 9). Charged giveaways were 7 for the Flyers, and 8 for the Penguins. Credited takeaways were 9 for the Pens and 6 for the Flyers.

From the top line and defense pairing down and from the goalie crease on out, the Flyers need to be significantly better in Game 2 to make it a competitive game. To win, they'll need be exponentially better that on Wednesday.

FLYERS OUTLOOK

The current Flyers club has been resilient in the face of adversity, if nothing else. The personnel is different, the situations are different but history shows that there needed be a carryover mentally from even the most lopsided of losses in a playoff game. In 2012, the Flyers sustained a 10-3 mauling on home ice by Pittsburgh but still won the series. In 2016, again on home ice, the Flyers ran into a 6-1 buzzsaw against the Washington Capitals (complete with the embarrassing bracelet-throwing incidents from "fans" in the stands) but still recovered to win the next two games before a 1-0 loss in the final game.

The Flyers practiced on Thursday in Pittsburgh. There were no line changes at practice from the personnel and combinations that started Game 1. Hakstol unsurprisingly refused to comment on whether there would be any alterations for Game 2. The team will not hold a morning skate on Friday.

After Game 1, Hakstol repeated his mantra -- repeated several times over the final week of the regular season -- that Brian Elliott is "our guy" in goal. Elliott struggled in Game 1, especially on the game's first goal. He also didn't much help, and three of the five goals that he yielded were unstoppable. Overall, Elliott made just 14 saves on 19 shots, with no saves on any of the medium-danger or high-danger opportunities. He was replaced by Petr Mrazek at 9:01 of the second period. Mrazek stopped 12 of 14 shots in relief, and had little to no chance of stopping a pair of Sidney Crosby as the Penguins' captain completed a natural hat trick.

As much as goaltending, though, the Flyers' biggest issue in Game 1 was that the guys they count on to be their best players -- among them, Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek and Ivan Provorov -- were severely outplayed by their counterparts atop the Pittsburgh lineup. This needs to change dramatically in Game 2 if the Flyers are to have a fighting chance at earning a split in Pittsburgh.

The complexion of Game 1 could have looked quite different -- even if the Penguins had still won -- if the Flyers had been opportunistic on several high-grade scoring chances in the first period. Scott Laughton had a point-blank chance. There was a loose puck in front that two Flyers failed to pounce on before the Pittsburgh defense cleared it. Travis Konecny had a breakaway. When chances such as these go to waste, others may not come around later. As the game moved along, the Flyers were contained more and more to the perimeter and the Penguins started to close momentarily open lanes and block shots.

Head-to-head against Pittsburgh this season, the Flyers have struggled on both ends of special teams. During the regular season, they went 2-for-16 on the power play and just 8-for-13 on the penalty kill. That carried over into Game 1 of this playoff series, although the Flyers' PK units were not bad except for being essentially spectators on the Pittsburgh second-unit power play goal.

PENGUINS OUTLOOK

Bryan Rust (1st goal of the playoffs), Carl Hagelin (1st), Evgeni Malkin (1st), Jake Guentzel (power play, 1st), and Sidney Crosby (1st, 2nd and 3rd) scored for Pittsburgh in Game One. Kris Letang (1st assist of the playoffs), Guentzel (1st, 2nd and 3rd), Patric Hörnqvist (1st), Riley Sheahan (1st), Hagelin (1st), Derick Brassard (1st), Conor Sheary (1st), Justin Schultz (1st) and Brian Dumolin (1st and 2nd) collected assists.

Matt Murray recorded a 24-save shutout for Pittsburgh. He made several important early saves as well one early in the second period when the Flyers had a bang-bang chance off a faceoff to cut the gap to 3-1. Thereafter, he was scarcely tested. Dating back to last year, Murray brings a three-game shutout streak in the postseason into Game 2.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions did not get to attain that status by taking their foot off the gas pedal in the postseason once they gained the upper-hand on an opponent. In Game One, Crosby scored two deflection goals that were unstoppable for any goaltender. Malkin, shortly after stepping out of the penalty box, took full advantage of poor defensive coverage by Philly players at the end of the shift and scored on a backhander. Pittsburgh never gave the Flyers even a sniff at any comeback hopes after the early minutes of the second period. Up and down the lineup, they got the job done.

One area the Penguins could improve from Game 1: there were several undisciplined stick penalties in the mix with frequent suspect Malkin -- on the NHL's most easily goaded players, as well as on one of the most gifted offensively -- being a prime culprit. Kris Letang, who also has a reputation for being rather easy to agitate into bad penalties, also made a pair of visits to the penalty box on stick infractions although one was a slash to combat a scoring chance for Konecny.

PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change, will be updated)

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 12 Michael Raffl
54 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek
11 Travis Konecny - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
21 Scott Laughton - 15 Jori Lehterä - 24 Matt Read

9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald - 6 Travis Sanheim
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas

37 Brian Elliott
[34 Petr Mrazek]

Scratches: 20 Taylor Leier (healthy), 22 Dale Weise (healthy), 8 Robert Hägg (healthy), 29 Johnny Oduya (healthy), 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 30 Michal Neuvirth (lower body).

PENGUINS

59 Jake Guentzel - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust
62 Carl Hagelin - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 72 Patric Hornqvist
43 Conor Sheary - 19 Derick Brassard - 81 Phil Kessel
34 Tom Kuhnhackl - 15 Riley Sheahan - 46 Zach Aston-Reese

8 Brian Dumolin - 58 Kris Letang
3 Olli Määttä - 4 Justin Schultz
2 Chad Ruhwedel - 6 Jamie Oleksiak

30 Matt Murray
[1 Casey DeSmith]

Scratches: 22 Matt Hunwick (healthy), 12 Dominik Simon (healthy), 16 Josh Jooris (healthy), 37 Carter Rowney (day-to-day, upper body).
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