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The Pittsburgh Penguins can punch their ticket to the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight with a victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Penguins have their blueprint for success and that would be the 2nd and 3rd period of Game 5. The Penguins allowed minimal shots and kept the pressure on while forcing Bobrovsky to make 48 saves.
What the Penguins cannot do is what they did in Game 4 and what Dallas did last night versus Anaheim. Teams with leads in these playoffs have consistently lost them because they resort to playing safe hockey. Safe hockey is not safe. This is being proven over and over again. Stay aggressive, let your players make plays. Do not be in a rush to give back the puck by chipping it off the glass and dumping the puck in when unnecessary. Continue to fight for time and space and continue to make hockey plays. You can’t be afraid of making a mistake. If one happens, so be it, continue to stay aggressive. The rewards will far outweigh the "risks".
Sidney Crosby continues to play well but is there something under the surface that is plaguing him? Mike Colligan takes a look at Crosby and the possibility that he may be fighting through an injury that has hampered his speed and burst. You can find that article here.
Referenced in that Mike Colligan article was this Bruce Arthur tweet:
Interesting stuff from the CBC panel on whether Sidney Crosby is playing hurt. Charted his top speed elsewhere and now, and he's slower.
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) April 24, 2014
All the more reason why the Penguins need to win tonight, rest can be such a difference maker this time of year.
There are no changes in the lines for Pittsburgh entering Game 6:
Kunitz-Crosby-Stempniak Jokinen-Malkin-Neal Bennett-Sutter-Vitale Glass-Goc-Adams
Keep in mind that even though these were the lines during the morning skate that Bylsma may go back to using Crosby and Malkin together much like he did in Game 5. Putting both Crosby and Malkin together was a huge change and one that I don't believe the Blue Jackets were anticipating. It worked out well as the Penguins dominated the puck, specifically Sutter, Stempniak, and Bennett.
Brian Gibbons did skate with the team today and if the Penguins were to win tonight I would think that Gibbons would be ready for Game 1 of the 2nd round.
Brooks Orpik was not at practice and it appears he will be missing Game 6.
The Blue Jackets appear to be without the services of RJ Umberger and Nikita Nikitin due to injury.
While I do believe it is unlikely the Penguins will lose back to back games against Columbus (it has yet to happen this year in either regular season or playoffs). You never want to find yourself in a Game 7 if you are the favorite. When you get into single elimination hockey anything can happen and usually does. Don’t put the entire season on the line if you don’t have to.
The Penguins can either win tonight and wait for the Rangers and Flyers to duke it out, or they can put the fate of their season on a Game 7 which will pit them against an opponent with a high work ethic. Puck luck is a real thing in hockey and sometimes the better teams don't always win in small sample sizes (IE single elimination).
A true Cup contender takes care of business tonight and does so convincingly.
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Congratulations to former Penguins star center Ron Francis on being promoted to the Carolina Hurricanes General Manager.
Thanks for reading!
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