Who would have thunk it the battle of Pennsylvania will take place to decide who from the East will be sent to the Finals. The Flyers have taken the hard route to the conference finals knocking off the third seated Capitals in 7, and the top seeded Canadiens in 6. The Penguins have blown through the competition beating the Sens in 4, and the Rangers in 5.
Philadelphia has gotten scoring from a variety of locations which they have been doing all season long. Briere leading the way has been producing as expected, and players such as R.J Umberger, and trade deadline acquisition Vaclav Prospal have been pleasant surprises posting roughly a point a game. On defence: Timonen, Coburn, and Hatcher have been weak offensively, but very strong defensively which is all that has been asked of him. Glancing at the stats you may think that between Fleury, and Biron their is no competition between the two but this would be a false assessment. Biron has played very well this playoffs leading his team passed two of the top 3 teams in the East.
Pittsburgh has not shown many flaws thus far in the playoffs. Malkin, Hossa, and Crosby have led the pack offensively posting amazing numbers in very few games. Rob Scuderi, and Ryan Whitney have been very good on the blue line. Fleury has stopped nearly everything thrown his way, and the Pens look to keep it that way.
Keys to victory: The Rangers exposed the Pens one weakness in the playoffs, that being if you knock around the Pens top three they will shut down. The Flyers have a lot of grit in the line-up that grit needs to be put to good use. For Pittsburgh just keep doing what you have been doing all playoffs long.
Decision: The Pens have been to strong this playoffs, but will have a hard time with the Flyers. The Pens however will take the series in 6.
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5 months ago
This is gonna be a tough series. I think this could definitely go either way. However, I'm more confident about this one than I was about Montreal for some reason. When the Flyers get rolling on all cylinders, they're an absolutely dangerous team. The problem is you just don't know for sure which Flyers you're gonna see - the ones who make you think about the Stanley Cup, or the ones who make you think about golf clubs.
5 months ago
The reasoning behind the Flyers' offensive production is fairly obvious: they faced a rookie goaltender in the second round, and played the full 7 games in the first round. When you play more games, obviously your stats are going to be inflated. And honestly, my blind great-aunt could have scored against Carey Price (or Halak) in round 2.
from 5 months ago
Don't undermine the Flyers Eric they may give the Pens a run for their money.
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