NHL Playoff Predictions 2012: Flyers Will Ride Game 1 Comeback to Series Win

There is nothing more scary than a team that is never out of a game.

There's nothing quite so frightening as a team that doesn't need to play a full game to still beat you. And nothing keeps coaches and players awake at night quite like a team that can erase a three-goal deficit to win in overtime, or one that led the NHL with 20 come-from-behind wins in the regular season.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011-12 Philadelphia Flyers.

The Flyers very well may have taken the Pittsburgh Penguins' best shot on Wednesday night, overcoming three early goals by the Pens and a raucous Pittsburgh crowd before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime.

The pressure in this series now rests on the Penguins' shoulders, who absolutely do not want to head to Philadelphia down 2-0 in this series.

The Flyers were a different team in the second period, suddenly feisty and relentless on the forecheck. They stymied Pittsburgh's power play without much trouble and scored the game-tying goal when they were given one.

Though Danny Briere was the hero, scoring the team's first two goals, the line of Claude Giroux, Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell was sharp. There may not be a more clever pair of forwards on a line than Giroux and Jagr, both seeming so calm and deadly with the puck on their sticks.

This one isn't finished by any stretch of the imagination, of course—the Penguins are too good and have too much firepower for this to be an easy series for Philadelphia. But the Flyers gained a very important mental edge, as the Penguins are now aware that no lead will ever be safe for them in this series.

That will stay in the back of the Penguins' minds, and it will be a factor in this series.

The most dangerous teams in the playoffs aren't always the best regular-season teams, or the hottest teams down the stretch. Often, they are the teams capable of the comeback; the squads that never say never and for whom no deficit is insurmountable.

The Flyers are that team.

While they may not win the Stanley Cup this year, Game 1's epic comeback will propel the Philadelphia Flyers to a victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets are growing a playoff beard.