Flyers-Penguins: Fleury Stands on His Head

Game Four can be summarized in three words: Marc-Andre Fleury.

This was a classic case of a hot goalie stealing his team a game.

The Pens' goalkeeper was phenomenal, making 45 saves in Pittsburgh’s 3-1 win. After a shaky performance in Game Three, Fleury was clearly the difference in sending the Penguins home with a 3-to-1 series lead.

The Flyers came out hard in the first 10 minutes of the game and had three power-plays, and plenty of quality scoring chances in the first period, but could not crack the former No. 1 overall pick.

It figured that with all the difficulty the Flyers had scoring, Daniel Carcillo would be the one to finally find the net with just over eight minutes left in the game. Carcillo had not scored in any of his previous 22 games as a Flyer.

This game was frustrating but what else could the Flyers have done? The effort was there. A game like this just makes the Game Two loss even more painful since the Flyers had the game in their grasp and let it slip away.

All is not lost for the Flyers though. They’ve outplayed the Pens for three straight games now, but only have one win to show for it. Another strong effort Thursday and this series will be coming back to Philly for Game Six.

 

Fleury

I had a bad feeling that Fleury would bounce back in Game Four after reading these comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday morning:

Did Philadelphia get to Fleury a little in Game Three?

“I sure hope so,” Flyers winger Scott Hartnell said of his team’s 6-3 win (including an empty-net goal) to close the series gap to 2-1.

“We did a good job [Sunday] of getting to the net, getting second chances and changing the angle of the puck. It seems like he can stop that first shot most of the time. When we get him moving side to side, it seems like we’ve been getting some better chances and last game we put them in the back of the net.”

 

Biron

I’ve already read plenty of message boards after Game Four ripping Marty Biron for this loss. I’m not sure what else he could have done. On Sidney Crosby’s goal, he had no chance, and the second Pens' goal was a nice move. Flyers goaltending is always an easy target for criticism, but shouldn’t be tonight.

 

Power-plays

The Flyers were 0-for-8 with 16 shots on the power play. Pittsburgh was 0-for-5 with four shots. Philadelphia was on the man advantage for 12:47 and the Pens for 6:55. That’s basically a full period of hockey spent on special teams, which to me is way too much. Penalties kill the flow of the game and unlike Game Three, this game was very physical but not real chippy. Let them play!

The Flyers did get the majority of the calls, but still, this game was marred by ticky-tack calls.

Ryan Parent’s holding call against Evgeni Malkin in the corner in the first period was an absolute joke. Mike Richards tripping call against Fleury when their skates collided was incidental contact and not a penalty.

For Pittsburgh, they had some bad calls against them as well, namely Hal Gill’s interference call on Mike Knuble and Sergei Gonchar’s trip on Hartnell. Neither should have been penalties.

 

Crosby

Sid the Kid was basically invisible again despite his controversial goal. In 25 shifts and 19:53 of ice time, he had two shots and no hits. Crosby was dominant in the face-off circle again though, winning 20 of his 32 draws.

Despite being a non-factor for much of the two games in Philly, Sid still left town with three points over those two contests.

 

Maxime Talbot

Talbot scoffed at the notion on Monday that Flyers’ fans are as “intimidating” as those national hockey polls claim they are.

“They call themselves the most intimidating?” Talbot told reporters. “That’s pretty pretentious. They try to be intimidating. They’re all dressed in orange t-shirts and they scream a lot. Does that make the Flyers a better team? I don’t think so.”

I guess we can’t all be as cool as Talbot is, as these commercials (here and here) prove…what a tool.

 

Face-offs

I’ve been harping on the Flyers’ inability to win draws all series. In Game Four, they were improved, winning 48 percent of the faceoffs (39-of-82). Jeff Carter (14-of-27) and Mike Richards (12-of-24) led the way on the improved effort.

 

On the Fly

• When Tyler Kennedy has as many goals in the series (two) as Carter and Richards combined,  you know the Flyers are in trouble.
• After picking up seven points (4-3) in the first three games of the series, Malkin was held without a point or a shot and was -1.
• The Flyers outhit the Pens 24-to-12 with Andrew Alberts credited with a game-high four.
• Richards crushed Rob Scuderi behind the net in the first period, similar to his destruction of Tom Poti earlier in the season in Washington.
• Every Flyer had at least one shot except for Jared Ross and Parent…In Ross’ defense, he played only four shifts and 2:01. Carter and Richards had five shots each.
• Pittsburgh had lost three straight Game Fours before this.
• Teams trailing 3-1 in a series have been eliminated each of the last 26 occurrences in the NHL playoffs.
• The Flyers are 0-13 all-time in series they’ve trailed 3-1. Three times they stretched the series to seven games, three times to six, and seven times they lost in five.
• The Pens are 6-1 in series they have a 3-1 lead in…losing only to the Islanders in 1975 when they blew a 3-0 series advantage.
• In the previous two series the Pens had home ice against the Flyers (1989, 2008), they scored 16 goals in the two Game Fives played in Pittsburgh (10-7 and 6-0 wins).
• The crowd of 19,883 was raucous once again and really turned it up afer Carcillo got the Flyers within one until the final horn.