Penguins Need To Be Physical To Win

In the NHL today, the Pittsburgh Penguins are heading into game six of a playoff series against the hated rival Philadelphia Flyers.

If the Penguins win, they'll be heading into round two of the playoffs, but if the Flyers win they'll send the series to a game seven final.

It's clear what Pittsburgh needs to do in this game. They need to play fast, physical hockey and take their shots at the goal. That's the kind of play this team is built around, and it's the kind of play that's won them three games in this series, so far.

It's very simple, really: the games the Penguins won, they won with fast skating, taking their shots, finishing checks and wearing the Flyers out. The games they lost, they were simply outplayed physically.

In game three, it seemed like the Penguins were aversive to taking a shot. After Philly jumped out to an early, 2-0, lead, the Pens played overly defensive hockey in an attempt to limit the damage, and it didn't pay off.

Evgeni Malkin was the only player on the ice for Pittsburgh that day that had any sense of playing the game the right way. With the Flyers scoring six goals that game, it's safe to say the damage wasn't limited and a, 6-3, final is a bit of an embarrassment.

The Pens came back in game four with a fantastic showing from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who was simply on fire the entire game and seemed to stop everything that was thrown at him.

The team was able to take advantage of this by controlling the puck and taking shot after shot on goal against the Flyers, and it paid off with a victory.

Of course, they couldn't count on Fleury having that same type of game the next time the two teams met, so instead they played overly cautious once more.

Every shift, they were dropping 2-3 players in front of the goal. While this certainly took some of the pressure off of Fleury, it didn't exactly provide a lot of offensive opportunities for the Pens, who were shut out that game.

Once again, they looked to have an aversion towards taking shots and steadfastly refused the one-timer, and played overly cautious hockey even when they were on the power play.

Tonight, the Pens need to get back to doing what they do best: stealing the puck, controlling it, and bombarding the goal with shot after shot. This cautious type of hockey isn't what this team is built for.

This team is built to score. Too much of this type of play resulted in a mid-season coaching change, so why would they go back to it in the postseason?

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