NHL Playoffs Roundup: Are Flyers Playing for Anything More Than Pride vs. Caps?

It’s possible the Philadelphia Flyers are merely stalling. Despite a hard-fought 2-1 win in Game 4, they find themselves down 3-1 in their first-round, best-of-seven series against the Washington Capitals.

The Capitals were the NHL’s best team in the regular season, and not by an insignificant margin. They’ll have two more shots at eliminating upstart Philadelphia before the Flyers get their first crack at ousting them.

There’s virtue in making the series respectable, in forcing Washington to earn every goal, and if that’s all that Game 4 was, it will have been worthwhile for Philadelphia. Even hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, in attendance for the game, noted that the Flyers' effort was laudable in and of itself.

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“I’m really happy for the Flyers. They’ve played so well,” Gretzky told Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Oake during the broadcast. “Washington is probably the best team in hockey, and being up 3-0, for the Flyers to come out and give the effort they’re giving tonight is pretty special.”

Before dismissing this as merely a noble but doomed struggle, it’s worth remembering that Philadelphia’s season once seemed similarly hopeless.

Twenty games into the year, the Flyers held a 6-9-5 record. They had five non-shootout wins, the lowest total in the league, and were only two points out of last place in the NHL. With 25 games to go, things had improved, but Philly was still stuck at 61 points and mired in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.

This is a team that has shown an ability to overcome deficits.

The Flyers also have some points in their favour.

In Game 4, the Flyers notably held the Caps to two power-play opportunities and zero man-advantage goals. Washington has scored eight of its 13 goals with the extra man. The Capitals' power play has basically defined the series.

At even strength, however, the goal totals are a lot closer (5-3 in the Capitals' favour). Even that may be more a reflection of goaltending than anything else.

As Sportsnet play-by-play announcer Jim Hughson noted midway through the game, the Flyers enjoy a significant lead in even-strength shots. Some of that is a product of Washington's significant amount of time with the lead, but TSN.ca's Travis Yost revealed that over the last 25 games of the year, puck possession was an area where Philadelphia outperformed the Capitals.

If the Flyers can make this a five-on-five series, there are reasons to like their chances.

That didn’t happen in the first three games, where team discipline was a notable weakness and the penalty kill was even worse. It did happen in Game 4, and Philadelphia won largely as a result.

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For one game at least, the Flyers also took a positive step toward neutralizing Washington’s goalie advantage.

Michal Neuvirth replaced Steve Mason in the crease and was named the game’s first star. He stopped 31 of 32 shots in all and preserved the game in the third period when the Caps had a dominant 13-4 edge in shots and were controlling the play.

There’s a semblance of a game plan there.

If Philadelphia can neutralize Washington’s special teams through a combination of discipline and superior penalty-killing, it will go a long way toward keeping the team alive in the series.

If Neuvirth, who was excellent this year, can stabilize the goaltending situation, that will also improve the team’s odds.

To be sure, the smart money is certainly still on Washington, a great team with a commanding lead. So far this year, though, it hasn’t paid to write off the Flyers.

Is San Jose's Near-Collapse A Sign Playoff Demons Will Devour Sharks Once Again?

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Given the history between the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings, it was inevitable that no Sharks lead would be considered safe until the Kings were eliminated from the postseason. Going up 2-0 in the series didn’t do it, and neither will the 3-2 victory Wednesday, which moved San Jose to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup.

That’s particularly true given the manner of that 3-2 win.

After the previous game, the Kings’ first win of the series, star defenceman Drew Doughty suggested the Sharks were thinking back to their 2014 series loss, in which San Jose blew a 3-0 series lead.

“You know they’re thinking a little bit about it now, so we’re right where we want to be,” Doughty said, as per Yahoo’s Josh Cooper.

The Sharks played well early in the game, and Doughty’s comments appeared ill-advised. A little under two minutes into the third, Patrick Marleau gave San Jose a 3-0 lead. Doughty was on the ice, trying and failing to defend the front of the net on that goal, just as he had been on Joe Pavelski’s 2-0 marker:

Even for a player with Doughty’s reputation, it’s hard to get burned on multiple goals in a lopsided loss after making comments like that. Fortunately for Doughty, the Sharks then did their best to make him look correct.

Within five minutes, San Jose’s 3-0 lead was down to 3-2. Doughty didn’t engineer the comeback, though; that privilege fell to Luke Schenn, who hammered two point shots through San Jose goaltender Martin Jones. The first was deflected by teammate Trevor Lewis; the second beat him through a multiple screen:

The remainder of the third period was a tense affair, but the Sharks managed to hang on to their 3-2 lead, closing out the game without surrendering another goal. A friendly analysis would say the team had changed, that holding L.A. to two goals was a sign of maturation. A more cynical take would be that San Jose collapsed once again and was fortunate the Kings didn’t have enough time to seal the deal.

Game 5 is going to be very interesting indeed.

Alex Petrovic Unlikely Hero As Panthers Even Series Against Isles

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When the Florida Panthers need a goal in a critical situation, they have many different options.

The team had four different 25-goal scorers this season, then four other players who tallied at least 15.

Add in trade-deadline additions Jiri Hudler and Teddy Purcell, younger players with talent but not yet with shiny scoring totals, and there are probably 15 players who would come up higher on the goal-scoring list than defensive defenceman Alex Petrovic.

Petrovic had all of two goals in the NHL this season. He had no goals and just three assists in 33 games a year ago. He’s been a pro for four seasons and never scored five goals in a campaign.

He scored the third-period game-winner against the Islanders on Wednesday, giving Florida a 2-1 lead it would hold the rest of the way, allowing the Panthers to tie the first-round series at two games each.

It was Petrovic’s third point in just four playoff games, matching his production in 33 regular-season contests a year ago.

He seems to have cemented the No. 5 role on Florida’s blue line in the postseason, alternately partnering with rookie Michael Matheson or deadline addition Jakub Kindl on the Panthers’ third pair. So far, he’s been a pleasant surprise in the postseason.

Purcell also scored for Florida, his second goal of the postseason.

John Tavares recorded the lone goal for New York, continuing an incredible run. He now has three goals and seven points through four games of this series.

Dallas Stars Ride Potent Power Play to Commanding Lead Over Wild

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The Minnesota Wild made it a series with a big Game 3 win over the Dallas Stars, but the Stars had no intention of allowing the Wild to build on that momentum. Instead, Wednesday evening saw Dallas re-establish a two-game advantage and move within one contest of advancing to the second round with a 3-2 victory in Minnesota.

It wasn’t a particularly pretty game, or an easy game, but then nobody on the Stars side expected it to be. Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said as much before the game, as per Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News:

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I know this sounds crazy, but this is the biggest game of the series. For us, it's push-back time. I looked at the guys before this series started and I told them "We're in for a tough series, there's gonna be nothing easy about this series."

"

Dallas made a switch in net, going away from Kari Lehtonen after two good games and a tougher outing in Game 3. Instead, Antti Niemi took the crease and delivered a fine performance, stopping 28 of 30 shots for a 0.933 save percentage.

Jason Spezza picked up the game-winning goal as well as another assist, but the biggest tally of the night was probably Ales Hemsky’s. Not only did it tie the game at 1-1 in the second period, but as Fox Sports’ Josh Bogorad noted, it had been a while for the right wing:

A five-game scoring drought certainly must feel longer when it’s spread out over most of a decade.

Hemsky’s marker came on the power play, as did Patrick Eaves’ tally; the Stars power play only got two chances but scored two goals for a perfect conversion rate.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, ShrpSports and Natural Stat Trick.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.