Penguins Game 1 Review

The Flyers main goal this series was winning a game in Pittsburgh, and that mission is already accomplished.  Now, there is no reason they can't take two.

As mentioned yesterday, the Flyers are terrible in the first 10 minutes of games--I almost expect them to give up the first goal, and just hope they don't give up a second.  Yesterday, it was made even worse with that goal in the last minute of the first, which looked to be a real backbreaker.  The Flyers have shown an amazing ability to come back, and the Pens aren't too adept at shutting it down with a lead, but 3-0 is 3-0.

Hopefully the Flyers now have a mental edge.  The Pens dominated the first, and seemed to regain control late in the 2nd after the Flyers got one, but the Pens really wilted down the stretch.  They were frankly a mess in overtime, and I was thinking to myself they were getting very sloppy around their net and one of these loose pucks around there is going to end up in the net.  That outcome didn't take long to materialize.

Going forward, the Flyers should focus on getting the puck deep.  The Pens defense is not strong down low, and chipping it in will also limit the Pens chance to counter, which is their strength.


Other items:
-Bryzgalov played okay.  I was about ready to declare that Fleury outplayed him in game 1, then Fleury gave up a bad goal to Briere.  Either way, Bryzgalov has pretty much seen the worst possible thing happen (down 3 goals early, including an unlucky one), but finished pretty strong, moving confidently.

-Bourdon and Lilja definitely looked like a weak link out there.  Lilja is slow but battled, and Bourdon seemed a little overwhelmed at times.  Then Bourdon picked up an injury.  Maybe Kubina will go back in, though it's believed he is struggling because he is not 100% anyway.  A Kubina-Lilja pairing is kind of scary, because they will be SLOW.

-The legend of Briere rises.  A little bit of luck on each goal, though clearly Briere was piling up the bad luck all year to get some breaks in the playoffs....

-Of course the first Briere goal was offsides.  Tipping the scales on the whole, I don't think the Pens can complain about the officiating.  All 3 of their power plays were completely embellished, and they were running Flyers and got only one penalty for all their late hits.  Also, their third goal came directly after an icing call was waved off for no apparent reason.

-The Pens are definitely targeting Giroux and Timonen with late hits.  Honestly though, if I were the Pens, I would tone down the physical game.  Their physical aggressiveness didn't hurt them directly, but it feels like the Flyers are in their heads and Pens are trying to compensate by pushing them around. 

-A pretty quiet night for the "stars."  Crosby had a nice goal to get things going, but neither he nor Malkin were terribly threatening.  Giroux was even more invisible. 

-Big game from Schenn tonight though, which is great to see.  The kid is stronger on his skates than he looks.

-And I will leave you with a tweet fom Dejan Kovacevic, Penguins beat writer: "If you're looking for reaction from #Pens, forget about it. They bailed like the place was on fire or something."