Smackdown in the Steel City

Wow, what a game! The Flyers defeated the Penguins 6-4 today, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of what happened on the Consol Energy Center ice this afternoon. While I’m sure everyone wants to focus on the brawl at the end of the game, let’s take a look at how the game unfolded to get to that point first.

The Penguins struck first just 1:14 into the game, as Steve Sullivan took a shot from the high slot that caromed off two Flyers and over a confused Sergei Bobrovsky’s head into the net. It was Sullivan’s 16th of the year, and it was assisted by Pascal Dupuis and Sidney Crosby.

A little over 3 ½ minutes later, James Neal buried a pass from Evgeni Malkin top-shelf from right on the doorstep over Bobrovsky. It was Neal’s 39th, and Chris Kunitz also picked up an assist. At this point, the Flyers had played most of the game in their own end, and fallen behind 2-0 for the 6th time in 9 games as a result. Peter Laviolette called his timeout to try to right the ship. To make a long story short, it worked.

The Flyers got one back with under 5 minutes to play in the first period. Jaromir Jagr created a turnover in the offensive end and the puck ended up on Claude Giroux’s stick. As he drifted back towards the blue line, he fired a wrist shot on net. With Scott Hartnell providing a screen in front, Marc-Andre Fleury was occupied. He got a piece of the shot, but it trickled in behind him to make the score 2-1. Hartnell and Jagr got the assists on Giroux’s 28th. The period ended with the score at 2-1, but the Penguins had clearly outplayed the Flyers, which was evidenced in their 15-8 advantage in shots.

Just 1:25 into the second period, Max Talbot celebrated his homecoming to Pittsburgh, where he spent all of his career until this season and won a Stanley Cup, with a deflection past Marc-Andre Fleury. Zac Rinaldo fired the shot to the far post, and Talbot redirected it home for his 19th goal of the year. Sean Couturier also had an assist. While there were no more goals in the period for either side, the Penguins had numerous chances, including a couple spectacular ones for Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Bobrovsky played spectacularly after a rough start to the game. The score was tied, but Pittsburgh outshot the Flyers 15-6 in the second and 30-14 in the game entering the final stanza.

The third period was what propelled this game from an entertaining regular-season battle to an instant classic. The Flyers got on the power play early in the period, and they didn’t waste the opportunity. 2:35 in, the Flyers executed a brilliant passing play. Giroux found Jakub Vorachek on the far side, and Vorachek threaded the needle to Wayne Simmonds, who was all alone on the far side of the net. Simmonds buried it home for his 27th goal of the season to give the Flyers their first lead of the game at 3-2. The passing was beautifully done, and a tic-tac-toe goal was the result.

Then 4 minutes later, Eric Wellwood redirected a pass from Braydon Coburn out of the zone to a streaking Voracek for a breakaway opportunity. The winger went from backhand to forehand to backhand again and slotted the puck home past a sprawled-out Fleury for his 16th goal and a 4-2 Flyers lead.

With a little under 7 minutes to play in the game, Claude Giroux won an offensive zone faceoff back to Marc-Andre Bourdon. Bourdon fired a shot from the point that hit a Penguins defender squarely in the hip. The puck redirected and banked off the far post and in for a goal that, while fluky, proved to be the dagger in Pittsburgh’s hearts as it made the score 5-2. It was Bourdon’s 3rd of the year.

2 minutes later, the Penguins finally beat Bobrovsky again to cut the lead to 5-3. Bobrovsky had been standing on his head for much of the game, but this time his best effort wasn’t good enough. Steve Sullivan ripped a shot from the high slot. This one was not deflected as it went over Bobrovsky’s left shoulder and off the post. As it glanced off the post, it found the back of the net, where it hit the goal support. It bounced off the goal support and back out of the net, and was not initially ruled a goal. After a video review, however, it was determined that Sullivan had his 17th of the year and 2nd of the game, assisted by Dupuis and Michalek.

As play continued before the goal was ruled good, Brayden Schenn cross-checked Sidney Crosby in the back to the ice. While a penalty was called, it was nullified by the video review saying that Sullivan had scored. The check was in retaliation to earlier slashes and cheap shots made by Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but the Penguins still took offense. This would be a key to the way the game ended.
Jakub Voracek found the empty net from mid-ice with 1:15 remaining for his 17th of the year, assisted by Matt Carle and Maxime Talbot. This made the score 6-3 and, for all intents and purposes, ended the game.

While the game was pretty much over, the fireworks were about to begin. Soon after play restarted, Joe Vitale charged Danny Briere and

leveled him with a hit up high, presumably out of frustration and to retaliate for the earlier hit by Schenn. To put it simply, chaos ensued. A massive brawl erupted at center ice, with multiple fights going on at once. (You can watch the video here). Marc-Andre Bourdon took down Craig Adams, but Deryk Engelland leveled Wayne Simmonds with multiple haymakers to the face. The highlight of the brawl was probably Peter Laviolette climbing up on the bench and screaming and pointing at the Penguins bench. A Penguins assistant coach climbed up on his bench and went toe-to-toe with Lavvy. Another highlight was Scott Hartnell taunting a Penguins fan who had dressed up as Hulk Hogan with the Hulkster’s signature hand cupped to the ear move. Play resumed and Chris Kunitz buried a meaningless goal with 30 seconds left to cap the scoring at 6-4. It was Kunitz’s 21st and came off assists from Crosby and Malkin.

While this game was incredibly entertaining to watch and was easily the highlight of the Flyers’ season thus far, Flyers fans shouldn’t get carried away with the win today. Yes, it moves the Flyers’ record against the Penguins to 4-1 and it is a potential playoff preview, but the Flyers’ flaws were still noticeably apparent in the game. They fell behind early again, and started sluggishly in an afternoon game again. These have been two recurring themes for the season and they show no signs of dissipating before the postseason. With the multitude of afternoon games and the quality of opponents in the playoffs, these flaws could prove fatal. The Flyers were also massively outshot on Sunday, 47-26. It took 43 saves from Sergei Bobrovksy, many of them on very good scoring opportunities, to pull off the win. The Flyers have been playing better on the offensive end of late, but they are still forcing their netminder, whether it’s Bryzgalov or Bobrovsky, to play extremely well to pull out wins. If the goaltenders slip up in the postseason or revert back to their early-season form, the Flyers could be headed home early.

While it was a great win, and fans should enjoy it, don’t be lured into thinking that the Flyers are going to walk all over the Penguins in 2 weeks when the postseason starts on their way to the Stanley Cup. The Flyers have flaws, and the Penguins are one of the better teams in the league. Whether it’s Pittsburgh or someone else, the Flyers’ flaws will be exposed in the postseason if they aren’t corrected.