Glad Pens are playing the thugs. Pens often sleepwalk first couple of play off games. Maybe playing the thugs will get them in playoff mode from the get go.
Stanley Cup Playoffs: Flyers vs. Pens Round 1
- Thread starter jim cummings
- Start date
I'm predicting Pens in 6, but then again I'm on record (think it was in the summer) as saying the Eagles would NEVER win a Super Bowl in my lifetime. So what do I know?!
Sure the Flyers have the firepower to dethrone the Pens, but the Stanley Cup Champs could do what they do and bounce Philly back to dilly dilly land. I expect a good intense series that will be fun (and nerve-racking) to watch.
Pens have won back-to back cups each in different ways. If the Pens get to their game and settle in I expect them to make another run. Lot's of what ifs and discipline required. Look only to last year and how close Ottawa came to the final after a lackluster regular season. Or the President's trophy Caps making an early exit. After all the Pens are the champs until someone else proves otherwise. Good luck with that Philly!
Pens have won back-to back cups each in different ways. If the Pens get to their game and settle in I expect them to make another run. Lot's of what ifs and discipline required. Look only to last year and how close Ottawa came to the final after a lackluster regular season. Or the President's trophy Caps making an early exit. After all the Pens are the champs until someone else proves otherwise. Good luck with that Philly!
I don't buy this at all. I don't even have a problem with sitting Kinkaid. You don't sit Hall and the rest of the guys in that situation. That doesn't happen in the NHL. The guys on NHLN all question it as well. Resting a player with 4 days off upcoming--come on man. It was tactical which isn't an insult or an attack. I actually think it was smart--especially for Columbus.
They did--Jersey's the matchup I didn't want because of their speed but do you really think anyone "wants" to play the two time defending champs. Philly is probably the only one that would want to.
Some players need a title to solidify their place in history but you don't need a title in a team sport to be great. Ovechkin is one of the best wingers to ever play the game even without a title
We hear that repeated year after year...... wishing won't necessarily make it come true. But if it makes some feel better, have at it.
Yep, and the without a title usually reflects on an athlete that plays a team sport's ability to contribute to the team as opposed to just playing to rack up individual stats.
Yep. It's not like any team in the Metro, not even Washington, would be a favorite against TB or Boston. But the balance in the league now leads to 6-8 teams in each conference legitimately having a great chance to reach the finals.
Resting them is exactly what you do. Noone questioned it unless they are trying to find fun things to talk about.
Do you really think they rested them so they could be the 8 seed instead of the 6th seed? To dodge a Penguins team they beat three out of the last four times they played?
I'm pretty shocked you don't get it.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/devils-blue-jackets-sit-top-players-rest-game-54308444
LdN
I’d take the winner of the Metro over either TB or Boston. The Altlantic was way too top heavy and both of those teams have looked normal coming down the stretch. Metro has 5 teams in the tourney for a reason.
As for the future, Toronto is head and shoulders above any of the eastern teams...best young talent + best coach = multiple legit Cup runs for the Leafs. Philly has some young talent, but can’t match Toronto as currently assembled.
In all honesty the Pens look like maybe the fifth best team in the East certainly behind Boston, Washington, Tampa Bay and Toronto so to me of the top half of the conference they are the most vulnerable to getting beat. I will not be surprised if the Flyers take them in six. But should they survive that series the Caps will run circles around them this year. The Pens capitalized on their opportunity but they are not the class of the playoffs this year.
In a 7 game series, if everyone (on each team) is healthy, the Pens and the Lightning are the class of the conference. Boston is fool’s gold, Washington will tuck & run as per their typical postseason MO, and Toronto isn’t quite there. NJ, Philly, and Columbus are all good teams that could pull an upset along the way, but they’re just not at the level to make a legit push this spring.
I love how some of you dissect everything to try to create an argument where there is none.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/83646-the-erroneous-perception-of-dan-marino
Pens need a quick series against the Flyers if they are going to make a deep run this year, otherwise they will have no legs in the later rounds. The Pens have played 49 playoff games the last 2 years, which is the most playoff games over a 2 year stretch in NHL history.
If they can win the first two in Pittsburgh, I like the Pens in 5. They have played their best hockey this season after 3-4 day layoffs, and have seemed to have their legs again after these breaks. The Pens also played the most back-to-back games this season of any team and were typically God awful in the 2nd game.
I don’t see them making it past the Eastern Conference final, but they looked dead several times last year and managed to gut out another Championship. Just too much poor play from their defense (too many odd man rushes and bad break downs) to think they have a chance this year, but hey, that’s why you play and why there is nothing better in the world than Stanley Cup Playoff hockey.
If they can win the first two in Pittsburgh, I like the Pens in 5. They have played their best hockey this season after 3-4 day layoffs, and have seemed to have their legs again after these breaks. The Pens also played the most back-to-back games this season of any team and were typically God awful in the 2nd game.
I don’t see them making it past the Eastern Conference final, but they looked dead several times last year and managed to gut out another Championship. Just too much poor play from their defense (too many odd man rushes and bad break downs) to think they have a chance this year, but hey, that’s why you play and why there is nothing better in the world than Stanley Cup Playoff hockey.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
You're boring. Maybe a Flyer should beat the crap out of you.
What have you done to win a Stanley Cup?? Nothing, right? Loser.
Stop living vicariously through others.
The Flyers get pushed around when they try to get physical now. They’re speed team now. You obviously don’t know hockey LOL.
When/where you want to push them around?? I can arrange a meeting. Yeah, I thought so. You obviously don't know when to shut it down. LOL
The Pens seem to play a lot of 7 game series no matter the level of playoff series. I be very surprised it this series when less than 6 games either way. The Flyers are a team to be contended with, they do have talent thus their record. I expect it to be an exciting series and PA will be represented either way into the 2nd round. Wish they met in the Division finals instead of the opening series.
Remember, Ottawa came within 1 overtime goal of defeating the Pens last year and nobody saw that coming!
When have any of those teams shown the ability to make a deep run? Tampa's flopped with this core repeatedly, Boston went out and added Rick Nash as their slash move we'll see how that plays out, Washington has to rely on Grubauer, Toronto's still very young. I'm not saying one of those teams won't come out of the East. I believe the East is pretty wide open but the Pens, until someone beats them, remains the favorite. There's not a team that can match the Pens top 3 lines nor does any goalie in the East have the playoff success of Murray. Will it translate for the Pens? I have no idea but if you actually believe the Pens, on paper, are the fifth most likely team to come out of the East you haven't been playing attention.
That article proves nothing. The Devils won the first three in the series against the Pens and then lost the final meeting in OT. The Devils, IMO, are the toughest matchup on paper for the Pens because of their speed but Shero and New Jersey (which is essentially a junior version of the Pens given their organizational makeup) aren't stupid.
New Jersey went 3-0 against Tampa this year. 3-0 but, yeah, why would they want that matchup over a team that's won back to back Cup and that they pissed off in their final meeting because of Zajac's dirty play on Sid.
Why would Columbus, after the past two years, want to avoid the Pens? Bobrovsky literally has nightmares about playing the Pens on a nightly basis.
You can pretend all you want that coaches and GMs aren't aware of the standings and aren't considering matchups they want. It doesn't make it true.
Teams in the NHL DO NOT SIT PLAYERS...ask Toronto and their meaningless game against Montreal. Did they rest their stars? Of course they didn't. This isn't the NBA or the NFL. It doesn't happen in the NHL. Columbus and Jersey had a game with meaning and they made a decision. Personally, I think it was a good decision for both of them. Columbus has a much better chance against Washington than they do against the Pens if for no other reason than the mental aspect of it. Shero doesn't want his team compared to his old team. You avoid the defending champs as long as possible. Just like the Steelers pray every year that they avoid New England for as long as possible in hopes that someone else beats them.
But, yeah, all about rest. Stop being naïve.
To all Pens fans {of which I am truly one}: This here group of Flyers are coming to play folks. They will not back down, roll-over, or play-dead for the Pens.
That being said, I expect the Pens to raise their level of effort to the max!
Of course, I do want them to win the series and march on toward another Stanley Cup.
Should be a great series.
Actually it won’t be, Pens in 5 at most!!!!
This kind of cockiness always makes me laugh. Where they belong? They haven't been on top of the NHL in 43 years, man. If a Detroit Red Wings fan said that Detroit will be back on the top of the NHL in a year or two, where they belong, or a Chicago fan said this, or even a Habs fan then it would make sense.
The only people who think of the Flyers as NHL royalty are from Philadelphia. That's it.
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