by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor
Once upon a time, the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins were at each other’s throats 8 times a year. Then, it was reduced to six regular-season meetings and, upon the reversion of the NHL from six divisions to four back in 2013, only 3-to-4 matchups per season.
That familiarity bred contempt with playoff pairings between these Atlantic Division foes in 2008 (5 games), 2009 (6 games) and especially in 2012 (6 games) while the anger migrated on autopilot in the Metropolitan Division era when loads of the same players on both sides remained.
The hatred that was bred during the glory years of the league’s premier intra-state battle has waned significantly since then; only resurrected briefly when former Flyers D1 draftee and defenseman Mark Friedman switched teams during the pandemic and enacted his vendetta as a Penguin during the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
These long-time rivals only played each other 3 times this season, twice in Pittsburgh, with a combined 74 penalty minutes and two fights among the clubs. That’s exceedingly mild compared to the 312 PIMs over 6 games 14 years ago (led by Philly’s Zac Rinaldo with 46 PIM in 4 appearances).
With so much focus on the Flyers not having won a playoff round since 2020, it’s easy to forget – or straight up just not research – that the Penguins are dealing with a serious drought of their own, having failed to win a playoff series since 2018.
So, I’m not really sure how Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang all being three-time Stanley Cup winners enters into the discussions of who has the greater playoff experience when one key battle is who can maintain composure between and after the whistle.
Plus, there’s only 4 players on either roster (Sean Couturier, Crosby/Malkin/Letang) who remain from those Battles Royale. Four Penguins and 10 Flyers made their playoff debut in the Steel City over the weekend.
So how could these division foes, with the thick of the rivalry behind them and totally transformed rosters, possibly ramp up the emotion and give fans and writers a series full of collisions, explosions and straight-up bloodlust like they’ve been pumping up all over social media?
The answer is, they can’t. It’s a different generation where a players’ personality is best downplayed and quotability off it has become a non-starter. The big, game-changing (illegal) hits are few and far between. That doesn’t mean it’s all Kumbaya.
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet warned that his team would work the body right from the drop before Saturday’s series opener. Couturier laid a hit on Crosby on the former’s first shift and the snipe hunt was on.
“You’ve gotta be a physical team,” he noted. “The one thing is, you can’t run around. If you’re 6, 7 feet away, to finish your check is really not the smartest thing but if you’re 3 feet you gotta finish your check.”
The rut commenced officially when Crosby was locked with Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale during a Penguins offensive excursion just after the midway point of the first period. Somewhat puzzled by the prospect of needing Crosby to sit in the box after ripping Drysdale’s helmet off, the zebras had a decent confab before deciding the Golden Child would need accompaniment to the sin bin so Drysdale was sent for “interference.”
Late in the second and early in the third, Pens snit-disturber Anthony Mantha took up woodworking, brandishing his stick high for infractions against a pair of Flyers. Then, adding more drama to the final 1:09 of regulation of a 3-2 result, Crosby and Travis Sanheim hacked and slashed at each other drawing mutual minors.
“I think ‘Sanny’ set the tone. To play a ton of minutes and then to play physical like that, it’s hard,” Tocchet said in the postgame. “He really led the physicality for us.”
The Flyers also laid some obvious and surreptitious shots whenever needed; in the second period, Connor Dewar was met at center ice by Owen Tippett with ill humor and dumped on his dupa, Malkin was also targeted by an errant stick around the midsection on several occasions.
“The kids, they were hooting and hollering a little bit, but what I like about (them) is that they’re even keeled,” Tocchet added. “I just like that demeanor, even keeled.”
Pittsburgh’s current 8-year playoff series victory drought is the longest for the franchise since it went between 1980 and 1989 without advancing. Down by one already on home ice, they’d have to play a better, more complete game on Monday night to avoid a bad situation heading back to Philadelphia.
“It’s going to be part of this series. We gotta stay out of it a little bit more,” a stone-faced Crosby offered after the Game 1 defeat. “And trust that when they do it and try to stir it up, they’re going to get penalized for it. But that’s more something they’re looking to do. We have to trust that they’ll be undisciplined.”
The action of Game 2 manifested itself with a series of tiny snipes rather than grand gestures.
The festivities began on the game’s third shift when Flyers winger Noah Cates plastered counterpart Connor Clifton against the end boards to the left of Pens goalie Stuart Skinner but the zebras and the hosts looked the other way. Then, just after the midway point, playoff newbie Rasmus Ristolainen cruised in on a 4-on-4 chance, took an extra whack at Skinner, and though Crosby rushed in to engage Risto, the former was the only one called to the box.
Before the end of the first, Philly feeler Nick Seeler was held but was booked for a careless stick, then Tippett was openly booped on the snoot by Clifton as four sets of eyes looked anywhere but there. Couturier later flicked Malkin in the face with a stick blade in full view of an official with zero repercussions.
A quiet second period was punctuated by a bit of comical violence, when Travis Konecny drew friendly and enemy fire simultaneously, when Malkin maneuvered his own stick AND Ristolainen’s into Konecny’s face for a 2-minute penalty despite drawing blood.
Down by 2 with 20 minutes remaining, the Pens couldn’t afford to turn up the heat. And they behaved themselves until a scrap with 1:47 to play and the visitors up 3-0. From an o-zone scrum, Tippett received two uppercuts square in the mush from Mantha, drawing blood on the bridge of his nose and no notice from the officials.
Forget bulletin-board material, the crimson splotch on Tippett’s nose and jersey did more than 100 sharp-tongued words.
“I think you’d have to ask the guys who were on the ice,” Penguins head coach Dan Muse said coolly during Monday’s postgame when asked what prompted the late-game battles. “There should be frustration. We just lost two games at home. With the frustration comes (asking yourself) ‘how are you gonna respond?’”
Although the Penguins had gained a stranglehold on the overall series at home since the start of the 2021-22 season (8-1-1 since then entering play on Saturday), the Flyers possess one of the more unique road-ice advantages in the building which opened in October of 2010.
After winning two on the road to start this series, their overall record there stands at 24-14-7, including a 6-2 record in the playoffs over two-and-a-stub worth of series.
In 2012, a relatively calm opening pair of games in Pittsburgh exploded into mayhem in Philadelphia. It’s 14 years later and there’s likely not gonna be any equivalent to Scott Hartnell getting his hair pulled by Craig Adams, or Brayden Schenn blowing up Paul Martin. Then again, who knows?
Flyers fans will be ready on Wednesday. The players *better* be ready to match the crowd’s intensity. The Penguins have an impossible choice ahead, down 0-2 without winning the battles or the war, now without the protection of favorable officiating.
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