Running 2008 NHL Playoffs Thread

YES! MAKE THE FLYERS SWEAT IT OUT!

 

This is going to be a good final five minutes.

 

For sure, it would turn out great for one of us

 

Flyers get an empty-net goal, that's it. On to Game 5.

 

May both our teams flourish in their Game 5s

 

Hopefully, Tommy. Penguins are perfect at home during the playoffs, so here's hoping that stat holds up Sunday.

 

A couple thoughts about the Pens:

-The Staal line was Pittsburgh's best. They played a fairly simple offensive game. Dump and chase and cycle. It was effective, especially considering that the Flyers took away the middle of the offensive zone.

-Malkin played his worst game of the playoffs. He kept throwing cross-ice passes that were intercepted.

-In the third, Crosby had an opportunity to shoot the puck. Instead, he tried to throw a pass to a streaking Dupuis. The pass didn't connect and the puck ended up in the corner. Now, I realize that Crosby is in his third year and he's only going to get better. But I think that was a situation where Crosby, unselfish to a fault, had to take the shot on goal.

-It seemed that Michel Therrien shortened his bench, only going with the top three lines. Not to question the job he's done, since the Pens are a win away from going to the Cup Final, but with the Flyers agitating and scrumming it up every chance they had, why keep the sport's ultimate nuclear weapon, Georges Laraque, holstered?

 

Where the hell was he with Crosby taking a faceoff with 14 seconds left and Richards jabbing at him?
If I'm two goals down with 30 seconds left, I'm keeping him on the ice til the buzzer...or until he's needed.

 

David Shoalts of the Globe & Mail sums game four up fairly well:

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080515.shoalts16-web/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

It seems the Pittsburgh Penguins are still in need of a little more maturity.

While they have grown remarkably despite their youthful makeup, the Penguins could use more experience when it comes to the killer instinct. For the second NHL playoff series in a row, they failed to close the deal in an elimination game.

To me the Pens looked uptight tonight. They couldn't complete easy passes, coughed the puck up too much in the Flyers end of the ice and couldn't finish off their chances.

 

One loss. No biggie.

Two losses, then I start to worry a little.

 

If the worst folks can write about the Pens is that they have trouble closing out sweeps in the other team's barn, I can live with that.

I'll start to worry about their maturity if they lay an egg in Game 5.

/Which is not to say they matched Philadelphia's desperation. They didn't.