FLYERS BLOGS: Broad and Pattison | Flyers Goal Scored By...
If the Penguins have been learning lessons all season with each loss than here's another one - that's how a power play is supposed to work.
The Flyers were absolutely dominant from the drop of the puck. It looked as if the Penguins were a minor league team skating with a bunch of NHLers. Not to mention, the Pens were victimized for their own laziness early in the game with what hockey fans dub "stupid penalties."
This couldn't have been more true than the holding call Evgeni Malkin took 27 seconds into the game. For the sake of Michel Therrien and the rest of the Pens the PK unit was able to kill that one off. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the next two.
Elaborately put, the Penguins' exchange rate on a penalty favored the Flyers with a near 66% profit. Every time the Pens took a penalty, the Flyers turned it into a goal two out of three tries. If that's not a good enough incentive to NOT take penalties, than I don't know what is.
All in all the Flyers scored four of their six goals with the man advantage, further proving why they are ranked number three in the league on the power play. To make matters worse, and perhaps just for a way to really put the sting on, the Penguins only mustered up their typical one goal out of four attempts.
Someone help me out here - what is Jeff Taffe doing on the power-play unit? I understand the Pens are hurting a bit in terms of personnel, but does Jeff Taffe really have to be on the power play?
In my Jerry Springer-esque "final thought," the Penguins were just atrocious today. They definitely did not look like one cohesive unit, but instead scattered cockroaches in the final days leading up to the apocalypse. To express one more stat that only the nerdy operator of a blog would throw out there, the Penguins are officially 1-4 in matinee games this season (Sens x 3, Canucks, Flyers). Keep stats like that in mind when you are laying on a couch come playoff season answering a "doctor's" questions as to why you can't sleep at night.
The good: Well, at least Eric Godard fought, right?
The bad: The PK unit - or is Philly's PP that good? No, the PK unit...
The ugly: JasonB from BleedingGreenNation - he was in the crowd cheering on the Flyers. Jerk.
Next game: Thursday. Thrashers. 7:00. Fleury back?