‘They’re Not Dead Yet’: Penguins vs. Flyers Game 3 Preview

After eight long years, the Philadelphia Flyers are heading back to South Philadelphia for a postseason game, and they have a 2-0 series advantage over their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Flyers took both games at the PPG Paints Arena and were by far the better team. They outclassed Pittsburgh in every category whatsoever, and they are cruising in the driver’s seat. Although the two victories in Pittsburgh are amazing, the series is not over yet, and the Flyers will have to keep up the momentum in Philadelphia. 

“We gotta go look at some video, we gotta correct a few things,” coach Rick Tocchet emphasized in his postgame conference on Monday, “coming in [to Pittsburgh] and winning two games is tough, and they’re not dead, so we have to act like they’re not dead. We’re happy, but we’re gonna have to adjust a few things.” 

And he’s right. If the Flyers wanna keep the ball rolling in front of their home crowd over the next two games, they’ll have to take care of these specific areas.

Keep The Pittsburgh Veterans In Check

What the Flyers have been doing exceptionally well for these last two games has been trying to make the Penguins’ skaters as irritated as possible, including the veterans, and it’s been working. Their game plan is to annoy Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and everyone else on the ice by forcing them into uncomfortable situations or causing them to start commotion, which leads to unnecessary penalties. That’s what happened at the end of Game 1, where Crosby was sent to the penalty box late after being heckled by Travis Sanheim. 

The best thing the Flyers can do right now is to continue to get in the heads of the Penguins players. If they continue to do that in front of the home crowd, which will already be fired up, it gives the Flyers an extra jump of enthusiasm and confidence, which they can then use towards scoring chances. Towards the end of Game 2, the Penguins were fed up with the Flyers all night and started a big scrum, which culminated in a chippy end for Pittsburgh. The Penguins have been nothing but frustrated, and the Flyers are taking full advantage of it. 

Limit Unnecessary Penalties 

So far, these two games have shown us a lot of shoving, trash talking, and commotion between both sides, which can lead to someone going to the penalty box if something were to occur. That’s what happened in the first period of Game 2, where the Flyers committed three penalties off high-sticking from Tyson Forester, and roughing calls from Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler, all of which could have been prevented. Although the Flyers killed off those three penalties and another three for the remainder of the game, they have excelled in this series and season on five-on-five play. 

They’ve controlled roughly 52% of goal scoring and scoring chances at even strength, and while they are good on the penalty kill, they don’t want any of their players going to the box for a dumb reason. That’s why in Game 3, they have to be making sure they watch what they do and what they say, as something stupid they can do can get a player in the box, which gives the Penguins a scoring opportunity, which could have been prevented. 

Keep The Crowd Into It 

Xfinity Mobile Arena will be the loudest it’s ever been in almost a decade, and the Flyers know they need to keep their fans in this game at all costs. They’ve seen what it was like at Pittsburgh, especially at the end of Game 2. 

That’s the worst outcome the Flyers want, and they have to focus on multiple key factors, including the two previously mentioned, if they want an electric crowd for 60 minutes of hockey. They’ll need to show their aggressiveness, whether they’re at full strength or on the power play, and score fast and often. If they can tire out Pittsburgh’s defense, that will just keep the crowd energized. 

Getting Porter Martone in the action will always help as well. The 19-year-old has two playoff goals in two games and is coming back home with a crowd of 20,000-plus behind his back. If he can create his scoring chances and possibly even bank one in, that place is going wild. 

But if they also concede early and fail to back themselves up, they will hear the boo birds. They’ve seen it in Pittsburgh, and they know they can’t put themselves in that situation, with the way Flyers fans have been known to react. With the way they’re playing, though, the crowd will be jumping from the moment they enter the building to the puck drop to the last buzzer. 

Game 3 will be on Wednesday night and can be viewed on TNT and NBC Sports Philadelphia. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST.

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