It's a beautiful morning in the "City of Brotherly Love" today. The sun is shining, flowers are blossoming and the Phillies, Sixers and most importantly, Flyers, pulled off a rare hat-trick of victories last night. Those who bleed Orange & Black are still trying to wrap their heads around yet another improbable comeback victory.
We've seen it before though, so no one should be surprised. The Flyers marched into Pittsburgh, got trampled for the first 20 minutes by an adrenaline fueled Black & Gold wave that left them down 3-0 at the 1st intermission, and then calmly dug their way out of their own graves to win 4-3 in overtime on a goal from Jake Voracek. It's rare that a team can make another teams own building feel like a house of horrors. With a record that now stands at 6-1 at the CONSOL Energy Center, that's exactly what the Flyers have done to to the Penguins.
Now you will hear all about the heroics of Mr. Playoff (Danny Briere) and rookie Brayden Schenn today, and every positive word will be justified. Briere did what he does best, rise to the occassion and elevate his play when the chips are down. He was a crucial part of the Flyers last comeback from a 3-0 deficit in Game 7 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals in Boston (assisting on the 2nd goal and scoring the 3rd), and his 2 goals last night proved that despite growing older with age, he still has the magic.
Schenn's performance should come as no surprise either. The last 2 games of the season against Pittsburgh brought out the best in him, and he has succeeded in every big game at every level of his life so far. His monster shift in the 1st period in which he leveled 2 Penguins in the corner approximately 3 seconds apart seemed to settle the Flyers down after they played like deer caught in headlights the first 10 minutes. His 1 goal and 2 assists that followed made it the best playoff debut by a Flyers rookie since Rosaire Paiement in 1968, the first year the Flyers made the playoffs. Schenn was the only Flyer that looked comfortable playing in this spotlight as soon as the puck dropped. The rest of the team eventually followed suit.
However, the Flyers would not have been able to win without the unsung performances of a couple of key players.
Did anyone hear Evgeni Malkins name last night? You know, the same Malkin that just won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer with a whopping 109 points (the only player in the NHL to eclipse the century mark this season). Do you know why you didn't? Sean Couturier, the 19 year old rookie center drafted 8th overall last spring with a pick acquired from Columbus in the Jeff Carter trade, did a spectacular job at staying with Malkin stride-for-stride and relegating "Geno" to a non-factor in the game. His linemates Max Talbot and fellow rookie Zac Rinaldo certainly deserve some credit too, but "Coots" was the driving force in a performance that no one his age should be able to deliver. Think about it, a 19 year old rookie shut-down one of the top 3 players on the planet on the road. Extremely impressive.
You only go as far as your goaltending takes you, and after falling down 3-0, Ilya Bryzgalov stopped the final 15 shots he faced, 4 or 5 in spectacular fashion. Point blank opportunities by Crosby and Malkin (on the PP) were confidently thwarted. Bryz gave the Flyers the chance to claw back into the game. He was left with no margin for error, and he answered the following question that many Flyers fans were wondering coming into this series: Which Ilya Bryzgalov is going to show up for the post-season? Now we know, and as they say, "knowing is half the battle."
One thing is for certain, the Flyers are playing with fire if they expect to comeback from 3-0 deficits every game against a team like Pittsburgh. They need to get the mentality that its okay to start slow out of their mindset. If they can bring the same intensity and performance they do when they go down and force Laviolette to call one of his famous "troop-rallying" timeouts at the start of Game 2, they very well may leave Pittsburgh with a commanding 2-0 series lead.
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