Well, at this point there’s not much more you can say about the Pittsburgh Penguins in this series against the Philadelphia Flyers. Maybe some players are hurt, maybe they were unprepared, maybe they just don’t have the mental fortitude for the postseason, maybe it’s a combination of all of those and more. Regardless, Pittsburgh sits on the brink of being swept out of their first postseason appearance in four years after Wednesday’s 5-2 loss in Game 3 in Philadelphia. The Flyers gave the Penguins every opportunity to win this game; Evgeni Malkin’s power play goal in the first gave Pittsburgh its first lead in the series, and Erik Karlsson’s power play goal midway through the third brought the Penguins to within one goal and maybe a chance to tie the game. But, about 90 seconds after Karlsson’s goal, Anthony Mantha made the only play of this postseason that has made him visible (and not in a good way) by flinging the puck into the benches for a delay of game penalty, and Philadelphia would make no mistake in salting away the game on the power play.
There is a collective ineffectiveness to these Penguins that has brought back shades of the worst of the Penguins over the past several years (a phenomenon I affectionately call the Greatest Shits; all apologies to the younger readers in the audience). The phenomenon sees Pittsburgh as a unit get careless, sloppy, confused, and impatient, and that has been dragged out by the Flyers like nothing else in this series. If you’ve seen any of the other games going on in these playoffs so far, even if it’s just highlights, I’m seeing and reading a lot about the physicality of those games, how practically every series features some level of the same shenanigans we’ve been seeing in this Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series. But you know what? The only team that was favored in their series and hasn’t won a game yet is the Pittsburgh Penguins. The physicality and post-whistle stuff has been a wash for every other series, and honestly it shouldn’t matter here. I thought perhaps that the Penguins were beyond the late-stage Dan Bylsma/Mike Sullivan Greatest Shits with this new coaching staff, but evidently that is not the case.
If the Penguins were genuinely as good as their regular season performance indicated, they would have won at least one game in this series. They would have more than four total goals scored. They would have more than one 5-on-5 goal. They would have held a lead for more than twenty minutes. They wouldn’t mentally collapse like a house of cards when the going got tough. Nevertheless, these Penguins, with their new coaching staff and their rebuilt roster, have been largely playing like any of the past Penguins teams which have deservedly missed out on the playoffs. The moments of competence have been too few and far between. In order for Pittsburgh to have any hope in this series, they need everyone to get on the same level that Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust (except for him losing his mind in the second period, giving Philadelphia the opportunity to tie Game 3), and Stuart Skinner have been at all series long, that basically everyone had been doing all season long: meet your expectations.
Egor Chinakov, meet your expectations.
Ben Kindel, meet your expectations.
Tommy Novak, meet your expectations.
Anthony Mantha, meet your expectations.
Rickard Rakell, meet your expectations.
Kris Letang, meet your expectations.
Sidney Crosby, meet your expectations.
For if they don’t, the embarrassment of this series loss will overshadow the triumph of demolishing the preseason expectations and remind us all that this team should have been in the running for a top five draft pick and not the Stanley Cup.
LGP