First Round Previews: Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia

The last night of the NHL season this year didn’t have any real playoff implications, aside from the small matter of deciding who would have home ice in the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series. As long as Philly got one point out of their tilt with the Rangers, they would have locked up 4th place and would have been eagerly awaiting Game 1 of this series in raucous Philadelphia. Instead, the Flyers blew the game in the 3rd, and will now travel to play Pittsburgh, who has lost only 3 games in regulation since the hiring of rookie coach Dan Bylsma. This series will be very different from the Eastern Conference Finals matchup of last year, as both teams have a number of different faces on their starting rosters now.

Offense: Last year, the Flyers were missing one of their top scorers in Simon Gagne when they played the Penguins. This year, he’s back in the lineup, and back to form, finishing the season with 34 goals and 74 points. Jeff Carter was atop the NHL’s goal leaderboard for much of the season, and finished second only to superstar Alex Ovechkin, with 46 tallies. The Flyers have one of the most well-rounded attacks in the NHL, and finished tied for 4th with Chicago in goals scored. However, Pittsburgh finished only 2 goals behind the Flyers, averaging 3.15 goals a game, and have two of the league’s top 3 point scorers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin. The Penguins also added last minute pickups Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin to the lineup at the deadline, and both have scored nearly a point a game since joining the club. With Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal healthy, the Pens have one of the most lethal offenses in the league.

Advantage: Pittsburgh

Defense: Again drawing the comparisons between this series and the ’08 Conference Finals, the Flyers’ defense will have the services of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, both of whom were injured last year. Timonen and Coburn rank 7th and 8th on the team in points this season, with 43 and 28, respectively. In addition to a decently strong defensive corps that ranked 16th overall in goals against, the Flyers also have a Selke Trophy candidate in Mike Richards, who is developing into one of the top two way players in the league. Pittsburgh finished the season having given up only one more goal than the Flyers, despite being without top defenseman Sergei Gonchar for most of the year. Most of the rest of the Pens’ d-men were with the club during their run to the Stanley Cup, so look for these young players to be a bit more used to the playoff pressure.

Advantage: Even

Goaltending: Martin Biron and Marc-Andre Fleury both put up similar numbers all season long. Biron won 29 games, posted a 2.76 GAA and a .915 save percentage. Fleury posted 35 wins, a 2.67 GAA and a.912 save percentage, while playing in 7 more games than Biron. The numbers don’t really tell us anything, other than that Fleury won all but one of the extra starts he had on Biron. Last season, however, Fleury was able to carry the Pens to the Cup Finals in only his 3rd season as the Pens’ starter. This year, he put up career highs in GAA and save percentage, aside from last season in which he started only 33 regular season games due to injury. Couple that with the fact that he already knows he can beat the Flyers in a seven game series, and the young Frenchman should have all the edge he needs.

Advantage: Pittsburgh

Special Teams: On paper, this would seem to be an area in which Philadelphia should dominate the Penguins. The Flyers have the 6th best powerplay and penalty kill in the NHL, as well as 16 shorthanded goals, due in large part to the fact that their skilled players, including Mike Richards, play on both units, and don’t lose valuable playing time when the team is down a man. However, Pittsburgh’s PK ranks 8th in the league, and actually gave up 7 less goals than the Flyers. While their powerplay is ranked 20th overall, they spent nearly the entire season without the key ingredient on their first unit, Sergei Gonchar. In 25 games since the All Star break, Gonchar scored 13 of his 19 points on the powerplay.

Advantage: Even

If Philadelphia had managed a point in their final regular season game, I would have to give them this series. Philly is one of the most intimidating environments to play in, and the physical style of play which the Flyers have adopted, feeds off of their crowd energy. Home ice advantage very well could have negated the superstar power of Crosby and Malkin, but without it, the Flyers will most likely find themselves feeling very dissatisfied at the end of this series. Pittsburgh in 7