Did the Philadelphia Flyers sleepwalk their way into Wednesday night or were the Pittsburgh Penguins just that excited to get Game 1 started? Feel free to have that chicken-and-the-egg argument in the comments, but the bottom like is that the Penguins had “the extra jump” through the first 20 minutes of the contest.
(That was particularly true in the first 10 minutes, which seems to be the traditional period of time that road teams worry about in the postseason.)
First, Sidney Crosby scored the first goal of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs by backhanding a loose puck over Ilya Bryzgalov. Shortly after that, the Penguins burned the Flyers in transition as Jordan Staal made a great play to Tyler Kennedy, who buried a 2-0 goal.
It wasn’t all early damage, though, as Pascal Dupuis now has a points streak of 17 regular season and one playoff game thanks to a 3-0 tally with just 37 seconds left in the opening frame.
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette wisely opted to call a timeout, which seemed to stop the bleeding - for the most part. Philly had a storybook opportunity later on as Jaromir Jagr found himself on a semi-breakaway, but either he didn’t get enough of the shot or Marc-Andre Fleury did enough to stop what could have been a big counter-punch.
It’s hard not to wonder if Ilya Bryzgalov might get the hook already, as the quote machine in leg pads has suffered the type of tough playoff start that seemed to become a sad signature in Phoenix. (Let’s be honest; it wasn’t always his fault with the Coyotes and it hasn’t been all on him tonight, but many will frame it that way.)
As PHT’s Ryan Dadoun points out, the Flyers are still dangerous when coming from behind. They were 20-22-4 in regular season games when they allowed the game’s first goal, which is good for second overall in the NHL.
Unfortunately for Philly, they’re facing the Penguins -who happen to be the first place team in that category.