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Pronger: Flyers need to be more physical

Image (1) Pronger2-thumb-250x327-12624.jpg for post 1859

Chris Pronger met with the media today after the Flyers practice, and as always he attracted the biggest media throng of all the players on the team.

He covered a number of topics, but what was most interesting to me was what he had to say about Dustin Byfuglien. The matchup between Byfuglien and Pronger was one of the most anticipated of the finals, especially considering how well Byfuglien had played around the crease in the previous series.

With Pronger patrolling the crease, however, Byfuglien and the top line of the Blackhawks had their worst game of the postseason. By far. Byfuglien was completely ineffective, and considering how poorly that line played it’s amazing that the Blackhawks were able to win.

Pronger is the veteran, he’s been here before and he knows how to handle players like Byfuglien. According to Pronger, perhaps the talk was a bit too much leading up to the game.

“There was a lot of talk. You guys had a lot to say about him,” Pronger said. “So I guess we needed to calm that down real quick. I have played in the West for 14 years. I played against him a lot. So it’s not like I’ve been out East for my whole career and never played against the guy. That may have been blown out of proportion, I think.

“I just tried to deny him easy access to the front of the net. As I said, the first couple of days I think teams allowed him to just to go stand there. You have to force a guy like that to work. He’s a big guy. But he’s got to exert some energy and work to get into position. That tires guys out that aren’t used to it. You have to pay a price, whatever that may be.”

Pronger hints that perhaps Byfuglien was given too easy an access to the front of the net before, and he just needed to be able to work out to be rendered ineffective. That Pronger was able to negate Byfuglien’s attack without taking a penalty in the game is amazing in itself.

Speaking of penalties, Pronger was asked if perhaps the Flyers needed to play a bit more aggressive. After all, not taking penalties isn’t exactly what the Flyers are all about. He got into a bit of a back and forth with the media over the question, until admitting that perhaps the Flyers didn’t play the game they’re successful with.

“Can we play more physically? Absolutely. I don’t think we need to take more penalties in doing so. I think we got off track by not getting the puck in deep and being physical in that respect.

“You know, if we take a couple of penalties, so be it. I don’t think we’re worried about taking penalties. I think we just got off track and started to play a little bit their game, a little bit of run and gun, and that fed into their hand a little bit.”

The fact that the Flyers took no penalties in the game caught everyone off guard, especially considering how close they played the Blackhawks without getting overtly physical. After finally getting down to it, Pronger is dead right; the Flyers don’t need to be undisciplined, but to be successful they can’t fall prey to the run and gun game that the Blackhawks are so good at.

Update: Pronger also had a bit of a feisty session with the media. Here’s video of his time at the podium.