Mad Dog

Sure, why not? At the very least, they started each game the right way. Problem is (for Pittsburgh, of course), the Pens are their own worst enemy so far, not the Flyers. The Flyers are showing an amazing will to come back and win. And I give them tons of credit for that. Like Lavy said during his last post-conference - and I agree with him - this speaks for a great character. But teams with the great charcater don't always end up winning. The Pens are one big friggin' mess, especially in their own end. The last game was a teeter-totter game, and the Flyers proved to be successful. But I am not sure how many series in the playoffs a team can win allowing 4 goals a game. Against a team that doesn't have a clue how to play defense, sure, you can roll the dice and be successful. But that way of playing is unsustainable in the playoffs. I just can't imagine how the Flyers hope to keep winning this way. Sooner or later it's bound to come back and bite you in your rear end... The good news is, to my knowedge, the Flyers have NEVER lost a playoff series when leading 2:0. Of course this doesn't mean crap, but still.

Did either of them even begin to practice?

One reason: Pittsburgh. That team is self-destructing. They are mess. They don't know what the word coverage is. Letang plays like a woman. Their defense cannot possibly play any worse. And Fluery is.... well..... not taht Bryz outplays him, but Bryz at least makes *some* big saves when his team needed him to. Fleury so far came up very small. Don't get me wrong: I am not saying the Flyers don't deserve to be 2:0 in the series. But the team they are playing have more to do with where this series is than the Flyers. The Flyers have to fix their own crap and do it fast, because Malkin and Crosby are capable of turning things around...The way this team starts games is unheard of. I don't understand it.

What annoys me is that we almost, at this point, have to leave with a fact that we will be dealing with two different Flyers teams during every single game. It was this way during the regular season, and, not surprisingly, it spilled over to the playoffs. I guess it would be a tough question to ask why this team continuously has poor starts. I am not sure if it's bad preparation or an impression that they can just steamroll or sleepwalk through the first period and still win the game. One thing I know, if they come out unprepared and not ready to play again, they will be hard pressed to do it twice.

Thing is.... HE DID....

Lilja scares the hell out of me every time he is on the ice, but I am sure the coaches know what we don't.

I am probably not alone who was literally shocked - in a very positive way - by his dedication, commitment, and utter professionalism this season. He put the team first, which I never expected of Jaromir Jagr. He has done everything and more that people expected of him. Let's just put it this way: the Flyers can do much worse than resigning Jagr for next season.

Thank God I already ate my oatmeal this morning...

@aziz To be fair, I don't have stats to back up my contention. This is more qualitative than quantitative. I watched a fair share of games this season, and I saw him throwing elbows left and right. I saw him instigating. I saw him punching or even spearing, and not getting called for even 2 minutes minor. Again, I cannot attach any videos or even periodicals, so if you or B21 want to call these unsubstantiated statements on my part, that's more than fair. Yet, when known NHL pests (mind you, not "dirty" players of Matt Cook's caliber, but just players who "play on the edge") do it.... like Perry, Callahan, Lucic, and Morrow, they would get whistled for a minor... and depending on the severity would get suspended as well. Sure, Malkin has accumulated decent PIM this season. That's hard to argue with. But what are those? Tripping, obstruction, boarding? Or more egregious/blatant stuff? I am not challenging your opinion; this is an honest question because again, those games I did watch the Pens play, I saw him getting away with something that an ordinary non-star player will not. But it stands to reason that when other NHL figures are calling him dirty, there must be some truth to that. And that was actually the topic of this very thread. I am, for one, is guilty for sending it off-track. So…………. Can we agree that he is a dirty player?

And @aziz. I get all that. But this doesn't excuse the league for being biased. The rules should be applied to everybody. It's like a law. Is somebody exempt from breaking the law? If Giroux, or Teemu Selanne, or Gaborik, or Stamkos, or Henrik Sedin (all star-caliber & consitently clean players) elbow somebody and get called for it, I would be OK with that too, because they *should* be called. A penalty is a penalty. And here is another thing. By this very logic, Malkin should be under the league's scrutiny because this is the crap he pulls quite often. He will throw an elbow or do a knee-to-knee stuff in just about every other game. But he hardly ever gets called for that. Yet when Brenden Morrow or Corey Perry, or Ryan Callahan, for example, do that, they will get whistled every single time. Why Malkin cannot be regarded as a repeat offender? Why do refs choose to turn the other way when he does it? Can you please explain?

@aziz Yeah, I think watching it several times, it's hard to argue that both players were "at it". It was a back-and-forth, which happens all the time, especially between 2 teams that don't like each other. But the point to be made is that one really has to look at a pattern. Giroux is not known as a dirty player. Not really. Malkin, on the other hand, has done it many times. He is known for stirring things up, giving players chip shots after the whistle, knee-on-knee hits, and doing other things that would be qualified as "dirty". The same can be said about Ovechkin. They both belong in the category of players who do things you are just not supposed to do, and they do it with regularity that makes people shake their heads in disbelief. But that's life. Things of this nature have always been around... But what annoys me is that in most cases, refs would turn the blind eye to Ovechkin and Crosby (and probably several others). Yet, when it's Carcillo, Steve Ott, Matt Cook, Avery, or Chris Neil, it's an automatic 2-minute minor. Hell, even Pronger, when he was younger, was punished by the leaghue relentlessly. I just wonder why some players are mor eprotected by the league... Is that because of the star status? If that's the case, that's crap. Look. I am not complaining about a given player being "dirty" per se. But I want to see an equal treatment.

I agree this is not a Stanley Cup material, but not necessarily because of youth. I think Schenn, Couturier and Reed showed time and time again that they are more than ready to play a big role. What will hurt this team, eventually, is 1) questionable goaltending, 2) inconsistent defense and 3) lack of team toughness. Unfortunately, the loss of Pronger proved insurmountable, but did anybody really expect that not to be the case? You can replace the Carters and Richards of the world, but you can't replace Pronger. After Giroux, I really felt this is a player they could not afford to lose. And they won’t have Meszaros either, which is a big blow to this team’s chances. I hate predicting – I just think it’s a futile and meaningless exercise. But if I would have to forecast, I feel they can certainly get past the 1st round if Briere and Grossmann are 100% and Bryzgalov doesn't implode... But realistically, I think expecting much beyond that would be setting your expectations up too high.

I am not sure why this would be the case... Sure, Pittsburgh is a decent team, but there are better teams in the league, beginning with NY who the Flyers didn't beat a single time this season. And in the West, tehre are 2-3 teams who are at least as good as the Flyers, if not better. Beating the Pens would be a good accomplishment, but I just don't see how that could be a measuring stick when looking at the rest of the playoff teams. And with Bryzgalov, I just don't know. I still don't trust that man... I hope he proves me very, very wrong.

A lot in the Flyers-Pens series will depend on the health of our team, I think. Pronger, Mezsaros and JVR are out. They cannot afford to have more injuries. If Briere and/or Grossmann are not ready and not 100%, I think it will be tough for the Flyers to beat that team.

Now…. let’s separate two issues here, Aziz. I was agreeing with you in a different thread that Lavy’s whining was baseless. I also agree that it’s not becoming to Flyers’ fans to constantly and unstoppably complain about referring. But what I do believe is that this league cradles and favors the Pittsburgh franchise. I think there is enough evidence to support this claim, don’t you think? Detroit was robbed of the Cup in such an egregious, unceremonious, blatant, transparent manner that it almost leaves you speechless. And that’s just the thing: the league equally discriminates pretty much *all* the NHL teams when it comes to the Pittsburgh Penguins. If other coaches and color analysts notice that, don’t you think there may be some truth to the claim?

It's sickening how transparent the league has become in protecting and favoring this Pittsburgh team. Mario's non-stop whining payed dividents, obviously. It's bad enough they virtually HANDED the Cup to this team by officitating with such a gross bias when they should've lost to Detroit. But God forbid to even talk negatively about the team... And the whole concept of not allowing people to express what they think is actually in conflict with the very notion of democracy the USA (and I am sure Canada) were built on. WTF is their rationale for shutting people up who dare to express how they feel about a certain player or a franchise... especially if what they say is true. And they wonder why NHL is the least popular professional sport league in North America and why hockey continues losing their fans. I mean really....... what this league is doing is unconstitutional. Really makes me wanna puke.

As an assistant coach, sure. Why not?

Yeah, but he is also a pretty reliable defensive liability. Frankly, he drives me nuts at times. What this tells me is that they have hopes that either Bourdon or Gustafsson - or actually both - will make the roster next season. Any you know what? I am quite OK with that. Carle, will be looking for a raise, and considering how so-so of a season he just had, I just can't see the Flyers resigning him.

I think the reason no teers were shed was mainly because he was a disspointment. The sentiment was that he was miles behind in his development. If memory serves, he was tentatively projected to crack the Flyers' lineup for the 2010-2011 season and he was nowhere near to being ready.

As soon as he is done with his beer, obviously.

Look. I think Crosby is a dirty and disgusting player. When I see the camera zooming on his face, every time I feel an urge to hit him in the face. I dislike him and I dislike him a lot. But let's be objective for a second. People get biased when it suits their emotions. We are forgetting that Bill Barber was arguably one of the biggest divers the game has ever seen. Moreover, I am not sure whether people realize this or not, Clarke's play was very reminiscent of Crosby's. Depending on who you ask, he was a master of sneaky, dirty plays. He would very often hit from behind and then hide behind Dave Shultz. Yet he was - and still is - loved by just about every single Flyer fan... and rightfully so. He did whatever it took to win and left everything he had in his not-so-big body on the ice, on every shift and in every game. The difference is that Clarke was a Flyer and Crosby is a hated Penguin. I get all that. But let's try to keep things in perspective.

I believe it was him. Kunitz will look to hurt more players and put them out of commission come playoff time - there is no doubt in my mind. He is a clone of Darcy Tucker: decent talent and dirty.

Well said. I am of a mindset that if you try to finish the season as to avoid a certain team in the 1st round of the playoffs, that, almost by deafult, means you are just not a good team and will be bound to exit the playoffs sooner rather than later. With that said, I *do* think the Pens are a dirty team who will always get a benefit of a last call. And it's not just Vitale. They have several players who can take a premiere player out of the entire playoffs, and there is not a damn thing the Flyers will be able to do. That's just teh dynamics of this specific matchup. The Flyers used to be the team who had a reputation of a dirty team, and you know what? I liked that. But over the past few years, they've been lacking that so much needed element of team toughness. I think if the Flyers wil draw this team, it will be a grueling series in which the Flyers may win, but it will be at a high price. This Pittsburgh team reminds me of the Leafs team of 5-6 years ago, which would always lose to the Flyers in the playoffs, but would not go away quietly and inflict a lot of pain before they go down.

I think it's time to acknowledge that the Rangers are just a better team... and by team I mean from top to bottom (goalie, skaters, defense and the head coach). Tim Sounders and Therien said last night on the air that they don't even have memory as to when was teh last time the Flyers were sweapt by the Atlantic Division team during the regular season. As much as it pains me to say that, but the Flyers cannot compete witht this team. They just can't. I attribute a lot of it to just the Rangers being so much better, but I also have to hold Laviolette responsible. When you keep losing to the same team over and over again, you *have* to at least make an effort to make adjustments. But if there is a silver lining, I will say the Flyers are still missing very important pieces. Not having Grossmann and Briere really hurt last night... and I am not even mentioning Pronger, because for all intents and purposes he is not even a part of this team anymore. Carle keeps having a frustrating season. He has some decent games, but he also at times looks lost, like he looked lost on the Rangers' first goal, from where it started free-sliding for the Flyers. I don't know if the guy is uncoachable or the coaches simply do a terrible job with him. And Bryzgalov looked like the Bryzgalov who was cursed and hated two months ago, instead of the Bryzgalov who had a great month of March. One can only wonder what kind of Bryzgalov is going to show up in the playoffs.

I sort of agree with Aziz... And let's be honest: if the Flyers were doing what Bylsma did (sending goons at the end of the game to send a message), we, fans, would be high-fiving the decision. And frankly, that's what you, as a coach, do. I don't even know what Laviolette was bitching about. The Flyers need to be prepared to stick up for themselves and be ready to play a physically tough opponent. If anything, this is one aspect that scares me in this series. They cannot afford Giroux, Jagr, and Briere being pushed around and intimidated and their teammates doing nothing to change that. This is one of the areas where this team will be missing Pronger so much. This team's lack of toughness can be a real problem. Not having hitters or just tough players (not meaning enforcers - but just "tough") will be explored by the Pens, especially in their building. I will look for Hartnell, Talbot and Simmonds to set the tone. And I hope Matt Carle doesn't go soft either. Grossmann better be ready - this is a series for him to shine.