An argument can be made that the two best teams in the Eastern Conference are the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. And one of them is going to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. That doesn't seem fair to some, but that's the system we have to work with, and everybody knew about it going in.
It also adds to the fire of what seems to be the most anticipated of the opening round matchups, between two of the most intense rivals in the league.
The regular season series had plenty of fireworks and now they have (potentially) seven straight games to exchange pleasantries on (and off) the ice.
PIT Offense vs. PHI Defense
The Penguins forwards can create matchup problems for any team in the NHL.
They have two of the league's 40-goal scorers from this season (Evgeni Malkin and James Neal). They have three centers down the middle that can serve as No. 1s (Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal). Staal serves as the shutdown man, taking on the heavy minutes against other teams' top players, while Malkin and Crosby clean up offensively. They scored 13 more goals than any other team in the league this season, were second (only to Boston) in goals scored during five-on-five play, recorded the most shots in the NHL, and finished with the best shot-differential.
Simply put: they can be an absolute force offensively. However, and as we've seen recently, that can also lead to some problems for them, especially against a team like the Flyers, because...
PHI Offense vs. PIT Defense
While the Penguins have been scoring a lot of goals recently, they've also been giving up quite a few (and even more chances). They sometimes get a bit too creative (and careless) with the puck which leads to turnovers, leaving them vulnerable to teams that can beat them back in transition. Philadelphia is that type of team, and we've seen it happen time and time again during the six previous matchups in the regular season.
The Flyers forwards are no walk in the park for opposing teams, either. With Claude Giroux taking over the Mike Richards role (and still scoring like a champ) to go along with players like Scott Hartnell, Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Simmonds, Matt Read and Jakub Voracek up front the Flyers have been a team that would have no problem scoring with the Penguins.
Goaltending
This edge for the Penguins may not be as big as some would have you believe. Marc-Andre Fleury is the best goalie in the series, but the Penguins have nobody behind him if it should come to that. For the Flyers, Sergei Bobrovsky and Ilya Bryzgalov can probably serve as 1A and 1B, and Bobrovsky has pretty much owned the Penguins over the past two years. Whether or not he plays remains to be seen (we actually kind of doubt it). Both teams finished in the bottom third in the league in save percentage.
Special Teams
Let's just call the power plays even. Both teams have the type of forwards that can create a terrorizing power play, and both finished the season with the exact same success rate on the man advantage (19.7 percent). That leaves the penalty kill, where the Penguins finished third in the league with 11 shorthanded goals, and Philadelphia finished 17th.
Prediction
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