Focusing on game 2.

The Pens did not start off the series against the Philadelphia Flyers like they wanted to and that is why it is great that a series is best of seven moves on. The Flyers took game one with a 4-3 victory in overtime. The Pens had a 3-0 lead in the game and let it slip away and the Pens were also 0-for-3 with the man advantage in last night's game. That is why the Pens' power play had some different looks in practice today. Steve Sullivan returned to his spot on the point, where he was for much of the season, alongside Kris Letang. Evgeni Malkin was on the halfwall and Chris Kunitz remained in his net-front position. During the beginning of drills, James Neal and Sidney Crosby swapped spots.
The Pens are also considering having 2 top power play units and splitting the time between the two units to one minute each.
The Pens were successful on the power play during the regular season and they will need to find that success again and stick with it to help them in this series.

Now, on to the missed offside call that resulted in Daniel Briere scoring the first goal for the Flyers last night. Mistakes happen and refs are certainly human; they're going to make bad calls and miss some others. It is unfortunate that it resulted in their first goal, but it is not what made us lose the game last night. We could have easily made up for that goal with a goal on our power play. Colin Campbell, the NHL's senior executive vice-president of hockey operations, says that they are just about as upset as the Pittsburgh Penguins are about the missed call. The goal gave the Flyers some life in the game, but it was still not the reason we lost and the Pens are well aware of that and were good-spirited at practice today making sure to go over and practice what they need to do better in Friday night's game.

I hate losing in the playoffs, but I am still confident in this team and last night was just game 1. In fact, the past 4 playoff series the Pens have won, they have lost game 1. This is a good team that has a goal in mind, they know what they could have done better last night and they will work to correct it tomorrow night for game 2. Game 1 is done and in the books, now it is time to look forward to the next game and hopefully the Pens will be that bear in the woods.

Pens vs. Flyers

After a win yesterday against the New Jersey Devils, the Pens' 11th win in a row, the Pens face off against the Philadelphia Flyers today in Philly. A game less than 24 hours after the previous one. This means the Pens will need to be alert and ready to face the Flyers, who have been doing pretty well themselves lately. The Flyers are 7-1-1 in their past nine games and they are only 3 points behind the Pens currently in the standings. Flyers' goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov, is a big part of the recent climb as he has lost only once, a shootout loss against the Bruins yesterday, in the month of March. Over the past 8 games, he has had 4 shutouts as well. This means that the Pens will need to take advantage of any opportunity for shots. Though, with the Flyers playing yesterday, we may see backup goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in net today. Either way though, the Flyers have been strong defensively as of late and the Pens will still need to work to create some offense today to continue their win streak.

Yesterday's 5-2 win for the Pens could have easily been a higher scoring game for the Pens if it were not for Martin Brodeur in net. The Pens will need to be just as offensively minded today against the Flyers as well as strong defensively. The Flyers have some scoring power in the lineup that the Pens need to watch for. Therefore, the Pens will need to be sure to play an all around sound game and stay on their system.
It's a Flyers- Pens game and it is sure to be an exciting one, with two strong teams going against each other with such a rivalry all ready.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the New York Rangers last night, making it a little easier to reach our goal of surpassing the Rangers in the standings.