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THE SCORE OF THE BOX
PITTSBURGH – The Flyers love last-minute returns against the Penguins.
James van Riemsdyk scored with 18.8 seconds to go, earning the Flyers one point before Sean Couturier won in overtime, 2-1, Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
The Flyers took their regular season series against the Pens, 3-1, while finishing within six points of the second team of wild-cards, Columbus.
Here are my observations of PPG Paints Arena:
• JVR have scored 10 goals in their last 11 games, including the goal that may have saved the Flyers' low chances in the playoffs.
• After the disaster Friday in Toronto, I thought it was vitally important that the Flyers establish a strong defensive presence and tighten their game in the middle of the ice. They were able to do this, limiting the chances of the Penguins in the first period while keeping the shots on the outside.
• However, the second period was a Pittsburgh shooting range, as the Flyers were stuck in their area. Nick Bjugstad ran ahead of Travis Sanheim, who may have played the longest quarterfinal of his professional career (2:37), the Flyers defender just can not leave the ice and is almost paralyzed.
Carter Hart leaves his best time since his series of eight consecutive wins. Pittsburgh made 31 attempts to throw (18 in the net) in the second period.
Hart finished with 41 saves, equaling his career high.
• Teddy Blueger is not Evgeni Malkin, but with the injured Penguins' center of the stars, Blueger is the second-line center of the Penguins. Sometimes, Malkin can remain dormant evenly, but you must be fully aware of his position in numerical superiority.
Without Malkin, the power play of Pens did not have this deadly pace. At the start of the game, Pittsburgh's power play had scored five goals in the last three games.
• Of course, I wrote that earlier in the game and it was Blueger who scored the first goal of the game. The Penguins' center had done absolutely nothing until then and had benefited from a rebound that was falling under its nose.
Scott Laughton had pinned Blueger against the board, had lost it for a split second and had fallen victim to the goal of the rebound.
• Acting Flyers head coach Scott Gordon appeared to retain Claude Giroux in this game. The captain of the Flyers decided to make a decision at the time of the match, feeling the bad weather. He played only 4:40 in the first half, but 7:29 in the second and 9:38 in the third.
• What a strange sequence of events to start the second period with the Flyers successfully defying the goalie's initial interference call. I thought the off-ice officials had made the right decision in deciding that it was a good goal, and officials on ice also facilitated the overhaul by determining that the game was an offside.
However, the officials on the ice were in fact deceived twice. I have never seen two successful challenges in the same room. Very strange.
• Defensively, without defender No. 1 Kris Letang, the blue line Pens was a major difference in this match, because it canceled the chances of the Flyers with excellent coverage and some very good passes that did not allow the Flyers to score. their defense of the neutral zone.
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