Before Friday, you’d be hard-pressed to find one person who said the Philadelphia Flyers would beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5.
With the series heading back to Philadelphia for a pivotal Game 6, the Flyers have an opportunity to shock the world and force Game 7 in Pittsburgh. To do that, they need to follow these five keys.
Neuvirth needs to stay hot
It seems like we constantly talk about Michael Neuvirth when the conversations about streaky goaltenders heat up. You see, with Neuvirth there really is no in-between. He is either very bad, or he plays like a Vezina candidate without any exaggeration.
On Friday, he was a Vezina candidate that let in two fluky goals.
Let’s talk about them first. The Penguins’ first goal was scored by Bryan Rust. After he shook off Matt Read in the corner, Rust wrapped the puck around the left post and between Neuvirth’s skate to make it a 1-1 game.
The second goal for the Penguins was much worse. Jake Guentzel ‘s shot from the left circle went through Neuvirth’s five-hole and into the net.
They were two blemishes on an otherwise spectacular night for Neuvirth. Besides making some key saves that helped the Flyers stave off any momentum the Penguins could’ve had, he robbed Sidney Crosby with under a minute to go to hold on to the one-goal lead.
The Flyers cannot win without great goaltending, and Neuvirth needs to be up to the task today.
Continue to frustrate Malkin
Evgeni Malkin did not participate in practice on Saturday due to a leg injury he sustained in Game 5. He and Jori Lehtera came together, and when Malkin appeared to take Lehtera out, he ended up hurting himself in the process.
Malkin went into the locker room and returned at the start of the second period, but he was a frustrated man. He and Brandon Manning got physical with each other, and after Malkin drew a penalty on Manning, he got coerced into taking a penalty of his own.
Manning got the initial penalty.
Malkin negated his team’s power play just seconds later.
The Flyers got into Malkin’s head and threw him off his game. When Malkin is preoccupied with external matters, he does not play as well as he would otherwise. If the Flyers can throw him off his game as well as other Penguins, they will win Game 6.
Stay strong on the penalty kill
The Flyers completely outplayed the Penguins on special teams in Game 5. In fact, the Penguins had five power plays to the Flyers’ one.
Whether some penalties were deserved or not is a topic for another time. The Flyers, a team with one of the worst penalty killing units in the entire league, shut out the Penguins’ power play, which was the best in the NHL, on five attempts. That was completely unexpected.
Not only did they shut the Penguins’ power play down, but they scored a shorthanded goal on a combination of Valtteri Filppula’s effort and Matt Murray and Kris Letang’s miscommunication.
In the three games the Flyers have lost in this series, they gave the Penguins’ five power play goals on 15 chances. That’s a pitiful 67 percent penalty kill. However, in the two games they have won, they have killed all nine power plays the Penguins have had.
The Flyers will not win Game 6 if their penalty is not over-performing their regular season numbers. It wouldn’t hurt to stay out of the box, though.
Show more of the same effort
After losing three games by a combined 17-1 score, the Flyers were rightly criticized for their lack of effort. They weren’t skating hard, they weren’t showing passion, they weren’t showing fight. That was the way the Flyers played. Never mind Game 2, it was a fluke.
Then, Game 5 happened.
Every player was playing with a purpose. For the first time since Game 2, it looked like the Flyers were trying to win a hockey game. They were fighting along the boards and winning 50/50 battles. They finished their checks. They crashed the net for rebounds.
Maybe it was Robert Hägg, Michael Neuvrith, and Dale Weise being inserted into the lineup, or maybe it hit the Flyers that Game 5 could’ve been the end of their season. Whatever it was, they played with the effort all Flyers fans have been wanting to see the entire series.
It just makes you wonder what the series could’ve been like if they had played like that in every game. As long as they play like that today, they will force a seventh game.
Top line needs to keep chemistry
Almost nobody thought that moving Filppula to the top line would be a smart idea. Centering Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek, his regular season statistics gave him no right to be in that spot in a do-or-die scenario.
Then he just happened to have his best game as a Philadelphia Flyer.
Filppula did what he does best: he outworked the competition. The opening goal of the game wouldn’t have happened without his resilience to fight for the puck towards the net. He was being stick checked by multiple Penguins but still managed to stay with the puck. When Voracek was able to reach the puck, he used his vision to find Giroux between the circles for his first goal of the playoffs.
Filppula made a great effort.
Giroux finished it.
Filppula finished the game with three points, but two of them did not come from playing on the top line. No matter what, his play along with Voracek’s and Giroux’s work ethic paid off in big ways. If they are able to keep the same chemistry they built up in Game 5, the Flyers will force Game 7.
Game 6 is today at 3 p.m.
Photo by Heather Barry/Sons of Penn
Originally published on SonsOfPenn.com