LET’S GO PEN’S!!!!!!!!

I agree—the shorthanded goals are KILLERS. They’ve got to keep Crosby off the point on the power play. The Flyers exploit him every time. And, as you pointed out, the east-west stuff is poison, too. The main culprit there is Malkin. Unfortunately, when Geno doesn’t score he tends to get too fancy and tries to beat teams 1-on-5. That leads to turnovers, which we can ill afford against a quick-strike team like Philly.

Better net-front presence would help, too. Even though we scored five goals in Game 2, we didn’t get enough traffic in front of Bryzgalov. I’d like to see more center drive, especially from a big body like Staal. When he uses his size and takes the puck to the net, good things happen. Again, north-south … keep it simple.

I just hope he can figure out a way to tighten things up defensively. The Pens aren’t going to beat the Flyers in a track meet—they’re too fast and skilled. Our best chance is catch the Philly d-men pinching (they join the rush all the time) and score on the counter attack. However, the Pens must shore up their defensive play to do so. We sure could use a big game from Fleury, too.