There’s a reason they say that Lord Stanley’s Cup is the hardest trophy to win in all of sports.
And the Pittsburgh Penguins were given a bit of a harsh reminder about that on Saturday in their first-round series opener against the Philadelphia Flyers.
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In their regular-season head-to-head matchups against Philadelphia, Pittsburgh went 2-0-2 and outscored the Flyers, 17-8. That’s not to say that they were in cruise control against them prior to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but they did not struggle much in terms of establishing their game and forcing the Flyers into mistakes.
Well, none of that happened on Saturday. Instead, the Flyers – a much different team from when the Penguins last faced them on Mar. 7 in a 4-3 shootout loss – controlled play throughout Game 1 and took it, 3-2, in a clinical defensive effort that frustrated the boys in black and gold.
Emotions were high within the game. Many Flyers’ players were partaking in their first-ever postseason game, and while that was true for some on the Penguins’ side, most of Pittsburgh’s roster is comprised of players who have been here before. Nonetheless, it was the Penguins’ first playoff game in four years, and tensions were high.
But, even after a high-emotion game like Saturday’s – especially in a must-win setting – the Penguins understand that being able to manage and regulate emotion between games in a best of seven series is key to turning the page.
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“We obviously have a really good leadership group that will, kind of, set the tempo and set the mood,” said rookie Ben Kindel, who is playing in his first-ever NHL playoff series. “I don’t think anybody’s panicking here.”
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In fact, the Penguins were able to show that “turn the page” mindset during and after their practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, Pa. on Sunday.
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“Came to the rink, [and] it was a very good day today,” Kindel said. “Looking to get the job done tomorrow and execute tomorrow, and that’s about it. Tomorrow’s a new day, new game. It’s a long series.”
And by “tomorrow,” Kindel means Monday, when the Penguins and Flyers face off for Game 2 with Philly leading the series, 1-0. One of the things that worked against the Penguins in Game 1 is that they didn’t come out of the gate with speed and forechecking pressure – a strength of theirs all season long – which allowed the Flyers to establish their game, especially once they took the lead midway through the second period.
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Once that happened, they clogged up the neutral zone. Stacked the blue line. Made it difficult for the Penguins to generate much of anything offensively, which frustrated them. Pittsburgh knows the key is getting to Philadelphia early and establishing their game so that the Flyers aren’t able to fully commit to that neutral zone trap and could be forced to try to cheat for offense.
Regardless of the mechanics of it all, however, the key is that they can’t let a frustrating Game 1 carry over into Game 2. And, if the Flyers begin to execute their game again successfuly, the Penguins need to lock in and be prepared to counter that while keeping their emotions in check.
“It’s been a big part of their game for a long stretch now,” head coach Dan Muse said. “I mean, especially since the Olympic break, they’ve been a top defensive team in the league, so it didn’t come as any surprise. I think there’s some things that we could have done better in terms of just working through that.
“And we saw it there last night, we saw it with other teams throughout the league. When their numbers are back that much, too, sometimes, you’ve got to play a little bit more of a patient game. And, by ‘patient game,’ I don’t mean a slower game, it’s just you just can’t frustrated or surprised that they have those numbers back. They’ve been doing this for a while now.”
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Hockey is a game of adjustments, and adjustments have been a strength of this team all season long. They’ve excelled at letting less-than-ideal efforts such as Saturday’s simply roll off their back, and they’ve done well to respond in ensuing games with great efforts.
They did it with a 7-3 stomping of the Chicago Blackhawks after the holiday break, which followed a measly 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs right before the holidays and began a six-game win streak. They did it after a stretch of four losses in five games in mid-January by responding with a perfect four-game Western road swing and another six-game win streak. They did it after a tough 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Apr. 2 by beating the Florida Panthers back-to-back and clinching the playoffs with a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils right after.
This team knows how to respond to adversity. They’ve done it all season long, making sure to not let themselves get too high or too low on emotion between games. Even if the playoffs are a different animal, that approach has to be the same game-to-game.
“Obviously, we would have liked a different outcome in last night’s game,” forward Rickard Rakell said. “But, at the same time, we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to learn from that game and make sure that we put a better game on the ice tomorrow.”
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