Philadelphia Flyers’ Spell Over Penguins Broken
By Marc Naples
The last few seasons have been pretty good for the Philadelphia Flyers regarding their intra-state rivalry, but that time is at an end
It probably goes back to the spring of 2012. To refresh your memory, that’s when the Philadelphia Flyers met arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of playoffs.
The Penguins were favored in that series, and for good reason. Evgeni Malkin had finished the regular season with 50 goals and the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer. Sidney Crosby missed most of the regular season, but when he played he scored 37 points in 22 games, and he was healthy for the playoffs. The Penguins were the league’s best possession team, and they had top-5 power play and penalty kill units.
It should’ve been a good spring for them. The problem was their opponent. Obviously there was already some built in animosity between the Flyers and the Penguins, but it had recently gone up a notch. The teams played 6 times that season, including a game the final week of the season in Philadelphia. The Flyers won that game 6-4, but not before the teams racked up 54 penalty minutes in the third period.
When the playoffs started, the Penguins didn’t just want to beat the Flyers, they wanted to kill them. They were hitting everything that moved in the first period of game 1 in Pittsburgh, but they were devastated when the Flyers stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime.
From there, things spiraled out of control. Fleury couldn’t stop a beach ball in net, and the Penguins were staring down a 3-0 deficit in a series they badly wanted to win. After this inconceivable series of events, the Penguins had a complete meltdown late in game 3. James Neal and Malkin were throwing cheapshots, and Crosby kept initiating brawls only to hide and let his teammates do the fighting. Flyers announcer Chris Therien about lost his mind that day.
If you want to see the full 13 minutes of madness, click here.
When the dust settled, the Flyers won the series 4-2. Whether they knew it or not, it was an inflection point for the Penguins franchise. A regular season powerhouse, the playoff failures were piling up. Even worse, they just couldn’t beat the Philadelphia Flyers anymore.
The following season the Penguins did win 3 of 4 against the Flyers, and even made it to the Conference Finals. They didn’t have to play the Flyers in the playoffs, but they melted down again against the Bruins. The Bruins swept them.
The next year was even worse. It began a period where the Penguins couldn’t beat the Flyers in their own rink for 2 years. Overall, for that 2 season stretch, the Penguins went 1-6-2 against the rival Flyers.
That period resulted in a lurching makeover of the Penguins franchise. They changed GMs. They traded star players. And they changed coaches, twice.
Now as much as I’ve enjoyed recounting the Pens’ horrors, it’s a different day today. New coach Mike Sullivan has the Penguins looking like a different team. Since January 1, Sidney Crosby has the most points in the league, and defensemen Kris Letang is third among all skaters.
The Penguins are now a hard-skating, defensively suffocating team, and it’s made them the hottest team in hockey. Worse for Flyers fans, is that they now have the Flyers number. The Penguins have taken all 3 meetings this season, and by a convincing combined score of 14-6.
It was a good 2 years for Flyers fans, owning the Penguins. The Pens have finally pulled themselves out from the depths, however, and this new incarnation is not psyched out by the big bad Flyers. The Flyers will have to find new ways to beat this Pens team, and for the first time in a while, I’m not looking forward to the next time the Flyers play the Penguins.