---

Game 6: “Coach” Chaiwoman’s Pre-game Talk

Gentlemen, it’s a race to 4, and reaching that magic number today means extra time to rest up, heal up, and get our minds right for the next level. If you want the next level, if you still remember what it was like, that taste in your mouth when Detroit came into OUR house and held that cup up, then you take that feeling and you turn it into something you can use on the ice today because that road is long, and we still have to get off this one.

Those guys in the other locker room, in their house, think they have us, think they can take this series from us. We’re here today to prove them wrong, to steal another win from under their noses in their house because we have the talent and we have the experience and we have the memory.

It’s gut-check time, boys. What do we need to do to win this?

1. FOCUS–60 minutes of pure, unadulterated focus. Focus on the puck, focus on your man.
2. Protect the net–backcheck hard and clear the puck smartly, with authority up the boards. North-South, North-South. Do not let them play with the puck in our zone. If you can’t get it out in under 10 seconds, it’s in there too long. Get it. Clear it. Clear it hard.
3. Face-offs–win them, especially in our defensive end. Draw them back and the off wing go hard to the puck, and you’d better clear it up the boards with force to your guys waiting there for the outlet.
4. Score first–it will make it easier on us because they will be forced to have to match us and keep the game moving. If they score first, they will go into protect mode, clogging the neutral zone and backing en masse into their defensive zone to make it harder for us to get at Biron, which is what they did in the 2nd and 3rd periods of Game 5. To break that, we have to Murphy dump and forecheck hard, and I don’t mean once or twice, I mean every time until they back off. Then, and only then, can you venture to carry the puck in. Beat your man to the puck and win the scrums on the boards and in the corners.
5. Shoot–I don’t care if it’s 5-on-5 or 5-on-4. Move the puck, move your feet, force them to have to work you. If you have the shot, I don’t want you to chance another pretty pass to get a perfect goal. I want the shots at the net from all angles. If they can zip it across Marc-Andre’s shoulders from the goal line, we can do the same. Off guys crash the net and take a man. Ugly is gorgeous if it puts points on the board, and we have the talent of a whole benchload of guys to make that happen.
6. Physical play–take a body every chance you get, but don’t be stupid. Watch the stick work. I want you to separate them from the puck and make a play. Make them tired. Make them sore, but don’t get sucked into retaliation. Skate away after the whistle no matter what they say or do. Give ‘em a grin and file it away for later when you hit  them legally. That’s your payback.
7. Penalty-kill–keep moving, keep forcing them to the outside. If you get the break, take it, and continue to be smart in knowing where your help is. Get a shot off if you can. Beat them on the boards in their end and grind out the clock so that they do not have a chance to set up and get going in ours.
8. Power-play–no more than 3 passes. I want the puck on the net from all angles, and I’m not talking slap shots, either. We take too much time on the wind up for a slapper that they just slide into position to block it. The puck ricochets off their shins and past our defensemen. And then we’re forced to have to go back and reset because they are sending one and sometimes two guys to challenge us agressively in the neutral zone as time ticks away. Make them have to fight for and secure the puck in the corners. Make them have to work to clear it. Shoot, shoot, shoot, crash the net, and pick up the garbage. Make Biron have to break a sweat, have to second-guess what we are going to do. We want him edgy. We want him nervous.
9. Have fun–feed off the hatred in those stands. Feed off the desperation against you on the ice. The Flyers have to prove to their fans today that they can stay alive. The burden is on them. Nothing would be sweeter than telling them no, in their house, on this day. Kill a crowd, kill a team–the way you know how. Do it with a smile. Do it with relish. Do it for 60 solid minutes. Taste it, smell it. That’s their fear. That’s their desperation. That’s our victory.

Team Effort = Pens 4 — Kings 1

Friday night’s matchup against the L.A. Kings was a nearly textbook team performance by the Pittsburgh Penguins under Dan Bylsma’s system. While specific players, and many, could be mentioned for their stellar play, the main focus here is in the overall cohesion and fluidity of a group of 19 guys who played in that game.

The one blemish on this performance was their propensity for drawing the attention of the refs and ending up in the penalty box a little more than one would like, including Dan Bylsma, who commented midway through the game that they really had not had the chance to get their five-man flow going.

That being said, it was a thing of beauty to watch how the defensemen worked in concert with at least one back-checking forward at all times to keep Marc-Andre Fleury feeling safe, secure, and confident as he absorbed more shots than he deflected. That is, when the puck managed to even get that close. It is clear that whoever is on the ice, from a first line player to a fourth line man, all heads are always up, lanes are covered, and they are in constant motion, making the Pens look downright indefatigable. As a result, the Kings were involuntarily generous on the giveaways in both the neutral zone and just inside the blue line if they were lucky enough to get that far.

What else was noticeable defensively is that no matter how close the puck got to the net, three guys were on it, eyes sharp and sticks persistent. The reward was puck possession and a smooth transition up ice.

The offensive play was no different. Gone are the days of trying to force passes more east-west than north-south up a narrow strip of neutral zone as if the boards were electric fences to be avoided. The transition game had men situated strategically along the boards or approaching the boards and available for the defenseman to move the puck north-south using the boards as an extra guy. This stretched out the opponents who had to travel farther to make plays, and it gave the Pens a lot of ice to work with. The result is a speedy puck and a lot of long possessions in the Kings’ defensive zone–often deep in that zone–for maddeningly long periods of time. If ever a torture device for wearing down an opponent was ever devised, this is it.

Special teams got a workout with the Pens having to battle against seven penalty kills, six with the Kings having a man advantage and one 5-on-3 situation, which resulted in the Kings’ only goal. The penalty kill has also transformed into a more offensive and aggressive machine.

Players are more active in the defensive zone, and lately, they seem to be always looking for the chance to make a two-man short-handed breakaway. They are also not looking to just dump the puck and retreat as their first option. It’s nice to see that whoever breaks goes in hard and, often with a second man, tries to at least tie the puck up  behind the net to chew up time. This effort is not without an eye to the opposing net, and when they lose that battle, they recover with lightning speed. Before tonight’s game, the Penguins’ penalty kill has improved by 5% from 80% to 85%, a substantial jump.

The power play seems to be coming on as well though the improvement is not as significant as on the PK. On the primary line, Malkin is where he needs to be: off the right circle, and Crosby seems to really relish speeding around between the corners and the back of the net, sometimes venturing to the half-wall. He’s got the goalie’s head snapping back and forth in an attempt to keep track of him. Gonchar is truly the quarterback dictating dizzying puck movement, and Letang is proving to be an apt pupil under his tutelage. The final piece of the puzzle is the nice problem of having any one of three guys in front of the net creating havoc: Guerin, Kunitz, or Sykora. It’s coming together.

Nothing should be taken away from the Kings though. They are a big, tough team that refused to give up. The hits kept coming, and the onslaught persisted as they would pick themselves up time and again, wave after wave, to battle into the Pens’ defensive zone. The team has a lot of heart and the potential to do better next season if they do not break into the playoff picture this year, which is all but impossible now.

The Penguins are peaking at the right time, and fans are starting to see a glimpse of what Pittsburgh really has for a team.