Special teams were weak, though. That strikes me as a distinct advantage for the Penguins coming into the series, as they have both a top-10 power play and penalty kill. Right?<\/p>\n
Yohe: You would think so!<\/p>\n
However, the special teams, so spectacular all season, have slumped in recent weeks. The Penguins employ a galaxy of stars, so the power play is naturally potent. But make a note of this: The Penguins are wildly susceptible to allowing short-handed goals. Malkin and Karlsson love taking chances. Tocchet knows the Penguins\u2019 power play very well. He is surely aware of this.<\/p>\n
Blake Lizotte has missed the past month with a broken hand. He\u2019s the Penguins\u2019 best penalty killer. His availability is key. The Penguins deploy an aggressive PK approach and boast a number of forwards who specialize in this role. Handling some of the Flyers\u2019 bigger forwards in front of the net could be an issue. The Penguins aren\u2019t all that big on the blue line.<\/p>\n
Kurz: Interesting. Still, to me, the only way the Flyers win this series is if they keep it at five-on-five as often as possible. From the Olympic break on, the Flyers were 11th in expected-goals share, according to Natural Stat Trick. Their late-season surge was not a fluke, if you buy the underlying numbers. Conversely, when it comes to special teams, their 32nd-ranked power play was a source of tremendous frustration for the fifth straight season, while their 22nd-ranked penalty kill was wildly inconsistent.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a reason for optimism, it\u2019s that the power play did look a bit better late, after the return of Tyson Foerster and the addition of standout rookie Porter Martone. The Flyers were 7-for-28 over their final 11 games (25 percent). Martone factored in on four of those seven, with two goals and two assists.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s get to the most important position on the ice \u2013 the goaltender. Who do you expect to start for the Penguins in Game 1, and how concerned should their fans be that the goaltending will hold up?<\/p>\n
Yohe: I expect Stuart Skinner to get the call. Tocchet knows him well from the Vancouver-Edmonton series two years ago. Skinner is solid. He is big. He is experienced. But he\u2019s also pretty unathletic. You beat him by making him move side to side, and make no mistake, Tocchet is aware of this. But do the Flyers possess the top-end skill to take advantage? That remains to be seen and I think it\u2019s a pretty valid question.<\/p>\n
Skinner is reliable enough, but the Penguins\u2019 goaltending isn\u2019t a strength. Goal prevention hasn\u2019t been their thing since 1967. They hope to receive steady goaltending and ultimately outscore the Flyers. It\u2019s a philosophy that has served them well all season.<\/p>\n
It looks to me like Dan Vladar is peaking. How about it, Kevin?<\/p>\n
Kurz: He\u2019s inarguably been the Flyers\u2019 MVP, from start to finish. To me, Vladar is the Flyers\u2019 biggest advantage in the series. He showed late this season that he can handle a playoff-type grind and thrive in pressure situations. Vladar started the Flyers\u2019 final six meaningful games in just an 11-day span, going 5-1-0 with a 1.81 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. Vladar\u2019s numbers were already strong before those final couple of weeks, but he took his game to a new level when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
Still, Vladar has never made a playoff start in his career, and it will be up to him to buoy what is a tremendously inexperienced team when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. How do you think that might affect things, and are there any young guys on the Penguins to keep an eye on?<\/p>\n
Yohe: The Penguins absolutely have an edge here. They have a veteran team, and plenty of guys who won\u2019t be rattled by the playoff stage or by whatever Flyers fans have in store when the series shifts east for Game 3. Skinner has played in the past two Stanley Cup Finals. Crosby, Malkin and Letang were winning Cups almost two decades ago. The Penguins\u2019 youngest player, 18-year-old Ben Kindel, is one of their most poised performers. He\u2019s special and might be the type to thrive under the bright lights of the playoffs. He and Martone will go head-to-head for a long time. Crosby was in his first playoff series on the day Kindel was born. To say the Penguins have an edge experience-wise is putting it lightly.<\/p>\n
Just how young are the Flyers?<\/p>\n
Kurz: To say that the Flyers are light on playoff experience would be understating it. Among the forwards expected to start in the top nine, only Travis Konecny (22 games), Dvorak (14 games) and Tippett six games) have been in the postseason. On defense, Drysdale, Cam York, Emil Andrae and Rasmus Ristolainen (finally, after 820 regular-season games) will be making their Stanley Cup playoff debuts, too. Nick Seeler has five games of playoff experience, back in 2018 with the Minnesota Wild.<\/p>\n
What gives hope that the young guys can thrive under pressure is that they just showed they can do so over the last few weeks. Michkov, Zegras, Cates, Martone, Tippett and Drysdale didn\u2019t shrink as the games got harder and more important.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get a little more specific, though. Playoff series often swing on individual players rising to the occasion \u2014 or not. Who would you label as the Penguins\u2019 X-factor in the series?<\/p>\n
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