CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 The dressing-room scene Friday was the calm before the storm.<\/p>\n
Everyone was seemingly in a good mood. The Pittsburgh Penguins don\u2019t strike me as an overconfident team, but they are confident. Really confident. As their former coach would say, they have a swagger about them.<\/p>\n
Here are 10 observations\/thoughts entering what should be a very, very memorable series.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sidney Crosby must have had a smile on his face for about 20 consecutive minutes in the dressing room Friday. I don\u2019t recall the last time I saw him glowing like this.<\/p>\n
The Penguins\u2019 captain is eager to play against the Philadelphia Flyers, without question. He\u2019s also finally healthy, which likely wasn\u2019t the case during his first couple of weeks after returning to the lineup a month ago.<\/p>\n
More than anything, though, it\u2019s evident Crosby is just happy to be back in the postseason. Rarely have I dealt with an athlete who cared about his records or statistics less than Crosby. That isn\u2019t what makes him tick.<\/p>\n
The thrill of the Stanley Cup playoffs is a different story. Crosby will do anything in his power to win this series.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rick Tocchet standing behind the Flyers bench certainly adds an intriguing subplot to this series. When you\u2019re the coach of the Flyers, you\u2019re supposed to hate the Penguins and promote the idea that Flyers\u2019 will is enough to beat Penguins\u2019 skill. It\u2019s been this way for generations.<\/p>\n
This, however, is a strange spot for Tocchet, whose three Stanley Cup rings are all black and gold. Tocchet had a child born in Pittsburgh. He adores it here and loves the Penguins organization. He counts Crosby as a very good friend. Same with Mario Lemieux, who gave Tocchet a job when no one else would a decade ago. The best times of his life were spent here.<\/p>\n
Tocchet, no doubt, is delighted to return the upstart Flyers to the postseason. I bet he\u2019d prefer to be playing a different team, though.<\/p>\n
Marc-Andr\u00e9 Fleury, in the latter years of his career, once acknowledged he didn\u2019t like playing against the Penguins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are my friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
I bet Tocchet can relate.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Connor Dewar was all business as usual on Friday. He said his body feels fine. There is little reason to think he won\u2019t be available in Game 1.<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s done in Pittsburgh often goes overlooked. A fourth-line player, Dewar has produced 18 goals in 95 games with the Penguins and is a plus-16 during that stretch. He\u2019s also been a top-notch penalty killer.<\/p>\n
Kyle Dubas acquired him from Toronto, where he wasn\u2019t receiving much ice time. Dewar has fit beautifully with the Penguins.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there was a bit of desperation, coming from Toronto, where I wasn\u2019t in a great situation,\u201d Dewar said. \u201cTo come here, have an opportunity, some runway in front of me, it was all very exciting. That\u2019s what I found here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dewar\u2019s center, Blake Lizotte, appears ready to play in Game 1, too.<\/p>\n
This will be his first game since sustaining a hand injury in Salt Lake City more than a month ago.<\/p>\n
In case you weren\u2019t sure of Lizotte\u2019s importance to the Penguins, check these numbers out:<\/p>\n
The Penguins allowed 3.27 goals per game this season. Edmonton and Anaheim are the only NHL playoff teams with a worse goals-against average.<\/p>\n
In games with Lizotte in the lineup, the Penguins allowed 2.67 goals per game. In games without Lizotte in the lineup, the Penguins allowed 4.48 goals per game.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a typo.<\/p>\n
Lizotte\u2019s penalty killing and ferocity in the defensive zone have been missed.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Stuart Skinner will likely get the start in Game 1. Dan Muse hasn\u2019t tipped his hand and invariably lavishes praise on Arturs Silovs the second anyone asks about Skinner.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s little reason to think Skinner isn\u2019t the guy, however.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see how he performs. He certainly looks and acts the part. There is poise, confidence and professionalism hovering over this guy at all times.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll tell you this much: His teammates very clearly have confidence in him.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If the playoff pressure is getting to Muse, he isn\u2019t showing it yet, and don\u2019t bet on that happening.<\/p>\n
Slow and steady wins the race.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the same guy now that he was in training camp in September.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I think the Penguins are going to win this series. If they lose it, however, I herein predict that the Flyers will score multiple short-handed goals.<\/p>\n
The Penguins possess a terrible penchant for allowing short-handed goals. They need to be much more careful with the puck, and they need to display some awareness.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Right on cue, the Penguins practiced on their special teams quite a bit Friday. Keep an eye on Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson. They\u2019re quite often the two highest players in the offensive zone during Penguins power plays, and they absolutely can\u2019t afford anymore miscues.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t think for a moment that Tocchet doesn\u2019t know of the Penguins\u2019 weaknesses on the power play.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A couple of other reporters and I had a long chat after Friday\u2019s practice with Karlsson about NHL awards voting. What a refreshing breath of fresh air he is.<\/p>\n
Karlsson has it broken down to perfection, explaining that voters are more likely to vote for narratives than performance. He\u2019s very right, naturally. I wish more people in professional sports adopted Karlsson\u2019s personality. We\u2019d all get along better.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Dubas was paying attention when the Panthers and Lightning played in five very violent hockey games last spring in the first round. He knew if his team was to survive and even thrive during the 2025-26 season, he needed a roster that was bigger and tougher.<\/p>\n
Anthony Mantha is 6-foot-5. Justin Brazeau is 6-6. Parker Wotherspoon plays mean.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Elmer Soderblom is 6-8 and seemed to enjoy beating up Scott Mayfield a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
This is the toughest team the Penguins have employed in a while. It may serve them very well starting Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014 The dressing-room scene Friday was the calm before the storm. Everyone was seemingly in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[462],"tags":[5,4,465,466,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-555360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-nhl-draft","11":"tag-nhl-entry-draft","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116426598642665273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}