Up top, the head coach reunited the longtime trio of Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust. Rakell opened the series on the second line with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin, but was moved back to No. 87\u2019s line late in Game 2 as the offence continued to sputter. Replacing him on the second trio with No. 71 is Anthony Mantha, Pittsburgh\u2019s leading goal-scorer during the regular season, who hasn\u2019t yet found his game in this series while playing in the bottom six.<\/p>\n
The key change from Muse and Co., though, is the new face on the club\u2019s third line\u00a0\u2014\u00a0entering the series in Game 3 (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ at 7 p.m. ET) is Justin Brazeau<\/a>, who sat out Games 1 and 2 as a healthy scratch.\u00a0<\/p>\n The New Liskeard, Ont., product played a consistent role for the Pens\u2019 attack all season \u2014\u00a0and came up with a career-best 17-goal, 34-point campaign as a result \u2014 but lost his spot in the lineup as the Penguins got healthy down the stretch. The return of Blake Lizotte on the fourth line in Game 1 moved Elmer Soderblom \u2014\u00a0acquired in March to hold things down with Lizotte out \u2014\u00a0into Brazeau\u2019s former spot on the third line.<\/p>\n But after two games that have seen the Penguins largely unable to break down the Flyers\u2019 defence \u2014 culminating in a shutout loss in Game 2 \u2014 Brazeau is back.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just excited to play my game,\u201d he said Wednesday after the Penguins wrapped up their morning skate at Philly\u2019s Xfinity Mobile Arena. \u201cThis time of the year is the best time of year to play hockey. I\u2019ve missed the last couple games, but I\u2019m excited to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n The winger skated Wednesday alongside rookie Ben Kindel and Egor Chinakhov, who\u2019s been a revelation since joining the Penguins in December, but has yet to make an impact on this series through two games playing up top with Crosby.<\/p>\n Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAll three of us bring a different element,\u201d Brazeau said of the new-look trio. \u201cObviously in the offensive zone, I want those guys skating around with the puck, and I know where I have to go. So it makes it easy for me to read off them \u2014 two guys with a lot of skill, able to shoot the puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to try to make it as easy as I can for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Aside from the 28-year-old\u2019s much-needed goal-scoring chops, the addition of his size \u2014 Brazeau clocks in at six-foot-six, 232 pounds \u2014 figures to be just as pivotal for the Pens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for with Braz is just leading with that ability to get in on the forecheck,\u201d Muse said Wednesday. \u201cHe\u2019s shown that. Get stops, get to the net. He\u2019s obviously a guy who can do a lot of good things there in terms of puck protection down low. \u2026 Those are things that he\u2019s done over the course of this year when he\u2019s at his best.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s a big part of my game,\u201d Brazeau agreed. \u201cWhen I\u2019m at my best, I\u2019m around that paint. I\u2019m not going to try to do anything crazy, I\u2019m just going to play my game, like I\u2019ve done my whole career, and just try to get there as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n Pittsburgh\u2019s fourth line of Lizotte, Noel Acciari and Connor Dewar \u2014 which has looked like the Pens\u2019 most effective trio in terms of getting in on the forecheck against Philly \u2014 remains unchanged for Game 3, meaning Soderblom will sit. The Penguins ran the same defence pairings on Wednesday morning, too, and Muse confirmed that netminder Stuart Skinner will get the start for the third game in a row.<\/p>\n The Penguins enter Wednesday night\u2019s affair essentially facing a must-win situation. A loss here would set them back 3-0 in this first-round bout, requiring perfection the rest of the way to avoid elimination. Still, the club is trying to keep their mind only on the task at hand.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always heightened when you\u2019re down in a series,\u201d Sidney Crosby said after Wednesday\u2019s skate wrapped. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to get the momentum back. I\u2019ve been up 3-1 in series, I know how quick that can turn. So I think that, regardless of what a series is, it\u2019s just all about trying to play the right way, give yourself a chance every night. We feel like we took a step towards that in Game 2. We\u2019ve got to do that here in Game 3.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you tend to simplify on the road. We\u2019ve been good on the road all year. We understand that we earned being down 2-0, and we\u2019ve got to earn getting ourselves back in.\u201d<\/p>\n Charting a course back to level ground within the cauldron of emotion that will be Xfinity Mobile Arena \u2014\u00a0under the eyes of a raucous fan base that is certain to make their feelings about these Penguins crystal clear all night \u2014\u00a0won\u2019t be simple. But the captain is relishing the opportunity to step onto that stage once again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been a rivalry. I think it brings out the best in everyone, both teams, to be honest with you,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cIt\u2019s always an intense environment. But you know, as a hockey player, those are the games you want to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n Tocchet on Martone\u2019s sterling start to playoffs: \u2018He\u2019s not overwhelmed\u2019<\/p>\n Coming out of the Olympic break, if you\u2019d have told the Flyers faithful they\u2019d be in this position come late April, it would\u2019ve seemed a dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rewind back to February, and Philadelphia sat fourth-last in the East, with four clubs sitting between them and a post-season berth. Two months later, they\u2019re two wins up in Round 1, looking much the better squad through two games. And if there\u2019s one player who best embodies that unexpected emergence, that will to outplay the noise and the doubts and the prognostications, it\u2019s 19-year-old Porter Martone.<\/p>\n Much has already been said of the teenage phenom who\u2019s taken Philly by storm. And yet, it\u2019s difficult to fully encapsulate just how meteoric the Peterborough, Ont., product\u2019s ascent has been. Three-and-a-half weeks ago, Martone had never played a single NHL shift. Now, he\u2019s not only making an impact in the big leagues \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s arguably been the Flyers\u2019 best player through two games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not overwhelmed, you know what I mean?\u201d head coach Rick Tocchet said in the wake of Game 2, after Martone buried his team-leading second goal of the series. \u201cEven that goal \u2026 that\u2019s a goal-scorer\u2019s goal. I know people think that maybe it\u2019s easy, but it wasn\u2019t, because he had to scoot, the timing, it\u2019s on his backhand.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what he does. He\u2019s a hockey player.\u201d<\/p>\n Martone leads his club with seven shots through two games \u2014\u00a0tied with Crosby for the most of anyone in the series \u2014\u00a0and is the only player on either squad that\u2019s managed more than one tally so far. He\u2019s already become the youngest Flyer to score in his post-season debut, and is the first teenager\u00a0in NHL history<\/a>\u00a0to score the game-winner in his first two playoff games.<\/p>\n But if his emergence has taken Philly, and the NHL, by surprise, it hasn\u2019t caught the teenager off guard himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I made the jump because I thought I was ready,\u201d Martone said after Monday night\u2019s win in Pittsburgh. \u201cAnd I thought I could come help this team. They did a lot this year \u2014\u00a0they went through a lot of ups and downs. When I came here, they were really rolling, so I kind of hopped onto a moving train.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been good ever since. But I think there\u2019s a lot of work still to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Bettman shares his view on continued goalie interference controversy<\/p>\n![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/32THOUGHTS_500X500_ICON_V2-500x360.jpg\"){kind=icon}
32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n