Penguins Need to Make Flyers Pay

If you're a Penguins fan, there was certainly a lot to like about their 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening game of their Eastern Conference playoff series on Wednesday night.

They received offense from the usual suspects (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin), they were strong defensively and on the penalty kill, and they even picked up a pair of goals from Tyler Kennedy and Mark Eaton. All things considered, it was a strong showing.

The one area they can improve? As has been the case much of the season, the power play.

---

---

A year ago, when the Penguins eliminated the Flyers in five games in the Eastern Conference finals, they took advantage of the Flyers' knack for spending time in the penalty box by converting on 28 percent of their power plays (5-for-18). During Wednesday's game in Pittsburgh, the Penguins were a dismal 1-for-9, while failing on eight straight to close out the game. Granted, three of those opportunities came in the final minute of regulation, but the fact remains, if the Flyers are going to take liberties and play their "Broad Street Bully" hockey, the Penguins have to make them pay where it counts ... on the scoreboard.

Scott Hartnell, for example -- who has earned quite a reputation as public enemy No. 1 in Pittsburgh -- picked up16 minutes in penalties, including three different two-minute minors, while the Penguins failed to capitalize on each opportunity.

Once it was obvious the game was out of reach, the Flyers took part in an orange-and-black parade to the penalty box, registering 23 penalty minutes -- including a five-minute fighting major for Braydon Coburn and a 10-minute misconduct by the aforementioned Hartnell -- in the final 19 seconds of regulation. In terms of physicality, this game more than lived up to the hype.

So, if you're a Flyers fan, what can you take out of this game? Well, for one thing, even though Marc-Andre Fleury was strong in net for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia struck iron behind him three different times over the course of the game, while the penalty killing was stellar, as it was all season. If the Flyers are going to continue to take penalties like they did in game 1, they're going to need to continue that strong play down a man if they want to stay in this series for a while.