Why Philadelphia Flyers will eliminate Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 -NHL Playoffs Special
The Philadelphia and Pittsburgh 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series has been extremely intense and exciting at the same time and come game 5 on Friday, April 20, 2012, anything could happen.
Flyers have a 3-1 lead in the series and Pittsburgh Penguins are on the brink of elimination. Seeing how huge of a comeback Penguins had in game 4, 10-3, and saving themselves from being ousted in a four game whitewash, it just does not seem possible that
Pittsburgh has it in them to repeat it again.
It was not hard noticing that Philadelphia went a little easy on the Penguins and probably felt pity for the situation they had put Pittsburgh in but in game 5, Flyers are not going to make that mistake again because let’s face it, both are wonderful teams
and a slight error from either side will be enough for the other to capitalise.
Here are some reasons why Philadelphia Flyers will advance to the semi-finals after game 5:
The Power Play
Flyers love power plays and unfortunately for Penguins, in the series there is just no way of controlling them unless they become Buddhists and start doing some yoga because every match just has fighting after every minute and Philadelphia can easily take
advantage of that.
The Philadelphia penalty killing job has done a great job while they managed to grab six goals on 10 added man advantages and if things continue the same way, Pittsburgh could be in for quite a ride.
"Penalty killers do such a good job, they're so well-schooled -- I know how much time we spend on the penalty kill, trying to figure out the lanes and the routes and where to block the shots and block the seam passes," Flyers coach, Peter Laviolette, said.
Shutting Down Top Players
While Sidney Crosby is in a mess of his own in deciding whether he is going to become an enforcer or a shooter, Philadelphia has planned out another great thing, which is shutting down all top players, especially Evgeni Malkin.
Surprisingly, a forward that can easily score multiple goals in each matchup, has been limited to only two in the past four contests. The rest of his five points come from assists, which he is forced up to give due to the strict defence laid out by Sean
Couturier.
"Couturier has played so good," Scott Hartnell said. "If you think he's getting under [Malkin's] skin, I think you're right on the money there. The goals are great by Couturier, but you can really tell the way he's playing defense and the way that line plays
against [Malkin], it's awesome to see.”
Ilya Bryzgalov
Marc-Andre Fluery has just had a bad playoff series and it is not hard to blame him seeing that Pittsburgh does not have a capable enough goalie to be a backup but Ilya Bryzgalov has Sergei Bobrovsky and vice versa.
If Bryzgalov is able to get his magic working in game 5, Pittsburgh, easily said, does not have any chance of breaking the scoring barrier through this determined goalie in taking his team to the Stanley Cup.
It is only, and if only Bryzgalov has another off night will Penguins manage to get anything out and may be force a game 6 competition, but for now, everything looks to be going in Pittsburgh’s way.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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