Well….. That Was Embarrassing, Penguins By A Touchdown

In what many Flyers fans hoped to be a statement game, turned ugly fast. The Flyers were embarrassed by the Penguins 7-0 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup.

The Penguins were led by the almighty power and public-enemy #1, Sidney Crosby, who recorded his 3rd career playoff hat-trick. Matt Murray also recorded his 5th career playoff shutout stopping all 23 shots he faced to help fuel the Penguins.

Pittsburgh takes a 1-0 series lead in the best of 7. The only good point for the Flyers is the scores reset again back to 0-0 on Friday for Game 2.

Observations From Game 1

• When the Flyers entered the playoffs, they knew they had issues and holes the Penguins would try to exploit. However, nobody, including the Flyers, thought it would be this bad. The Flyers were dominated in all 3 zones of the ice and all 3 periods. The latter part to that is the issue. Being dominated in all 3 periods is a hard one to understand with the Flyers being the 2nd best second period team in the league.

• With the return of Brian Elliott, the Flyers thought they had at the very least stabilized the goaltending position enough to contend. In Elliott’s first game back, he struggled to shove off the rust. However, he bounced back and looked to return to prior form with the shutout of the Rangers in the final game of the season. But, in game 1 against the Penguins, Elliott showed the rust was still there.

• If tonight’s result was because of 5 Flyers making their playoffs debuts, that does not suit well for the last of the playoffs. With the Flyers being such a young team, they cant blame their problems and issues on that. No. They have to take accountability for their mistakes and work to fix them. If this is the problem, then for the next 3-5 years, every Flyers playoff exit can be blamed that they are young. Owning up to your mistakes is how teams win in the playoffs.

• Rivalry renewed? Far from it. One storyline entering this series was would the physical nature and hatred for the cross-state rivals show. Well, other than only 3 or 4 good hits, game 1 didn’t measure up to the hype. In the words of the late Ed Snider, the Flyers were known to be mean and tough to play against when they weren’t good. Tonight, they were neither. I just hope Mr. Snider wasn’t watching that game tonight because I don’t want to even think what he was thinking.

• After sitting through that painful game, one thing is certain. The Flyers need change and it will come from up and down the line-up. However, the first moves should be made by bringing in Robert Hagg and Jordan Weal for Brandon Manning and Jori Lehtera respectfully. After that, a full line-up shake-up should be in order. Here is what I think the Flyers should go with in Game 2…

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny

Oskar Lindblom – Nolan Patrick – Jake Voracek

Jordan Weal – Valtteri Filppula – Wayne Simmonds

Michael Raffl – Scott Laughton – Matt Read

Ivan Provorov – Radko Gudas

Shayne Gostisbehere – Robert Hagg

Travis Sanheim – Andrew MacDonald

Result : Flyers 0 – Penguins 7, LOSS

Series : 1-0 Penguins

Next Game : 4/13 Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh PA, NBCSports Philadelphia 7:00pm