In the neutral zone
The Flyers sticks were everywhere in the neutral zone. The Penguins struggled to make clean entries into the offensive zone which needs to continue if the Flyers want to win this series. The team played a tight game across all three zones and on special teams, keeping the league’s seventh-best power play scoreless.
Behind the bench
It takes a while for a coach to implement his system. It requires constant planning, evaluation, adaptation, and buy-in from the players. That last part is the rub. A coach has to deal with 20+ players with different personalities, skill levels, maturity, and beliefs. Each player has his own set of hopes, goals, preferences and styles of play.
From there, the coach has a set of bosses with their own rules and requirements. Then, there are the media and the fan base. There is a lot of noise a coach must tune out — both for himself and his players. It makes a coach’s job a daunting task, especially in a pressure cooker like Philadelphia.
Head coach Rick Tocchet has not had an easy job. The uphill battle began long before game one, but he exceeded expectations and got his players to do the same.
In their heads
This Flyers team consists of players with little-to-no playoff experience and others with minimal NHL experience. This ragtag crew went up against one of the more experienced teams with plenty of hardware in their trophy cases. How many 19-year-olds like Porter Martone could come into a scenario like that and play his A game? Straight up and down the lineup, this team displayed an impressive amount of mental fortitude.
In the Penguins’ heads
Sidney Crosby destroys the Flyers. It gives me no pleasure to admit that, but it’s true. He feeds off both his hate of the city and the hate the city has for him. Despite three Stanley Cups and 12 major NHL awards, he was not only held off the scoresheet, but the Flyers also got under his skin, pushing to the point of taking two bad penalties.
Stuart Skinner is a solid regular season goalie who has gained a bad reputation for falling apart in the playoffs. He started off strong in Game 1 and the Flyers came at him hard and fast. Jamie Drysdale’s goal in the second period seemed to shake his confidence just enough to let reality set back in.
In the net
Dan Vladar is on a mission from God. He had career best stats across the board, but regular season stats typically do not matter much when the playoffs start. This is especially true when a player has limited postseason experience.
Saturday’s Game 1 was Vladar’s first playoff start. He could have gotten in his head and collapsed under the pressure. Instead, he showed he was never going to let the ice in his veins melt.
The truth is, the Flyers didn’t do anything special. They did exactly what they’ve been doing for a while now. They found their identity, bought into both Tocchet’s system, and learned to believe in both themselves and each other.
The Flyers have the momentum going into Game 2 and, as an added bonus, the Penguins didn’t look like the formidable opponent that they appeared to be in the past. If they stay out of the box and continue to play like they have been, they stand a really good chance of winning this series.
