Elliott’s sense of calm helps leave Penguins frustrated
PITTSBURGH » When the Flyers started Game 2 of a playoff series nearly everyone but them was convinced they’ll lose, Brian Elliott looked calm.
When the Flyers instantly kicked into what had been a Game 1 mode and helped the Penguins create havoc around their net in the first minute of the game Friday night, Brian Elliott stayed cool as he finally was able to collect a puck and freeze it.
Then, when the next 59 minutes went the way everyone in Pittsburgh uniforms or ugly giveaway Tshirts were convinced it wouldn’t, it was the Penguins seemingly losing their cool, and the Flyers collecting a 5-1 victory that evens the series at a game apiece heading back to Philadelphia.
And all the while, Brian “Moose” Elliott remained calm.
But when asked about how his 34-save night of brilliance in net and his team’s display of shut-down hockey had supposedly knocked the Penguins off their game on this night, Elliott did not play the role of a cool fool.
He knows better.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of frustration, they’ve been here before,” Elliott said of the two-time defending champion Penguins. “They’ve had tough outings and come back before. They’re no strangers to it, so you can’t count them out, even if you think they’re getting frustrated. It’s a good team over there.”
That admission, so well placed in the broad scope of a series now not so predictable ahead of Sunday’s Game 3 at Wells Fargo Center, is hardly a surprise. But it does emulate exactly what the Flyers had been telling themselves for the previous 48 hours coming off a 7-0 Penguins win Wednesday night.
“There weren’t a lot of positives from that game, but we can always focus on ourselves and realize we’re a good hockey team,” Shayne Gostisbehere had said just prior to this second series meeting. “We made the playoffs for a reason and we can do some damage here.”
And so with Elliott — the goalie everyone thought wasn’t healthy enough to withstand any bit of playoff pressure, much less the waves of it the Penguins always magically create — so calmly escaping a first minute that could have put the Flyers in another early hole without escape, the Flyers set about doing their damage.
It took almost an entire period before none other than Gostisbehere would inflict the first blow, putting a shot through a Nolan Patrick screen and past Matt Murray for a power play goal with just 37 seconds left in the first period.
That the power play came on a ticky-tack boarding call on Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese made the Pens mad.
Then came Sean Couturier, jamming a shot off an onrushing Penguin body and into the net only 47 seconds into the second period. A 2-0 lead was pretty damaging to the Penguins’ previously inflated psyche.
Of course, it only made them madder.
So did a goalie who maintained a sense of superior calm over the proceedings while the Penguins kept missing on scoring opportunities. At one point, with about two seconds left in the second period and the Penguins on a power play, Sidney Crosby missed an open net. As the second-period horn sounded, the sound of a crack of his stick over the crossbar was louder.
“Obviously it’s a break,” Couturier said of the open net shot gone awry by the Penguins’ best player. “Those are the kinds of breaks you need to win in the playoffs. The gods were on our side tonight.
“Any player who misses those type of chances (gets frustrated), especialy him. He doesn’t miss a whole lot of those.”
“They’re a really good team,” Claude Giroux added. “I think we needed that first goal, since we can kind of take a breather a little bit then. And after that we played pretty good.”
While the frustrations built for the home boys, the Flyers had a little control trouble themselves. They took a string of minor penalties in the second and third periods, giving the Penguins four power plays (to no avail). Then Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan, his team trailing by three goals at that point, pulled Murray with four minutes to play.
Almost all of those four minutes featured an extra Penguin on the ice, and the Flyers blocking shots, scrambling to clear pucks and yes ... taking solace in the knowledge that their veteran goaltender was playing his best playoff game in years.
“Moose played a great game,” Giroux said. “So all you doubters out there — there you go.”
There he was, controlling most every rebound. There he was, maintaining a sense of calm while the Penguins ran out of time. On this night, anyway. “Everybody had probably a little something that they were focusing on personally,” Elliott said. “So when you do get up a couple of goals it allows you to stay a little bit more calm. You’re not chasing the game and trying harder than you need to.”
Asked about the difference between being shredded for five goals in about half a game before getting pulled Wednesday, and being beaten only once on 35 Penguins shots in Game 2, Elliott said, “I’m not really focused on trying to evaluate anything. It’s just try to stop that next shot. That’s the mentality I have.
“It’s not about proving anything. It’s trying to win a game for your teammates and your friends and the guys you spend so much time together with over the year. That’s what it’s about.” all