Pens, Flyers renew furious rivalry in first round
Words of wisdom from a former Pittsburgh coach years ago remain appropriate today as the Penguins prepare to confront the Philadelphia Flyers in a firstround series that has a scent of the penalty-filled matchups of yesteryear.
“Scotty Bowman always used to tell his players, ‘Stay out of the scrums. . . . They use up energy, and we don’t need that,’ ” former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button recalls.
The long-standing Flyers-penguins rivalry erupted two weeks ago with a dust-up that included a fight, shoving matches, 52 minutes in penalties and coaches screaming at each other. Philadelphia coach Peter Laviolette and Pittsburgh assistant Tony Granato were ejected and then fined for their behavior.
Flyers forward Scott Hartnell has predicted the series, which begins today (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network), could produce “a lot of blood, a lot of goals.”
“These two teams just don’t like each other,” NBC analyst Pierre Mcguire says.
The Penguins are considered a Stanley Cup favorite, and the Flyers finished one point behind them and won four of the six meetings. But Pittsburgh grew stronger as the season went on and then received a major boost when Sidney Crosby returned March 15.
Over the last 15 games, the Penguins averaged 4.66 goals in a league where defense is still king.
“If I’m on Philadelphia’s side, I want to poke. I want to probe. I want to find the soft underbelly of Pittsburgh, and I want to see if we can get them uncomfortable,” Button says. “I’m doing everything I can to engage them. And if I’m Pittsburgh I’m doing everything I can to avoid that. I’m thinking, ‘We are going to compete between the whistles and then get the hell out of there.’ ”
The talk on both sides is about finding harmony between the needs for both discipline and emotion to win a hockey series.
“I think you need both,” Laviolette says. “You get games without emotion, typically you’re not going to like the way they’re playing, you’re not going to like the results. Games without discipline, you can say the same thing.”
Statistics of the rivalry are too confusing to draw meaning. The Penguins have won the last two playoff series, in 2008 and 2009. But Philadelphia is 5-1 at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center since it opened in 2010.
Adding fuel to the rivalry is that last summer the Flyers signed free agent Maxime Talbot, who scored the Penguins’ Stanley Cup-clinching goal in 2009. Former Penguins star Jaromir Jagr also gets booed because he spurned Pittsburgh to sign with Philadelphia.
It’s not hard to understand the rivalry, former Flyers player Keith Jones says.
“If you look at the two fan bases, very similar,” he says. “Blue-collar workers that expect you to bring your lunch pail with you when you show up on the ice.”