CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- When a team crushes an opponent as convincingly as the Penguins did to the Flyers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, it takes some serious nitpicking to find blemishes.
Sidney Crosby, ever the perfectionist, found one. And he was right.
As the captain pointed out immediately after the 7-0 victory Wednesday, the power play managed one shot in four opportunities spanning seven minutes, eight seconds. Crosby was on the ice for 5:08 of that, Evgeni Malkin 5:32, Phil Kessel 5:34, Patric Hornqvist 5:12, Justin Schultz 4:07.
"There are going to be nights where they struggle," Mike Sullivan was saying after Thursday's practice at the Lemieux Sports Complex on the eve of Game 2 tonight. "I thought that was one of them."
That maybe should have done more damage. The power play in the regular season converted at 26.2 percent, a franchise record and best in the NHL. Without it, without 68 of their 270 goals coming with the man advantage, they could have conceivably missed the playoffs altogether.
One reason it didn't do that damage in Game 1 was that they still came away with a power-play goal. It just wasn't from Murderers' Row.
The second unit, whose current members have accounted for 14 of those 68 power-play goals, welcomed back Derick Brassard and he immediately made his impact felt. After missing the last five games with a groin injury, Brassard assisted on Jake Guentzel's power play goal at 7:50 of the second period that effectively put the game away at 4-0.
From the right circle, Brassard fired a backdoor pass to Guentzel, who banged in his 14th career playoff goal in just 26 games:
"It was a seam play, so the goalie has to move side to side," Brassard was telling me Thursday. "It's not something that we talked about. It’s just we kind of just expected that and played hockey and made that play."
Acquired to give the Penguins center depth to allow Sullivan to place Crosby, Malkin and Kessel on separate lines, one of Brassard's fringe benefits is the playmaking ability which he can bring to the second power play unit. Brassard's assist on Guentzel's goal was his first power play assist in 15 games in a Penguins sweater.
"That's one of the reasons why we wanted to get Derick Brassard," Kris Letang, who has played on both units, told me. "He's a guy that usually plays on the first power play on any other team. We have a guy like Jake Guentzel, Conor Sheary that are very capable. Sometimes it doesn't go your way and you need other guys to step up. I think in the playoffs, usually that's always the case. Guys rise to the occasion and I think our second PP went out there and had a goal in mind and accomplished it."
The quintet of Guentzel, Sheary, Brassard, Letang and Olli Maatta receives neither the glory nor the minutes of the first unit. The second power play unit, with two defensemen on it, usually receives the final 30-45 seconds before a penalty expires. But they are not an afterthought.
The goal, so to speak, doesn't change, Brassard was saying:
"We know for obvious reasons we're going to get limited time on the power play, so we have to take advantage of it when we do get out there," Sheary said. "If we can put one in like we did, I think that really helps our team. That’s not kind of unexpected, but it’s a little boost that can definitely help us out."
Guentzel would seem to stand the most to gain with Brassard's return to the power play. Of his league-best 13 playoff goals last spring, Guentzel scored just one of them on the power play. His four-point night was a career high and getting him going offensively — power play and at 5-on-5 — might have been the Penguins' biggest victory in Game 1.
"Whenever you can have Brassard, Letang and all the other guys, it’s a good unit," Guentzel told me. "We’re just trying to contribute as much as we can."
Sullivan called having two capable power play units "critical," adding, "When we have two power play units that can potentially score the way our two can, I think it makes our team that much better."
Faceoff for Game 2 at PPG Paints Arena is 7:08 p.m.