Past playoff series between these cross-state rivals have featured donnybrooks, suspensions, chaos and mayhem.
This one? Not so much.
Save for Claude Giroux colliding with Kris Letang in Game 2 and, maybe, maybe, Matt Read slashing the back of Derick Brassard’s legs at the end of Game 4, this latest installment of Penguins-Flyers has been, well, kind of tame.
It’s not at all what was expected from this matchup between Nos. 2 and 3 seeds. It’s been tame even by the standards of the seven other first-round playoff series that are either underway or have concluded.
And there’s little reason to believe that will change tonight in Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena.
With the Penguins holding a commanding 3-1 series lead and looking to bring this one-sided series to its merciful end, the time for sending messages or exacting revenge seems to have passed. The Flyers need to win three straight, plain and simple.
That’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. During the regular season, they have shown themselves quite capable of stringing six wins together, as they did in mid-February. But they’ve also shown they can lose five in a row, as they did in early March.
Regardless, taking penalties, of any kind, has proven to be a fool’s errand against the Penguins’ top-ranked power play, which has absolutely shredded Philadelphia, clicking on 5 of 20 chances. It’s not just the conversion rate, it’s been the timing of the Penguins’ power play goals that has proven to be so deflating for the Flyers.
Save for brief stretches, the Flyers have been unable to sustain any sort of offense or play to any kind of identity. And whatever that identity is, it clearly isn’t the one from 1974 or 1989 or 2000 or 2012. These aren’t the Broad Street Bullies anymore.
And the Penguins, who last summer traded for Ryan Reaves only to deal him at the trade deadline, are back to being, well, the Penguins.
That doesn’t mean they’ve been shrinking violets, but they’ve had enough team toughness to win the last two Stanley Cups. Last week, Mike Sullivan said that he thought the game had “evolved” away from fighting. But don’t take that to mean that the game has changed that much.
“Has this series been physical? Yes, at times it’s been very physical,” Sullivan said Friday.
“I think it’s all about how you define physicality and what it means to you. I know what it means to our team and I think our team is bringing it.”
If anything, the Flyers have been trying to play the Penguins’ speed and transition game and have gotten schooled by the originators.
“When you look at the identities of these two teams, that’s the type of game or the style of play that both teams are trying to play,” Sullivan s aid.
“I can only speak for my team and what we're trying to accomplish. We think we’re at our very best when we’re playing a speed game.”
Indeed. styles make the matchup. But when two teams are trying to do the same thing — and one is clearly better at it than the other — it leads to things like the Penguins outscoring the Flyers 17-1 in their three victories.
The Flyers will make some lineup changes for tonight’s game, including the insertion of Robert Hagg, the NHL’s seventh-leading hitter. But that’s not likely to change the tone or the scope of the series.
Dave Hakstol, who has helped usher in this era of kinder, gentler Flyers seems quite content with that.
“Every series is different,” he was saying. “This one has its own personality. So in terms of rivalry, I guess I haven’t thought of it in that way. I’m thinking of it more in terms of the series and where we’re at and what we need to do better. Those are things that I’m spending my time on.”
Barring some unforeseen comeback from the Flyers, Hakstol is going to have a lot of free time on his hands.