A few hundred yards from center ice at the Wells Fargo Center stands a giant statue of Joe Frazier, Philadelphia's legendary former heavyweight champion.
Smokin' Joe ruthlessly battled his hated rival -- perhaps the greatest rivalry in the history of sports -- in three epic clashes, the last of which was 1975's "Thrilla in Manila." In that bout, Frazier and Muhammad Ali waged the most savage of the three. But after 14 brutal rounds and Frazier's badly swollen eyes preventing him from seeing, let alone defending himself, trainer Eddie Futch stopped the fight.
Frazier lost the fight but his toughness and bravery were unquestioned.
Can't say the same about the current edition of Philadelphia's hockey team, can we? There has uncharacteristically been zero fight in these Flyers. who appeared to throw in the towel Wednesday night in Game 4.
Where does this series go from here? Will the Flyers come out of their corner for Game 5?
1. Finish this.
"The fourth game is the hardest to win," said every hockey coach everywhere holding a 3-0 or 3-1 series lead.
With three chances to do so, the Penguins will win this series. It's only a matter of when, not if.
The Flyers are 9-8 all-time in Game 5 when trailing a series 3-1. Only once have they gone on to win the series. That was 2010 when they became the fourth team in league history to overcome a 3-0 deficit, rallying to beat Boston in a second-round series.
The Penguins can do themselves a favor tonight by finishing off Philadelphia in five games. The most obvious benefit is it will allow them a chance to get healthy, Patric Hornqvist, most notably.
Tonight, the Penguins merely need to stay the course. If they can replicate what they've done in all four games of the series -- minus hitting some posts in Game 2 -- they should have no problem in closing out this series at home.
"They're a great team we have to come out and play our game, play hard, do the little things and hopefully it works out," Phil Kessel said.
2. Ch-ch-changes.
Judging by the Flyers' lines and pairs in practice Thursday, Dave Hakstol is juggling his lineup around again, including changes to his top line and first defensive pairing.
Although rookie Nolan Patrick handled top-line duties quite well in Game 4, look for Valtteri Filppula to now center leading scorers Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek in Game 5.
"We know we can win there," Giroux said Thursday of Pittsburgh. "We know if we play our game, we can win. So we’re going to go out there, play our game and be back for Game 6."
Meanwhile, rookie defenseman Robert Hagg will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last dozen games. He will replace Travis Sanheim and will be paired with Shayne Gostisbehere, who is a minus-7. That means that Ivan Provorov will be paired with Andrew MacDonald.
Hagg, a 23-year-old Swede, was seventh in the NHL with 238 hits. One of those included a shot on Bryan Rust in a March 7 game in Philadelphia that concussed the Penguins forward:
Hagg is not a dirty player, but the Penguins will need to be aware of his physicality when he's on the ice.
3. Just shoot.
The bigger question for the Flyers is who will be in goal. Hakstol has not yet committed to Brian Elliott, who was yanked in Game 4, or Michal Neuvirth, who came on in relief.
Regardless of who is in net, the Penguins need to shoot the puck. Elliott and Neuvirth have save percentages of just .856 and .846 respectively.
Of the 16 teams that qualified for the postseason, the Penguins are just 11th in shots per game at 31.0. Conversely, the Penguins defense is second-best at shot suppression, allowing just 24.3 shots against per game.
Obviously the Penguins would like to pick up the pace on the shot attempts after averaging 34.4 in the regular season, tied for first overall.