Pens beat Flyers

The Penguins beat the Flyers today to clinch a playoff berth and put the Flyers in peril of missing the post season. The Flyers will come out of todays action only 3 points ahead of 9th place New York, and they finish the season with a home and home series against those Rangers. The Flyers are also only 5 points out of fifth place though, so a solid run by Philly could put them as high as fifth in the conference..............On a more interesting note to me is the fact that there are many scenarios which could pit the Flyers and Pens against each other in the first round of the playoffs.........If the Pens finish 2nd and the Flyers 7th, or if the Pens finish 4th and the Flyers finish 5th they will square off.......both scenarios are quite possible, as is a 3rd and 6th finish......However, with Carter out, and the horrible injury issues the Flyers have at the goaltending position, and a pretty tough schedule, the Flyers will have to run pretty hard to assure a berth in the playoffs at all. Hockey is a funny game that way. Back to the Penguins..........the stat showing the most points for an individual player against a single team since 2005-06 shows Crosby with 54 points against Philly or the second most pts for an individual against any team in that span.....Craig Adams and Max Talbot showed their stuff on the PK today.......Cooke played his usual solid game and got a goal......Crosby woke up a bit adding 3 assists to move his season point total to 92. I really would love to see another 100 point season and 50 goals for Crosby......in an odd stat Crosby does not have a goal in the 11 games Malkin has missed this season.....makes no sense given the fact that they see little time on the same line, and Crosby normally draws the top defensive pairing anyway..........I love the steady game Jordan Leopold plays, and sure hope the Pens sign him after this season............his skating, calm play in his end, breakout passing, and decent scoring punch will make him all the more valuable with Gonchar moving on..........Fedostinko showed signs of life today as well...............I really liked the game Kunitz brought today, as well as Alexei Ponikarovsky and Kris Letang.............I also like how physical Mike Rupp has become in the last several games....................Finally, at least as it stands now, the notion of Pronger being added to the Flyers to shut down Crosby and Malkin has not totally worked out that way..........Pronger still brings a lot to the lot to the game, but he has not kept Crosby off the score sheet in the manner some had thought he would. This game closes out an era with the Flyers playing their last regular season game at the igloo and this guy most likely never be in a position to job Fartsmell or Carcildo so well ever again................The Pens need to go on a roll now to ensure a top 3 seed and avoid the Caps and Devils until the conference finals......... if they get there..........