There is a heartbeat!

I think most of the hockey world, including local pundits, and frankly, myself, left the Pens for dead after giving up 8 goals in back to back clunkers, culminating in the coming unglued at the seams game three performance by the team.  Their defensive zone coverage remained a joke, as did Fleury's play, and on top of that, they had a meltdown and played really childish hockey at the end of the game, that left a top PK man, Craig Adams, their second leading scorer, James Neal, and 4th line grit player Arron Asham suspended for an elimination game in Philadelphia last night.  A team who had been so thoroughly embarrassed, who had not had an answer yet for the Flyers and their game, was now short this much firepower?  The whole of the hockey world including local fans were derisive in their criticism of the team as a whole, but in particular Malkin's lack of production, Bylsma's lack of adjustments, Fleury's lack of the big save, and Crosby's percieved lack of leadership.  Philadelphia media and bloggers rode a wave of hysteria related to the dirty play of the Penguins and the hypocrisy of the stance taken by Mario Lemieux related to dirty play, particulary after the debacle on Long Island last February.  The national media piled on, as did many in the local media.  The Philadelphia Daily News did a funny if unprofessional cover yesterday of 'Sidney the Coward" and asked for the disposal in the series of" Sniveling Sidney."  It truly had to feel like an US against the HOCKEY WORLD mentality in the Penguins dressing room, and it was looked upon as a test of the team's character.  Rightfully so.

Then the game started, and it had that same bad feeling. The referees were calling phantom penalties in response to their inability to control the past game and other NHL mayhem due to Shanahan's impotence, and before you knew it the Flyer had a 3-2 lead, scoring three power play goals, and Fleury was looking leaky yet again.  Giroux, Timonen and Voracek had scored for Philly, all power play goals, and Malkin and Niskanen had tallied for Pittsburgh. Niskanen' goal was the first of four power play goals for Pittsburgh last night. Sidney Crosby tied the game at 3-3, and red hot Jordan Staal gave the Penguins the lead late in the period at 4-3. The Penguins after a shaky start ended the period on top 4-3.  Given recent history, you might forgive those who felt that the Flyers had Pittsburgh right where they wanted to start period two.  But something kind of beautiful happened for the Penguins and their fans.  They went on an awesome tear, starting with three power play goals by Letang, Staal and Sullivan to blow up their lead to 7-3.   This time the Flyers had no answer for the Penguins onslaught. Suddenly Fleury was making key saves.  Bryz was lifted after the Letang goal, and Bob was greeted by power play goals from Staal and Sullivan!  They were still not done, as Dupuis and Staal added goals in the second period, which ended with Pittsburgh in a finally safe and commanding 9-3 lead.  Evgeni Malkin threw a little salt in the wound adding a 10th goal, and the final was a wild romp for Pittsburgh at 10-3.  After falling behind 3-2, the firepower of the Penguins rattled off 8 unanswered goals, without the services of James Neal, a 40 goal scorer, and the NHL leader in power play goals with 18 of them.  Their power play was 4 for 9 last night, and as important, had not let in a momentum sapping short handed goal.  The "Cowardly Penguin" Sidney Crosby had 3 points, with a goal and 2 assists.  Yo, Adrian!  Trashing Sid has not had a negative affect on his performance against your team as he now has 17G and 24A in 26 games on your ice.  PLEASE keep fucking with him!  PLEASE, OH PRETTY PLEASE!  The Penguins response to what had to feel like the world (even Hulk Hogan) turning on them and the heckling of the Philadelphia and national hockey media, reminded me of a statement made by Japanese Admiral Isoroku  Yamamoto after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  "I fear that all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with resolve."  Time will tell if that is that is the case.  There were some other notable occurrences last evening that should have us glass half full fans encouraged.  First off, Jordan Staal was a monster!  He followed up a great two goal performance Sunday with a hat trick last night.  And not only did Gronk have the hat trick, he had 22:53 TOI and was 15 of 22 in the facoff circle for a 65.2% evening.  Folks, it does not get much better than that!  Third line center my ass.  Second, Geno joined the party, getting two goals including the first of the night to tie the game after Claude Giroux had staked Philadelphia to an early lead off of another leaky play by Fleury.  Third, and maybe the most encouraging thing for Pens fans, is that it looked like Marc Andre Fleury had regained his confidence, and gotten some of his mojo back, shutting the door in perioids two and three, and making a couple of quality saves while the outcome was still in doubt.  The seemingly rebuilt confidence and competence of Marc Andre Fleury might be the biggest postive to come from this game for the glass half full people.  Add to that the fact that the Penguins have been capable of winning games in bunches this year, so the general thought of winning 3 straight games is not unheard of for this team.  In addition, the power play is suddenly hot cashing in on 4 of 9 power plays last night   Also, not only did the Penguins chase Bryzgalov last night, they put 5 behind Bobrovsky, which might be an indication that they have finally figured Bob out. If you tend to be a glass half empty guy, well that is easy to do as well.  The biggest issue here is history.  In all of the playoff history of seven game series, only 3 teams have erased a 3-0 deficit to win a series.  The most recent was this Flyers team two years ago against the Bruins.  Second, the Flyers are a very very good hockey club who is 7-1 at the Consol, where two of the next possible three games will be played.  They may have  been caught looking past Pittsburgh, and could regroup and deliver a strong showing Friday night.  Scott Hartnell has done little on the scoresheet, and that would be unlikely to continue you would think. The biggest glass half empty argument though is the fact that there is now 0 margin for error for Pittsburgh against a team that has been able to convert loads of errors into soul crushing goals for much of the series.  I am somewhere in the middle of this glass half full or half empty thing. I look at Friday as a key game.  If Pittsburgh can defend home ice, and win that game, suddenly there is a lot of pressure on the Flyers to not relinquish a 3-0 lead, and the Penguins will be full of confidence and hungry to make history.  Two more wins after that would cement a momentous comeback.  Some final thoughts include the fact that Neal and Adams are due back in the lineup, and you have to make room for Neal, but I am not sure that despite his league leading 18 power play goals that he does not go right back to the top unit, unless it flounders early in the game.  The combo of 14, 87, 71, 26, and 58 was four for nine and a big reason the Penguins blew this game open.  If I were coach Disco, I would hesitate to change that for the sake of change.  I also like Tangradi's game, and I am not sure if outside of adding Neal back to the lineup if I would change ANYTHING else,  including dressing 7 defensemen, with that group not being inclusive of Paul Martin.  Guys, the Penguins looked great the last two periods of this game, but it is one game.  It is a building block, but they need to take 3 more from a tough tough club.   Right now, nothing else matters beyond Friday's game at home.  The Penguins have to play intelligent hockey, stay out of the box, hit hard whistle to whistle, avoid anything post whistle, and have the 60 minute desperation they showed last night.  If they can do that, and win on home ice you have a 3-2 series, but maybe a Philadelphia team that could start to doubt itself.  Time will tell, but for now there is nothing beyond tomorrow.  LETS GO PENS!!