The Philadelphia Flyers are fighting for better playoff positioning, although they're pretty sure how they're going to start off no matter what. While Flyers fans like myself are rooting for them to overtake the Pittsburgh Penguins, it likely won't change how they will face off in the first round anyway. And even if Philadelphia gets the No. 4 seed and home ice advantage, Pittsburgh will likely be favored regardless.
Although the Flyers have been 3-1 over the Penguins this season, Pittsburgh was the hottest team in the NHL for most of March and has Sidney Crosby back in action. As such, Philadelphia has something to prove in the first of two late showdowns/playoff previews with Pittsburgh on April 1.
With the Flyers now three points behind the Penguins for second place in the Atlantic and the No. 4 playoff seed, a win in Pittsburgh is very crucial. A regulation loss would put Philadelphia five points behind and leave their hopes for a higher seed on life support - especially with games against the New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres and Penguins afterwards.
However, a regulation win on the road would close the gap to one point, and further prove that the Flyers are well equipped to beat the Penguins in the playoffs. Still, despite going 3-1 against Pittsburgh this season, only one of those wins came while the Penguins were at full strength with Crosby. And in that battle on Mar. 18, Philadelphia needed a 2-0 comeback and a goal at the very last second of overtime to end their rival's 11-game winning streak.
All of that may be harder to get at Pittsburgh, so the Flyers will need to have a much better start and a more complete game this time. They certainly can't fall behind by 3-0 and expect to rally, as they did against the Ottawa Senators on Mar. 31 before suffering a shootout defeat. Yet since the Penguins just got swept in back-to-back games by the New York Islanders, of all teams, maybe they are ready to come down to Earth again.
The Flyers would certainly like that for a number of reasons, both in the regular season and postseason. They already know they can beat the Penguins early in the year when they don't have all their stars. But doing it in April - and doing it in a maximum of nine games together this month - is going to be another thing altogether. Yet this first showdown is bound to set the tone one way or another.
Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and a Flyers fan since the age of eight.
Other stories from this contributor
Flyers latest comeback only yields one point
Crosby leads Penguins back into win column before Flyers visit
Flyers face Senators before going to Pittsburgh
Penguins now not hot enough to beat Islanders
Flyers storm through Maple Leafs in one last tune up
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment