The Philadelphia Flyers are in full management of their first-round playoff collection in opposition to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and due to their 5-2 win on Wednesday night time, now have a 3-0 collection lead. They’ve an opportunity to finish the sweep in Recreation 4 on Saturday night time in Philadelphia.
The recipe in all three video games up to now has been fairly easy: Frustrate the Penguins with a smothering defensive efficiency, await the Penguins to make a mistake, after which pounce on it.
It’s working to perfection.
Flyers hold irritating Penguins, and Penguins hold taking part in proper into it
Regardless of the 3-0 collection lead, in addition to the 11-4 edge on the scoreboard over the three video games, it isn’t actually a case of the Flyers dominating the collection.
No less than not offensively.
By way of offensive zone time, and even at instances the general scoring possibilities, the Penguins have had the higher hand. They’re spending extra time within the offensive zone and have at instances had prolonged shifts across the Philadelphia internet.
However they don’t seem to be getting something in opposition to the Flyers in transition.
They don’t seem to be getting odd-man rushes.
They don’t seem to be even getting clear appears to be like on the internet once they do have offensive zone time.
Philadelphia is doing a masterful job of taking away the impartial zone, locking down the defensive zone, closing off passing lanes and taking pictures lanes, and insulating goalie Dan Vladar so he not often has to face a main shot and barely has to face a rebound shot.
Your complete recreation plan has been to attend for the Penguins to pressure the difficulty and make a mistake. And that’s the one factor on this collection the Penguins have excelled at. Many of the objectives in opposition to have come off turnovers or common errors with the puck.
As an alternative of simplifying their recreation and making an attempt to match the Flyers’ persistence, the Penguins hold making an attempt to play their up-tempo, high-offense fashion, and the Flyers are consuming it up. It has resulted within the third-highest scoring crew within the league throughout the common season being utterly neutralized.
Making issues worse for the Penguins is that they’re permitting the Flyers to get inside their heads and lure them into post-whistle chaos. The shortage of self-discipline has not helped.
The Flyers are taking part in their technique to perfection.
The Penguins don’t have any reply for it.
That’s the greatest cause this collection is doubtlessly one recreation from being over.
