Flyers vs. Penguins Game 1: Key takeaways from Philadelphia’s thoroughly dominant opener

PITTSBURGH — For the primary time since 2022, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his future Hall of Fame teammates returned to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

For the primary time since 2020, so did the Philadelphia Flyers, who’ve already been taking part in playoff-style hockey for the previous month of their determined pursuit of a postseason berth. They appeared each bit the half in a 3-2 victory on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Game 1 of the best-of-seven first-round collection.

Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim broke a 1-1 tie halfway by way of the third interval, dancing round Penguins ahead Elmer Söderblom earlier than firing a shot from the slot previous Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner.

The Flyers managed the play early and sometimes with a bruising model of hockey that clearly impacted the Penguins, beginning the sport by unleashing 17 hits within the first interval.

Skinner, who was excellent all night, stopped a collection of Grade-A seems early within the second interval to maintain the rating even. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale lastly beat him, with some assist from Penguins defenseman Sam Girard screening his personal goaltender, to place Philadelphia forward.

An Evgeni Malkin objective late within the second interval gave the Penguins life and quickly energized the constructing, however with the best way this sport went, they by no means had an opportunity. The Flyers placed on a defensive clinic and eventually began capitalizing on the Penguins’ many errors.

Sanheim broke the tie, and rookie ahead Porter Martone scored his first profession postseason objective late within the third to make it 3-1. A Bryan Rust objective for the Penguins made it 3-2 with 1:01 left within the sport, however Pittsburgh ran out of time to seek out the equalizer.

“They were better than us,” Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson stated after the sport. “That’s it. We didn’t deserve to win this game.”

Game 2 of the collection can be performed Monday night time. Here’s what we noticed in Game 1:

Sanheim leads the best way on each ends

Sanheim scored a highlight-reel objective halfway by way of the third interval, however the veteran defenseman was a drive on the blue line all night time, getting bodily concerned as a lot as he has all season. Sanheim keyed a outstanding defensive efficiency from the Flyers in opposition to the NHL’s third-ranked offense within the common season, holding the Penguins to only 17 photographs.

“I think I understand the level that’s needed to play in the playoffs and understand the challenge ahead and my job and playing against top guys,” Sanheim stated. “And just try to play them hard and as best as I can and limit their time and space.”

Sanheim’s accomplice, Rasmus Ristolainen — taking part in within the first playoff sport of his 13-year profession — additionally dialed up the physicality, drilling Rust simply 20 seconds into the primary interval.

Flyers keep it up on offense

The Flyers had a big edge in scoring probabilities by way of the primary two intervals however managed solely the one objective by Drysdale. Before that, Christian Dvorak rang a shot off the submit slightly greater than a minute into the sport on a move from Martone, and on the Flyers’ first energy play, Skinner stopped Dvorak’s redirection with 12:20 to go.

Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett each had breakaway alternatives within the second, whereas Skinner additionally turned away Noah Cates shot on a two-on-one with Denver Barkey. Although the Penguins had some prolonged shifts within the Flyers’ finish within the second interval, the Flyers maintained their composure and outplayed the Penguins within the third.

Martone places it away

Martone wasn’t all that noticeable for a lot of the sport, however he nonetheless managed probably the most skillful offensive play of the night time. The 19-year-old’s snipe over Skinner’s shoulder at 17:23 was his fifth objective in 10 video games, permitting the Flyers to comfortably shut out the win.

Martone appears to have a knack for impacting the sport even when he isn’t at his greatest, and that did not change within the teenager’s playoff debut.

“Being able to play the playoffs, you know, for me, it’s my 10th NHL game, it’s pretty special and it’s an opportunity that you can’t pass up,” Martone stated.

Classic Malkin

The full Malkin expertise was on show on this one.

Malkin was uncontrolled at occasions within the first interval, because the playoffs’ power introduced out his ornery facet. He face-washed gamers behind play, had phrases with the Flyers bench and took himself out of the motion on a few events by on the lookout for hits. Malkin was additionally responsible of a few horrible giveaways, one in every of which led to a Philadelphia breakaway.

Malkin has been collaborating within the Stanley Cup playoffs for twenty years, but he appeared unable to regulate his feelings for many of the night time.

Of course, in basic Malkin trend, he then evened the rating late within the second interval on a shot from the fitting circle, sending the sellout crowd at PPG Paints Arena right into a frenzy.

“It’s what we talked about, you know? We should play our game,” Malkin stated. “I think we, a little bit, lost control in the second period. … We start fighting. This is what they want, you know? We know it’s a tight, physical game, but we need to play better.

“Our blue line, we must always management the puck slightly bit, play deeper and attempt to focus, like, possibly slightly bit extra behind the online. We give them so many probabilities. Again, it is simply the primary sport, however we have to regroup and are available again for the subsequent sport Monday.”

Skinner sturdy in defeat

On an evening when a lot of his teammates had been apparently unaware that the postseason had arrived, Skinner was up for the problem.

The Penguins’ goaltender was their greatest participant and the one motive they had been nonetheless within the sport for 40 minutes.

Skinner confronted 4 breakaways within the first two intervals; one in every of them clanged off the submit, and he stopped the opposite three, together with one in opposition to Zegras, a gifted breakaway artist. In the third interval, he stopped one other in opposition to Barkey.

The Penguins sustained one defensive meltdown after one other and coughed up the puck a outstanding variety of occasions. However, the goaltender whom the Edmonton Oilers traded largely as a result of he wasn’t adequate within the playoffs was lots adequate on this one, and much better than his teammates.

“Their team’s got a lot of speed, so their transition game is one of the best in the NHL,” Skinner stated. “It’s definitely something that we’ve got to make sure that we’re on top of. But again, we kept it close.”