Can the Penguins Style Lead to Postseason Success?
When the Penguins are on their game, which they decidedly weren’t during last night’s Game 1 loss to Philly, they’re truly a sight to behold.
Fast. Connected. Able to score goals in bunches with blitzkrieg suddenness. Wildly entertaining, too.
Yet as potent as our quick-strike game was during the regular season (third in the league in goals), I wonder how effective it will be in the postseason?
Saturday night it wasn’t. Our Pens had grave difficulty getting up to speed against Philly’s neutral-zone clogging 1-1-3, which later seemed to morph into a 1-4 trap. We alternately tried to pass or carry the puck through the orange-and-black mine field, with little success. Leading to a passel of turnovers, which in turn led to a plethora of odd-man breaks against.
Still, the Pens seemed to reluctant to play a chip ‘n’ chase game that might have enabled them to bust the trap and apply more pressure to the Flyers’ defense and goalie Dan Vladar.
Is it simply a matter of sticking to our guns and doing what we usually do, only better? Which was sorta, kinda our approach when we got knocked out in the opening round four-straight years under Mike Sullivan.