PITTSBURGH — Coming into this NHL playoff series, the Philadelphia Flyers thought the Pittsburgh Penguins defence was vulnerable.
Get the puck in deep, get two fore-checkers on them and you should be able to force some turnovers, went the plan.
Well, it was a nice concept. But one blood clot to the Flyers' best shutdown defenceman later, followed by a dominant Penguins offensive display in winning the first game of the Eastern Conference final and all the heat is on the Flyers defence.
Without defenceman Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers face a double-whammy in trying to stop the speed and skill of Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Penguins. One, they are at a big disadvantage trying to defend against Malkin and company and two, they desperately miss Timonen's ability to make that accurate first pass out of their own zone to start their offensive game.
Flyers defenceman Jaroslav Modry chases the Penguins' Sidney Crosby in a 4-2 Pittsburgh win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Friday. The Flyers defence had fits keeping up with the Penguins' speed. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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Too often in Friday's 4-2 loss to the Penguins, the Flyers defence could not get the puck moving quickly or the forwards left too early. That meant the formation of what hockey coaches like to call the gap — that yawning spread between the forwards up at the far blueline and the defence back at the other blueline.
What usually happens next is someone coughs up the puck or makes a bad pass and the defence is facing Malkin coming at them with the puck and a full head of steam along with linemates Ryan Malone and Petr Sykora.
"Did you see how the defence reacted every time [Malkin] had the puck?" Penguins forward Gary Roberts told the Toronto Sun after the game. "They were back-pedalling, afraid of making mistakes. You play that way, you can't win."
Most players create room for themselves by playing a physical game. Let others know they'll get an elbow or stick massage if they get too close and you will have the room you need to play.
Malkin showed in Friday's game that he can play a physical game. But most of his room comes from fear — the fear of embarrassment in his opponents. Players will back off when he comes down the ice because they do not want to look silly by stepping up for a check and then be left spinning when Malkin throws one of his slick moves on them. So they back-pedal, as Roberts noted, often back-pedalling into their own goaltender.
"If you're not on them when they get the puck and they've got room to come at you with speed, they're going to make magical moves with the puck," Flyers forward Scott Hartnell said of Malkin and Crosby. "It's almost a given that if you give Evgeni Malkin the puck going up the ice at full speed with two wingers on each side of him, he's going to make moves that are going throw your head around a circle."
Which is where the gap comes in. If the Flyers can move through the neutral zone closer together as a five-man unit, they will get the puck into the offensive zone more often for plays of their own, rather than seeing their defencemen left at sea.
"We had a meeting this morning and addressed it," Flyers head coach John Stevens said after Saturday's practice. "We get out of our end, we get through the neutral zone, and we spend more time in the offensive zone.
"We didn't spend nearly enough time in the offensive zone [Friday] night because of it. And we spent too much time on our own end because of it. That needs to change."
The change, according to Stevens, has to come from the forwards as much as the defencemen. They were just as guilty in the loss, by taking off too early or losing the puck and not coming back to help the defence.
"We just didn't work for each other," Stevens said. "The gap was as big of a problem with our forwards as it was with our D.
"We didn't work back to the puck and our D didn't get the puck up to our forwards, [who] were already in a checking position."
Hartnell said the Flyers also have to establish that fore-checking game they talked about before the series in order to turn things around Sunday night in Game Two of the best-of-seven series.
"For us, keeping a guy on Malkin and Crosby, so if they get the puck they're checked immediately, is important," he said. "Then, as a team, we're not looking so bad. We're not giving up odd-man rushes."
Stevens indicated he will make one lineup change for Sunday's game. Winger Steve Downie, who has played in four of the Flyers' 13 post-season games, will go on the fourth line in place of Patrick Thoresen.
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