Pens continue poor record at home to the Flyers

Pens continue poor record at home to the Flyers

The Pittsburgh Penguins faced off against their inter-state rivals last night, the Philadelphia Flyers and continued their atrocious record at the Consol Energy Center. The Flyers are now 13-2-1 since the Consol Energy Center opened and have outscored the Penguins in that stretch 63-45. Even when they're eliminated from play-off contention they managed to perform better than the Penguins.

One of the big sticking points is that the Penguins are playing with five defenseman at the moment due to the recent injury to Kris Letang in the past game and the absence of Ehrhoff. Per NHL CBA rules as they are so close to the cap they have to play one game with a man short before they can call someone up on the league minimum. This means that before the game against Columbus, Taylor Chorney should be called up. This is quite a tough rule but the Penguins surely could have been able to call up earlier or potentially seen this problem arising? The only person I see them being able to send down would be Adams, but that wouldn't happen. So, they now have to call up Chorney.

As for the game itself, Crosby scored his 300th NHL and his 31st in his career against the Flyers. The goal came from good work on the boards and Crosby benefited from a rebound near the net to tuck it in for an early 1-0 lead. That was about as good as it got for the Penguins would where out-shot and out-worked for the rest of the game. 

There is something about the Flyers when they play Pittsburgh that even when they're in a rut, or having a poor season, they still manage to best us. Is it a mental thing that the players expect to lose or are they just better at these big games than us? Brayden Schenn had a good game and was the focal point of the Flyers offense outside of Raffl with five shots in the game. The Penguins enjoyed the early lead, but soon let it go with Lecavalier scoring just his eight goal of the season and his first since January 3rd. 

I think the main reason the Flyers won last night was to do with the Penguins having five defenseman which tired them out more due to the increase in ice-time and the Flyers exploited that to a beneficial effect. The Penguins have some big games against the Islanders and the Flyers again coming up, they'd be wise to win them.