The Confluence
Next entry: Letang says Hartnell bit him, and Hartnell ‘can’t say what happened’
Previous entry: Best Penguins prospects info continues at Faceoff Factor
Penguins down Emery, Flyers 5-4
by Tony on 10/08/09 at 09:40 PM ET
Comments (24)
If you listen to some of these hockey “experts”, they’ve all but awarded the Stanley Cup to the Philadelphia Flyers.
You know, the ones that added Chris Pronger and Ray Emery, among others.
Well, tonight, facing the actual Stanley Cup champions, their supposed #1 goaltender Emery gave up a 5-spot for the second game in a row, while Pronger was for the most part invisible other than taking part in the requisite Flyers goon squad in the last seconds of the game in the Penguins’ 5-4 win tonight at the Wachovia Center.
The game was marred in the waning moments as the Flyers were attempting to score the tying goal, when the amazingly incredible leader Mike Richards intentionally ran Marc-Andre Fleury, which resulted in a scrum highlighted by the grappling Scott Hartnell and Kris Letang. Letang skated off the ice grimacing in pain from his hand. The FSN broadcasters speculated that Hartnell bit Letang, and during the postgame interviews Letang didn’t want to say flat-out that he was bit, but he basically implied it. He said that Hartnell should tell everyone what he did.
You stay classy, Philadelphia.
Things started well for the Pens, as the Flyers were called for an early hooking penalty on Danny Briere only 14 seconds into the game. The Pens capitalized quickly as Evgeni Malkin took a Sergei Gonchar pass for a one-time blast from the right point that may have been slightly deflected by Sidney Crosby and into the net to give the Pens a 1-0 lead only 48 seconds into the game. Malkin was given credit for the goal.
Briere got some retribution midway through the period after a Flyers faceoff win. Braydon Coburn skated with the puck down the right boards and made a nice centering pass to Briere, who tapped it past Fleury to tie the game at one.
However, only 28 seconds later, Malkin made a nice cross-body pass to Jordan Staal, who skated in the Flyers zone, used his body to shield the puck from Coburn and bring it back to his forehand to fire a wrister past Emery to give the Pens the lead again at 2-1.
The Flyers tied it right back up on the powerplay again when the Flyers took advantage of a fortunate bounce off the skate of a stick-less Matt Cooke. Cooke intercepted a cross-ice pass, but it deflected it right to the stick of Briere, who banged it past Fleury to make it 2-2 at the 2:37 mark of the second period.
A few minutes later, Bill Guerin then took advantage of a terrible Flyers’ line change to skate in all alone on Emery to fire a wrister past him to make it 3-2 Penguins.
About eight minutes into the second period, it was the Penguins’ turn to get some luck, as Coburn attempted to make a clearing pass but accidently put the puck towards his own net, where it deflected off the pads of Emery and into the net. Alex Goligoski was awarded the goal, and it was 4-2 Penguins.
Late in the second, this time on a 5-on-3 Flyers powerplay, the Flyers used some crisp passing to feed Jeff Carter, who whipped a wrister easily past Fleury to cut the Pens’ lead to 4-3.
Tyler Kennedy helped regain the Penguins their two goal lead in the third period after he dumped the puck into the Flyers’ zone. Matt Cooke gathered the puck and quickly fired a centering pass back to Kennedy, who tapped it past Emery to make it 5-3 Pens.
Carter was able to cut the Pens lead to 5-4 with a goal past Fleury after he had to use Hartnell’s stick with 41 seconds left, but that was all the offense they could muster. The goonery occurred with 1.5 seconds remaining.
Notes:
- Sidney Crosby was outstanding in the faceoff circle tonight, winning 21 of 24 for 88 percent.
- The Pens blocked 24 shots, led by Jay McKee with 4.
- A relatively low number of hits awarded in this type of game, with the Pens getting 16 and the Flyers 14.
- Malkin has been in the penalty box way, way too many times already this season. His 8 PIM’s tonight give him 14 in only four games.
The Penguins will now travel to Toronto for a match against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Philadelphia+Flyers, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Looks that way. That game was the exception rather than the norm.
Posted by cs6687 on 10/08/09 at 10:13 PM ET
Wow. This piece wreaks of unnecessary cynicism and passive aggressiveness. We get it, you don’t like the Flyers.
You Pens fans have such a ridiculous chip on your shoulders. Get over yourselves.
Posted by propper from Philadelphia on 10/08/09 at 11:30 PM ET
Hey propper - This is an opinion blog, not the Associated Press. It’s a Penguins blog. And guess what - we do have a chip on our shoulders. We’re a better team with FAR classier fans.
Flyers fans hate Crosby more than they love the Flyers. Why else would they still be chanting Crosby Sucks at EVERY opportunity even after Crosby has tortured them in the playoffs for the last 2 years?
And the end of the game, the Flyers players showed their true colors again. Richards blatantly ran over Fleury at full speed at the end which should be a suspension as far as I’m concerned, and then of course, that clown Hartnell bit Letang’s finger.
There’s no video evidence of it but you know that’s what really happened, especially after what Hartnell and Letang said in the post-game interviews.
The Flyers are a joke, their fans are a joke, and the end of the game just proves all of that. And as long as the Flyers continue to use the same Bobby Clarke recipe for a team, they’ll continue to lose in the playoffs to faster, better teams like the Pens.
Oh and BTW, Richards pretended to be hurt after running Fleury and didn’t get up while everyone else was fighting… If Crosby did that they’d be calling for his head and calling him all kinds of names. Pathetic.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/09/09 at 12:11 AM ET
And how about the clown in the blue Pens jersey with the logo crossed out tonight? Uh, how about spending your money on a jersey for THE TEAM YOU ARE A FAN OF instead of a rival team.
Typical Flyers Phan. Worried more about the Pens and/or Sid than they are of their own team. Paaaaa-thetic.
Emery giving up 10 goals the past two games? Should anyone be suprised by that?
Posted by Flashtastick56 from Milford, CT on 10/09/09 at 12:24 AM ET
Attending a game in Philadelphia is like going to the Roman Coliseum back in ancient Rome.
The fans are not happy until there is blood drawn, the more the better. Richards runs, Fleury, they cheer. Hartnell bites Letang, they cheer louder. Pronger (6’6”) goes after Kunitz (6’0”), and they chant “Crosby Sucks!”
Now all we needed was the lions.
Bunch of no class savages.
Posted by Packets from Pgh on 10/09/09 at 01:19 AM ET
Flashtastick56 - Yeah I saw that. It looked like a mother and her kid. She was wearing a blue Pens jersey with the Pens logo crossed out in red while her kid was wearing a Pens Stanley Cup Champs t-shirt with the Cup and the letters crossed out in red as well.
What’s wrong with people like that? I mean honestly, it’s one thing to be a loud Flyers fan, and it’s another thing to let the hate drive you to the point of buying the other team’s gear in order to denegrade them. She’s teaching her kid hate instead of love. That’s not what sports are about. I didn’t react to it much when I saw it (nothing surprises me from Flyers fans) but come to think of it, that’s crazy.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/09/09 at 01:47 AM ET
Wait a second, this ISN’T the Associated Press ?? And I’m NOT getting paid ??
That Kukla guy sure pulled the wool over my eyes…. 
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 06:28 AM ET
Well, tonight, facing the actual Stanley Cup champions, their supposed #1 goaltender Emery gave up a 5-spot for the second game in a row
They can always turn to the talents of Brian Boucher. Oh, wait… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60OgssEPokE
Posted by Chris in A^2 from Nyquist Puck Control on 10/09/09 at 09:07 AM ET
@LGP8771 I couldn’t begin to tell you why the Flyers’ fans still chant “Crosby sucks.” If you check the Flyers’ forum, you’ll see there’s an active discussion going on about why this still happens. I wish it would stop. I think you would find that a lot of other Flyers’ fans wish it would too.
I would not be surprised if Hartnell bit his finger, which would be unjustifiable. I think stupid stuff like this probably happens more often than any of us realize, but that doesn’t make it right. Personally, I don’t like that aspect of Hartnell’s game at all. He often exercises poor judgement and it’s a shame because I think he brings a lot of good qualities to the Flyers but they get overshadowed by this sort of junk.
Richards runs the goalie more often than I care to see, but it goes both ways in this rivalry. The Pens don’t play a pristine game out there on the ice, especially against the Flyers. They certainly have run our goalies in the past too.
I just think some of the posts here are absurd but I am aware of the fact that it’s an opinion blog—which also entitles me to my opinion. Come on, do you really think the Flyers are a joke? (I’m sure some homers will respond saying yes.) You’re clearly wearing rose-colored glasses if you believe that. Don’t forget the years of struggling the Pens and their fans had to suffer through to get where they are now. I don’t begrudge you anything but there’s no reason to hold it over our heads as if this is the same Pens team Pittsburgh has been putting out on the ice every year and that the fan base has continually been there.
Bobby Clarke has little control over the team. I don’t think this team is nearly as barbaric as people make it seem. If you look at the everyday roster, half of the players are not physical at all, and about a quarter play a marginally physical edge. Pronger does not play nearly the same physical game that he used to. He’s not nearly as dirty as he used to be either. It’s just that players like Hartnell sometimes go out and do stupid things that skew the perception of the entire team. Meanwhile, for the record, Pittsburgh is averaging about 5 more penalty minutes per game than the Flyers are—you’re 29th in the league, actually—and you have the most PIMs in the league, breaking the 100 PIM mark in only 4 games.
The end of the game proved nothing about the fans. I was at the game last night. Nobody knew that Hartnell bit Letang and we certainly weren’t cheering for it. There were Pens fans sitting in my section and everyone was civil. That comment by Packets is nothing shy of laughable.
I’m sorry but truly classy people would never point out how much classier they believe they are.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 11:07 AM ET
One more thing, there’s a certain amount of irony in the fact that Pens fans are complaining about how Flyers’ fans focus so much on Crosby instead of our own team. Then, I post my comment, look to the right and see this Twitter update from the writer of this article:
“Gotta be better than the bush league Flyers organist RT @CraigCustance: Loved the organist at JLA last night RT @georgemalik”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 11:10 AM ET
And, what’s your point ??
Flyers fans can chant “Crosby sucks” ‘til the cows come home, I don’t give a hoot, knock yourself out… In fact, you guys STILL don’t realize it just fuels Crosby more than it irritates him….
But having the organist not only join in, but START the chants is complete bush league….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 11:16 AM ET
Please. Don’t act like that’s what you meant to say in that post.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 12:27 PM ET
That’s EXACTLY what I meant to say….
I could repeat it for every Pens/Flyers game in Philly, but I get bored with it…
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 12:28 PM ET
Well then, you stay classy, homer.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 12:51 PM ET
This coming from a fan of a team half full of goons, well said….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 01:00 PM ET
OK, smartass. The Flyers have 18 people on the ice every night. Of the ones that have seen consistent ice time this season, you tell me which 9 are the goons? If you need help thinking of the roster, here it is:
http://flyers.nhl.com/club/stats.htm?gameType=2&season=20092010&srt=gp
To make it easy on you, it should even be sorted by games played.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 01:31 PM ET
OK, OK, since you took it literally, I’ll knock it down to six….
Pronger, Laperriere, Hartnell, Carcillo, Asham, Cote….
Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong, I totally expect it….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 01:37 PM ET
I don’t think you’ve actually read one of my posts, or at least understood them. Asham and Cote have only played one game each and that is because James van Riemsdyk and Blair Betts are injured. I wouldn’t count either of them as active players at this point in time, which was what I asked for.
If you honestly believe that Pronger and Laperriere are goons, you are a fool who knows nothing about hockey. If so, I’d have a hard time believing you were watching hockey before the 2005 draft.
So, let’s see, we went from “a team half full of goons” to a list of four players, two of whom are absolutely not goons. I could also argue that Hartnell isn’t a goon either, he’s just makes dumb choices. Last season, he had 60 points, split evenly between goals and assists, which would have made him third on the Penguins in goals, assists and points last season.
Say what you want about Carcillo. I can’t argue that he’s a tough guy and takes a lot of PIMs but he can also put the puck in the net and he’s seeing the least amount of ice time than any of the regular forwards. He’s a fourth line player.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 01:57 PM ET
They ALL played last night, and the vast majority of them will dress every time they play the Pens….
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 02:04 PM ET
You’re still not understanding this very well, are you? JvR may have a concussion and Betts dislocated his shoulder. Betts would have definitely been in the lineup last night because he’s the best FO guy we have and he’s good on the PK. JvR was the second overall draft pick from 2007. They’re not going to pull him out of the lineup—especially if he continues to develop like he has so far this year—so Riley Cote can play two minutes just because it’s the Penguins.
Also, the decision on Hartnell just came in. He will not be suspended or fined for allegedly biting Letang.
Posted by propper from philadelphia on 10/09/09 at 02:18 PM ET
I’m not surprised on Hartnell, especially since there isn’t any video evidence…
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/09/09 at 02:22 PM ET
This entire discussion is pointless. You have two completely biased fans that will argue their end with neither being even the slightest bit capable of comprehending reality. What Hartnell did was deplorable and despicable, and there is truly no place for that in hockey. But to say the Flyers are goons based on recent history is completely inaccurate… I know first-hand most fans in Philadelphia have hardly appreciated Dan Carcillo’s presence and Cote neither starts nor does he see any significant ice team. While he is a truly physical player, I would hardly call Pronger a “goon”, most goons don’t win Hart and Norris Trophies. Considering the Flyers have consistently been within the top 5 in total NHL attendance since long before Crosby was even born, I would tend to doubt they would rather go to boo Crosby than cheer the Flyers. That’s my two cents and I’m sure its an opinion that will get some hate as well!
Posted by Impartial Fan on 10/09/09 at 02:46 PM ET
propper - Perhaps you’re right about the classy comment. However I feel the need to point that out because the crowd in Philly gets out of control when the Pens are there. This kind of stuff never happens in Pittsburgh, even when the Flyers play there. The worst you’ll hear are chants of “Go Home Flyers!”
Now, you’re right - just because there’s a whole bunch of Flyers fans who behave like retards doesn’t make the team’s fans in general classless. I do think that the Flyers’ reputation is blown out of proportion at times - just not when the Penguins are playing there.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/09/09 at 06:54 PM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s Over: I’m Stepping Down
Bill Cowher’s Daughter to Marry Kevin Westgarth
Penguins Sign Forward Steve MacIntyre
Penguins Re-Sign Forward Dustin Jeffrey to Two-Year Deal
Crosby Donation Leads To Renovation at Children’s Hospital
About Kukla’s Korner
Kukla’s Korner is updated around the clock with the work of our own talented bloggers, plus links to the best hockey writing around the internet. We strive to bring you all the breaking hockey news as it happens.
The home page allows you to see the latest postings from every blog on the site. Subscribe here. For general inquiries and more, please contact us anytime.
Get the top online sports betting bonuses available to sports betters!
When learning from experts it’s best to learn personally from them, or from their blog. We can provide that with poker lessons blog, your home to learn poker personally.
Do you get shocked from the luck in the game of poker? Stop getting shocked and start being a Poker Shoker.
As well as reading about hockey games, you can also find info about poker like which poker sites accept American Express or which are the best Canadian poker sites and also find the top rakeback sites at rakeback.net.
Kukla’s Korner is always a free service for readers, but it costs some money to maintain. If you’re ever in a position to donate a few dollars to help out, we’d be very appreciative.
Does this mean the Penguins intentionally threw/played like a high school team in the Phoenix game?
Posted by stoneman from Vegas on 10/08/09 at 10:06 PM ET