The Battle of Pennsylvania
An Inside Look at the Hockey War Between the Flyers and Penguins
Sep 29, 2009
A dramatic off-season saw the Philadelphia Flyers pick up a former Hart Trophy winner on defense, a gritty, veteran forward and a goaltender returning to the NHL after a one-year stint in Russia.
Defenseman Chris Pronger, winger Ian Laperriere and netminder Ray Emery are all new in town for the Flyers, a team built to win now. The cross-state Penguins had a quiet summer, their only notable free agent acquisition being defenseman Jay McKee.
The Battle of Pennsylvania
The Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers archrival, are the defending Stanley Cup champions and a big reason why Philly brought in Chris Pronger to shutdown Pittsburgh’s top players, namely Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins sent the Flyers packing in six games last spring before storming on to the Stanley Cup Finals where they met Detroit for the second year in a row. Despite trailing the series 2-0 and 3-2, Pittsburgh won the final two games to complete the comeback and defeat the Red Wings in seven games.
Last year’s mid-season coaching change (Dan Bylsma replaced fired coach Michel Therrien) turned the Pens season right around. Pittsburgh posted the league’s second best record (25-11-2-3) in the second half, behind only St. Louis, en route to their first Stanley Cup in 17 years.
Philadelphia struggled mightily against the Penguins last season (2-2-2, and 2-4 in the playoffs) despite finishing fifth in the East (one spot behind Pittsburgh) with near identical regular season records. The additions of Pronger, bringing a wealth of playoff experience including a Stanley Cup ring after being part of Anaheim’s 2007 victory, and the underrated Laperriere should help offset that trend.
It is incredibly difficult to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, a feat not accomplished since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998, especially in the ‘new’ NHL. The possibility of back-to-back Cups for the Penguins looks bleak with the constant roster turnovers at the end of each season.
Gone are the days of miserable teams stuck to the bottom of the standing with no shot at playoff glory whatsoever. Now all teams have to do is squeak into the playoffs, anything can happen.
Which is the Better Team?
Pittsburgh lost a few key faces in the off-season, 25-goal forward Petr Sykora and the defensive tandem of Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi, players who chose to chase the money elsewhere or ones that didn’t fit into the teams’ plans. Philadelphia lost their own 20-goal man, veteran winger Mike Knuble, who scored 27 times, to free agency (Washington) and forward Joffrey Lupul via the Pronger trade (to Anaheim) but their lineup remains solid throughout and has the chance to be even better than last year with the additions of Pronger and Laperriere and an entire season from the injury prone Daniel Briere.
Malkin led the NHL in scoring last year with 113 points and Crosby finished third overall with 103, but the Pittsburgh's scoring depth drops off after that, to Jordan Staal's 49 points. Full seasons from Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin should help.
The common saying in hockey, “If you can’t beat them in the alley, beat them on the ice, made famous by Conn Smythe, applies to the Flyers. Current GM Paul Holmgren and the former Bobby Clarke addressed concerns and have built a multi-faceted roster balanced with gifted forwards, mobile defenseman and most obvious, tenacious goons.
Pronger tied Dallas Stars agitator Steve Ott with 13 per cent of the overall vote as the dirtiest player in the NHL, according to a survey of 324 players in the May 4 issue of Sports Illustrated . Flyers forward Scott Hartnell also made the cut, finishing fifth with five per cent of the total vote.
Even the depending champs led by two of the world’s great young stars (in Crosby and Malkin) won’t be enough to stop the ever-improved Flyers two seasons in a row, especially with Pronger now patrolling the blueline.
Here’s to betting the Cup stays in Pennsylvania but instead, ends up traveling 400-plus km to Philadelphia.
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