Hartnell lauds Flyers' rookies
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Hartnell lauds Flyers' rookies
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Flyers rookies have played prominent roles in helping them take a stunning three-games-to-none series lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In Game 1, Brayden Schenn had a goal and two assists. Sean Couturier had a hat trick in Game 2, and Matt Read had a pair of goals in Game 3.
“These guys are teaching me with the way they’re playing," Flyers winger Scott Hartnell said at a news conference Monday at the Flyers' practice facility in Voorhees.
Both teams had Monday off.
The Flyers can wrap up the series Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center, where they will aim for their first playoff sweep since 1995 against the Rangers.
"Our group is real solid right now," Hartnell said. "We’re playing together, we’re focused, but the hardest game to win is the fourth game of that series. If we think that’s going to be easy in Game 4 in Phialdelphia, we have another thing coming. They’ve got a lot of professionals over there who have faced elimination games in the (2009) Stanley Cup Finals against Detroit and have come back and won, so it’s not going to be easy.”
Spin on Crosby. Claude Giroux on Sidney Crosby saying he dislikes the Flyers: “I guess we must be doing something right if he hates us, right?”
Giroux said the feeling is mutual, that after the first three games, "it’s got to be hard to like them. We’re not big fans of them, and that’s why this series is so entertaining for the fans."
Later, Giroux was asked if he was aware that most of the pre-series prognosticators had selected the Penguins.
"Everybody was picking Pittsburgh going into the first round," he said. "I don’t think guys look at it a lot…but it was a little bit of a motivation for us to prove everyone wrong."
Malkin's plan. Pittsburgh superstar Evgeni Malkin told the Russian press on Monday that he plans to play in the World Championships if the Penguins are eliminated. Malkin, who is favored to win the NHL's MVP award, has no goals in the series and has been frustrated by Couturier's defensive work.
Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.
Nice to see that Geno has his offseason planned out.— n62- Yeah no kidding. Way to focus on the task at hand. Those fools are done. Series is officially over Wednesday night.— Controlled Chaos
- Well Malkin has already made his plans for the summer going to the World Championship.... the FLYERS will help him get there sooner than later....LETS GO FLYERS!!!— srcdaddy1216
- Well Malkin has already made his plans for the summer going to the World Championship.... the FLYERS will help him get there sooner than later....LETS GO FLYERS!!!— srcdaddy1216
- Hard to see Malkin getting the MVP when he has been shutdown by a 19 year old rookie, who has also significantly out-scored him. Keep it up Couts!!— jpatt6
- Can you imagine a FLYER saying anything except, we are only focused on Game 4 Wednesday night ? Even if asked their summer plans.
Stick a fork in 'em !— FatBoy90 - Malkin will get the Hart trophy ( MVP ) because it's only based on the regular season. But for the playoffs, Malkin will get the No-Heart trophy, while Crosby cries that he should have received it.— C-Note
- There will be a couple of the Penquins not in the lineup Wednesday. Suspensions are to given out tomorrow.— farley
- WOW- Malkin already lining up his future, WHEN the Pens are eliminated.— mrjarn
- #14 has been this series's MVP.— PhileaglyersFan
- The way he's been playing is he sure they want him.— txflyer
- Rookies have been sensational this season. Good team chemistry all around. Nice to see Hartnell do so well this season. Jagr is unbelievable.— dogman5
- Genny, the Russian word for vijayjay is PUSHKA— BirdinParadise
- Kovacevic wrote a great piece in the Pitts Trib last night basically calling out his Pens as an embarrassment and telling them not to even bother taking the plane back to Philly for game 4.....it's so nice to hear a homer report on real bad play and call them out for it. He may not have a job next season. It might be nice to have him in Philly.....here's the blog of comments people have written in....you can get to the article from here if you want.....many of the bloggers are quite complimentary to the Flyers which makes me feel that ALL fans from Pitts are not bad people.....http://blog.triblive.com/dejan-kovacevic/2012/04/16/wakeup-call-the-art-of-focus/ (HTML deleted)— Mark1npt
- Been reading the Pitt blogs as well. Bottom line is any fan that knows anything knows head hunting is not good for the sport. As much as I don't want Crosby to win, the game and the series would not be as entertaining if he was out with jelly head. If the tables were turned, I wouldn't want to see the Flyers take that action either. There should be zero tolerance for a hit to the head, even the legal ones where a shoulder hits a man with his head down (i.e. Lindros hit), et al. Just my opinion. Everything else of course is fair game!! — Voytas
- @BirdinParadise, ahahaha ^^^^ the Pittsburgh Pushka's! Gotta hand it to Hartsie, a great team has a nice mix of vets and rookies, though it's hard to remember a team with this many rookies starting. I'm sure the vets are letting the rooks know what to expect and the rooks are giving that extra push to the vets. Homer has done a great job with this team. Finish them off Wed. They don't seem like a team that can come back, just don't let them do it...I dislike them very much!— AnukKrakatoa
- Time for Bryzz to steal one!! The flappers will be coming out hard - let's put the nail in boys...— bigdaddyG
- @voytas....agree with you completely.— Mark1npt
- Seems like Malkin is tired of the nonsense in Pittsburgh, and he'd be just as happy to away from his immature captain and stupid teammates, and go play in Europe. Malkin has actually behaved himself in this series. In fact, his play dropped off when Crosby came back. When Pitt gets eliminated, look for some interesting gossip to come out of that dressing room.— element_104
- I have been saying this for years that Malkin is the overall better of the 2. Once he realizes that and is tired of living in the Crosby shadow, he'll be on another team.
Without putting words in his mouth, I'm pretty sure that Jagr felt the same way which is why he signed with the Flyers rather than the pens.
Imagine being a player on the pens. Your doing great work keeping your team atop the standings and all you hear about is how your baby capt. is out with a boo-boo. Gotta be frustrating to be in the shadows the whole time. 
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