PITTSBURGH - The Flyers looked like a team that had been off for 5 days. The Penguins had been off for 4 days and kind of looked it, too. And maybe the ice, on a warmish, humid night, mitigated against anybody looking particularly fast or skillful as the evening wore on.

Whatever it was, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was both familiar for the Flyers and unfamiliar - familiar in that they lost, just as they did in the first games of their previous two playoff series. Unfamiliar in that they lacked the speed, the verve, the rambunctious edge that has carried them to this point.

"We were talking about it," defenseman Derian Hatcher said after the 4-2 loss to the Penguins at Mellon Arena. "We were just sloppy. I think both teams were sloppy in the first period, to be honest with you. I don't know if it was the break or what. Both teams were just sloppy."

Mistakes in the first half of the game doomed the Flyers, but the whole evening just seemed off. The Flyers are best when they play on that physical edge, when the shoot the puck in and go get it, when they skate and push and push some more. They played some breathtaking stretches against both Washington in the first round and especially against Montreal in the second round. This just seemed so different, so much...less.

"I think both teams were sluggish," said center Danny Briere, who had one shot in 21 minutes. "We haven't played in a while. And it was very humid out there, and the ice..."

You can take this however you want. If you are the Flyers, it would be wise to take away this simple fact from an untidy game: that they can play a lot better and that they have played a lot better, from the goaltender on out; that while the loss of defenseman Kimmo Timonen stresses the Flyers significantly, and will continue to do so, most of their problems last night were not about that. They were just about other errors, some forced, some unforced, most correctible.

At this point, Flyers coach John Stevens won't even entertain a questioner's notion that Timonen's absence was at the root of all that was evil last night.

"Let's stop that right now," Stevens said. "Kimmo's not in our lineup and we have six guys who are capable of moving the puck. I thought we had the start we wanted. We had the shots on net, we had the lead, and then we just didn't manage the puck as a group.

"When you turn pucks over and give up rushes to [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin, that's the game you can't play. And we did that."

Crosby scored the Penguins' second goal, tying the game at 2-2, following a giveaway by goalie Marty Biron behind the net. Malkin scored the third goal on a rush that really didn't have a lot to do with any defenseman's shortcomings, and the fourth goal on a shorthanded breakaway - one in which he stopped between the circles, wound up and blasted a slap shot past Biron - that was more about an offensive-zone giveaway than about anything else.

Which doesn't mean that the Flyers don't miss Timonen, and that they won't continue to miss him as the series moves on. It's just that this game, this one game, was likely about other mishandled business. And, face this fact right now: If Biron doesn't return to form, immediately, this will be a short series, given the other realities.

Stevens, in these situations, talks about how his team didn't have any "reference points" at the start of the series, that no team does. After battling against somebody else for a week-and-a-half, even a familiar opponent is a new challenge.

Clearly, the Flyers thrive when they have those reference points in place - or, at least, they have so far. They will have regauged everyone's speed. They will have refamiliarized themselves with the lousy ice that you can get in this old building, and how it can alter what you need to do, and how it might demand a little more simplicity and a little more brute force.

And, let's face it: These Flyers also kind of thrive on desperation. They don't mind dancing on the knife's edge. In fact, they kind of like it - or, so it seems.

There were times when the Penguins had lots of room and lots of time. But there were many other times when it was two teams lugging around pickaxes and shovels and meeting solid rock. It was not the hockey we have seen the rest of this spring, from either side.

The Penguins can play better. The Flyers can play a lot better. How that translates on the scoreboard, we'll soon see.

Send e-mail to hofmanr@phillynews.com.

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