Crosby responds to DN cover
The gritty tabloid which has served Philadelphia so well over the past 87 years was placed in the lap of Penguins center Sidney Crosby on Wednesday morning.
Crosby responds to DN cover
The gritty tabloid which has served Philadelphia so well over the past 87 years was placed in the lap of Penguins center Sidney Crosby on Wednesday morning.
Crosby, 24, said he had not seen Wednesday’s Philadelphia Daily News – which featured him dressed as a lion with the headline “The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney.”
Crosby picked up the paper and laughed.
“That’s probably one of the nicer things they’ve said about me here,” Crosby said.
Crosby was more focused on the Penguins avoiding their first sweep in 33 years.
In order to do so, the Penguins will have to do it without defenseman Paul Martin (undisclosed injury), forward James Neal (one-game suspension), forward Arron Asham (four-game ban), and forward Craig Adams (automatic one-game suspension).
“We’ve got to win a hockey game, that’s really all we’re thinking about,” Crosby said. “I think we have a lot of depth, that quality is something we pride ourselves on. We’re more than capable of providing offense here in one game.”
None of the Penguins seemed overly disappointed or surprised about Brendan Shanahan’s rulings. Defenseman Brooks Orpik, in fact, said he wished most could see what Shanahan’s decision process is like to truly appreciate how tough his job can be.
Neal, a 40-goal scorer, is a significant loss. But so is Adams, who is one of Pittsburgh’s top penalty killers. The Flyers have victimized Pittsburgh on the power play, connecting on 6-of-10 opportunities over the first three games.
Now, the Penguins are without their top forward on the PK and a defenseman who also sees time on that unit.
“Somebody else has to step up,” Orpik said. “(Adams) played a lot of minutes. But no matter who is on the penalty kill, it’s not going to change how aggressive you are or how you play it. Someone else is just going to get more minutes.
“Penalty killing takes a lot of out of guys. We’ve watched a lot of video. Just like our 5-on-5 play, we’ve been making a lot of mistakes – uncharacteristic mistakes that we don’t really have a reason for them. They’re not effort mistakes, just maybe mental focus.”
Now, the Penguins are expected to drop four relative rookies – with Eric Tangradi, Joe Vitale and Dustin Jeffrey up front and Ben Lovejoy on the back-end – into an Eastern Conference quarterfinal pressure cooker.
“It’s not any other (game),” coach Dan Bylsma said. “I know the group of guys in there plan on winning our first game here in Philly.”
When asked about his team’s mental state, Bylsma said “I think we’re ready to be at our best tonight.”
And that mental fragility, after being beaten every which way through the first three games of the series, will be the most interesting factor. Unfortunately, Game 4 – judging by the way the series has gone – probably won’t be able to tell much in the first five or 10 minutes.
“Individually, we haven’t been very good,” Orpik said. “We can’t change the outcome of the first three games. We’ve just got to try not to make the same mistakes.”
For the latest updates, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @DNFlyers
Bylsma believes in a 5-man unit, offensively and defensively, and the problem the Penguins have had in this series is that the mobile d-men can't handle the Flyer forwards.
It's Bylsma's system, of which Crosby supports. The Penguins have their share of problems (based on this series), but disagreement about the system is not one of them.
Plus, the Flyers have capitalized on the strategy that Ottawa used to beat the Pens late in the year--long passes designed to keep Penguin D deep and out of the offensive zone, thereby preventing the Pens 5-man unit from controlling the puck.— WhatWhiners- hey whatwhinner - once again...bite me.— tmq
- hey whatwhinner - once again...bite me.— tmq
- hey whatwhinner - once again...bite me.— tmq
- tmq--nice job of refuting the "Flyer fans are unreasonable" belief that everyone outside of Philly has!!— WhatWhiners
- Lovejoy is terrible. He should be good for a Flyers goal each shift out there.— BobbyD
- gmuny2002 , That is Lisa Hillary from CSN, our Canadian import to discuss hockey. She knows more about hockey than the entire panel of "experts" on DNL put together.— BobbyD
- Thanks BobbyD, I watched the video too, I have a penchant for redheads lol! Beauty and brains, a very rare combination in today's world indeed!
— gmuny2002 - Lisa Hillary is horrible. Is she on CSN because she had a Canadian accent?— phillyceltic
- Damn! Are all u Philly fans, jagoffs or what?! Can't you say anything positive about anyone? You even crack on your own announcers for cripes' sake?!
- Dick Clark dead at 82!
RIP— AnukKrakatoa - time to focus on winning and moving on to the next series ,...healthy,...Bryz comes up big in a close one-....Flyers 2-0— SyddBarrett
- The Flyers to this point have been good at keeping their cool - there haven't been too many retaliations by Flyers players. Lavy seems to have their heads in a good place: let your play do the talking, not cheap shots.
As long as they keep doing that, they appear to be the better team in all respects in Game 4. There should be no reason for a Game 5.— Watching and Waiting - sweep the leg!!!!!!— jg1978
- Get em a body bag,Yeah! In Philadelphia belt mean no need rope hold up pants!
— DUDESKINS
