How do the Penguins adjust to the Flyers’ stifling defense?
The Pittsburgh Penguins are in big trouble in their series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Not only did the Flyers steal home ice advantage from the Penguins during the first two games of the first round, they jumped out to a 2-0 series lead in the Steel City. Now, the series shifts to the City of Brotherly Love, where a raucous crowd will help Philadelphia look to all but eliminate their Keystone State rivals.
The Flyers have done it thanks to phenomenal execution of head coach Rick Tocchet’s conservative, defensive system that puts a premium on limiting the opposing team’s scoring chances, and the Penguins have not shown the ability or patience necessary to overcome it, at least to this point.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss what Pittsburgh can do to make it easier to generate offense against the Flyers’ suffocating defensive structure.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to start with the one that’s 2-0, Philly winning both games in Pittsburgh.Aa big part of the story has been well Pittsburgh’s inability to create offense. We can combine that with Dan Vladar playing well, but it’s not just Vladar. Petey, how much credit does the team in front of Vladar get for limiting Pittsburgh’s offense?
Steve Peters: I think a lot… I said this before the series. This is a team that isn’t going to beat you 6-5 and run and gun. They’ve got to win games 1-0, 2-1. This is a team that has to defend well, and what they’ve done to the Pittsburgh Penguins is they’ve taken them and just broken their offense. You look at it, Pittsburgh is third in the regular season in goals for per game. Third behind Colorado and Carolina… I know it’s only two games, and it’s a small sample set, but their shots on goal have gone down from the regular season, a top-10 team, they’re 15th in the playoffs. Power play, they’re seventh in the regular season. They don’t have a power play goal yet, only three shots in seven power plays. Philadelphia has absolutely shut down the middle of the ice; Pittsburgh cannot get shots from the interior. They can’t get those high-danger chances, they have no ability to get sustained offensive zone time and pressure because Philadelphia is quick on pucks. They double up quick when they’re defending, and they get the puck out of the defensive zone, so they don’t spend time there. It is a big problem for Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh has to find a way to correct that right now
Carter Hutton: Petey you know you get it, right, and I think I give a lot of credit to Philadelphia’s scouting staff and video of going out and getting a guy like Dan Vladar and seeing what his ceiling could be and making some things to move them forward. Now, if you’re Pittsburgh, and you’re analyzing these first two games, what do you do to get your guys going or make adjustments to try to match what the Flyers are doing in a short window, right? It’s not like you have a ton of time here. You’ve got one day off and now you’re back, and it’s gonna be hard to solve.
Steve Peters: Yeah, I think this is difficult for Pittsburgh because this Pittsburgh team who I thought played extremely well during the regular season, it’s a team that Dan Muse got into the playoffs. Again, for a team that we thought was going the other direction, but to generate offense in this league you’ve got to get around the net. And now that means either players have to get there, or the puck has to get there, and against Philly that’s tough to do. So for Pittsburgh in Game 3, there’s two things I think they need to do. One, they’ve got to get the puck to the weak side, and the puck moves faster than players, and Pittsburgh has to move the puck quicker in the offensive zone than they’ve been able to do in games one and two. They’ve got to get the puck away from that pressure, eliminate the pressure, especially on the power play. Get the puck moving let the puck do work for you, and secondarily, you’ve got to get your defense involved… in the regular season Pittsburgh was sixth in the National Hockey League in points by defenseman, sixth. Through two games in the playoffs, they’re last. They have one point from all of their defenseman. This is a team that that with Letang and Karlsson, they’ve got to deliver more pucks to the net. They play wide on that blue line which I think they need to do because of Philly… But they’ve got to get that second chance opportunity against Vladar, because like you said if he sees it he’s stopping it. He’s playing extremely well. You’ve got to get traffic you got to get tips, screens, second chance rebounds, and Pittsburgh has had none of that through two games.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…