When the Penguins made the playoffs, their PR catchphrase was “Flip the Script.” Receipts time. Revenge tour. You doubted us, but we showed you.
Looks like the doubters were right.
It just took longer than expected to manifest itself.
Perhaps the Penguins will, indeed, flip the script in Game 3 at Philadelphia.
But that would entail a cataclysmic reversal of a series that got away from the Penguins the moment the puck was dropped for Game 1.
Who’s to blame?
It doesn’t matter. It’s all gone wrong.
It’s young legs vs. old legs in the heightened pace of playoff hockey.
It’s a team on the ascension vs. a team in decline.
It’s a lopsided nightmare.
The Penguins are being taught a systematic masterclass by a Flyers team that has utterly stifled a Penguins attack that netted 293 regular-season goals, third-most in the NHL. The Flyers give no room, especially on the inside.
A power play that ranked seventh in the league got just two shots in five attempts on Monday night, conceding a short-handed goal.
The Flyers have ripped all individuality from the series. The Penguins’ stars are invisible. Their best line has been their fourth line.
That’s a compliment to Noel Acciari, Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte. It’s also a one-way ticket to Palookaville.
It has a 2013 Eastern Conference final vs. Boston vibe. The Penguins have a lot of players who can score. But they’re not going to.
If this script can be flipped, do it now.
If it can’t, the Penguins have wasted a season.
The Penguins maintained the rebuilding process at their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm team and via prospects playing in college and juniors.
But at the NHL level, it’s an old team: Only two players who dressed Monday are under 25. The Penguins’ average age is 29.
This season started out as rebuilding.
But when the Penguins went 8-2-2 in October, the internal script got flipped. Priority was given to winning now.
Rookie Ben Kindel kept playing because he excelled. But other prospects like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty went on the pay-no-mind list. The Penguins’ chase for the playoffs postponed development at the NHL level.
That’s not criticism. President of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas and coach Dan Muse have done a marvelous job.
It’s how the season evolved, and it went pretty well. Give the old firm another kick at the can.
But, if the Penguins lose this series, the can didn’t get kicked far enough.
These Penguins, as constituted, will get older, not better. They’re likely to hit a wall. That appears to be happening.
There could be a major overhaul. It might not be pretty.
We may have seen Evgeni Malkin’s last home game as a Penguin.
We’ll see what Sidney Crosby thinks of that.
Such changes aren’t yet upon the Penguins. There are at least two more games to play.
Muse switched the Penguins’ top two lines back to combinations that previously worked: Crosby-Rickard Rakell-Bryan Rust, Malkin-Egor Chinakov-Tommy Novak. That change made for a better third period Monday but produced no goals.
The Penguins did marginally better on the road than they did at home during the regular season: 21-12-8 vs. 20-13-8. They went 1-0-1 at Philadelphia.
But that seems grasping at straws.
The Penguins were never in danger of winning either of the first two games.
The Penguins won 41 and lost 41 during the regular season. If they lose this series, they conclude the campaign with more defeats than victories.
The Penguins were predicted to finish bottom five and get a corresponding pick in a draft top-heavy with talent at forward. If they lose this series, that would have been a preferred option. Not least if they lose in short, embarrassing fashion to the old enemy.
If the Penguins lose this series, the script will flip in dramatic, franchise-altering fashion. Perhaps by taking steps backward to eventually take more forward.
Or maybe the Penguins just run it back, no matter what, like the Steelers.
Don’t rule that out.
If the Penguins turn this series around and win it, the franchise should feel free to receipt this column in their subsequent PR blast.
