Game Five Recap (Penguins 6, Flyers 0)

We have no way of knowing whether he'll lead the team to a Stanley Cup this year or any year, or whether Sidney Crosby will be able to ultimately make any significant dents in the NHL's scoring records. But here, today, at the age of twenty he's done something that neither Mario Lemieux nor Jaromir Jagr was ever able to do.

He's captained a team that beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs.

Sunday's game was about the best imaginable response to losing game 4 on the road. From top to bottom, the team went back to doing every last thing that had made them successful over the first thirteen playoff games. They played good defense, won the battles for the puck and made sure the Flyers didn't establish any presence around the goal crease. Three plays in particular really stood out to demonstrate the team's attention to detail.

First, with the Penguins holding a then-tenuous 1-0 lead, the puck was dumped into the Flyers end to the right of the net. Biron made an ill-advised decision to try to play it, and didn't actually get to the puck too much in advance of Ryan Malone. Malone and Biron were both against the boards for an instant fighting for the puck, and in the process Malone's body pinned Biron's goalie stick against the boards. Biron took a shot at Malone, then hustled to get back into the net while giving up on dislodging his stick. If it was a penalty on Malone's part, it was far too incidental and unintentional-looking to draw a call. A moment later Malone fed the puck to Malkin, who stuffed in a wraparound that the stickless Biron was unable to stop.

In the second period, with the Penguins still up 2-0, a Penguin d-man made a breakout pass off the boards to Sidney Crosby, and all of the Penguin forwards had begun heading up the ice and out of the defensive zone. The bank pass caromed badly, though, and the pass was behind Crosby and right on the stick of Mike Richards of the Flyers. Richards was left in the slot with a fantastic scoring chance, but Crosby hustled back and pickpocketed the puck and sent it the other way. We've seen that move dozens of times this postseason by the Penguins. Marian Hossa does it so often it's like he's shamed the rest of the team into sneaking up behind the other team's puckcarriers and stealing it from them. Crosby sends the puck the other way and it leads less than half a minute later to his backhanded feed to Hossa for the one-timer that made it 3-0.

Third, in the third period, with a six-goal lead, Fleury makes the spectacular above-pictured save on Jeff Carter of the Flyers. The game wasn't in doubt by that time, but Fleury was as sharp as could be.

It's the little things.