GAME THREE RECAP (Flyers 6, Penguins 3)

The first two games of the series had lacked pretty goals. That's not uncommon in playoff hockey, but deflection goals and ugly goals can get a bit tiresome after a while, especially when there's as much offensive talent on the ice as there is in this series. Game Three broke the trend early and often, starting with Jeff Carter's beautiful goal three minutes in to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Carter took a feed in stride, blew past Bill Guerin, and stickhandled a backhander that froze Marc-Andre Fleury. It was a beautiful goal-- a goal-scorer's goal. After the Penguins had erased a two-goal deficit and tied the game up, the Flyers didn't wilt, but stormed back, starting with Claude Giroux finding some open space to take a great pass from Daniel Briere to make it 3-2, then breaking the Penguins' back on the penalty kill by stealing the puck from Sergei Gonchar, waiting and then feeding Simon Gagne for a short-handed goal to restore the two-goal lead. Both of these were well-executed goals that I couldn't help but admire, even as a partisan. The Penguins scored a nice goal of their own, as Evgeni Malkin threw a wicked seeing-eye wrist shot past Biron in the third period while on the power play. So, at least we've got to see some pretty goals. And now we're going to see a long series.

As an aside-- and I know I said this last year, too-- I'll just never understand the Philly crowd dynamic. They won't win a Stanley Cup backstopped by Martin Biron, but they've got one of the best two or three collections of forwards in hockey. From a skill perspective, it's lots of fun to watch Richards and Carter and Briere and Giroux and Gagne, and they'll get to watch those guys for years to come. So with all that talent wearing the home team's sweater, doesn't their lewd Crosby-baiting come across as almost pathetically self-loathing? The "Crosby sucks" refrain, aided now by the in-game organ to replace a pro-home team chant, is just there to be there. It's not like the jeering done to the road team's goalie when he's getting shelled. That's actually game-appropriate and time-honored. This is just sad.

It's worth noting here that NBC's hockey broadcasts aren't any fun to watch. Sure, I'm still bitter over their shortsighted decision to kill the Mellon Arena outdoor screen, but there were two serious amateur hour moments today. First, the Penguins' first goal was set up when Max Talbot chased the puck behind the Flyer net and immobilized Bradon Coburn until Ruslan Fedotenko could swoop in and feed the puck in front of the net to Evgeni Malkin. It was a fantastic play that got the Penguins back into the game, and the announcers were right to credit Dan Bylsma with some coaching genius there, but they repeatedly misidentified Fedotenko as Matt Cooke. Whether it was intentional or just a matter of cycling line changes, Bylsma got Malkin's line on at period end with Max Talbot on the ice in Petr Sykora's spot. Talbot hadn't played too many minutes to that point in the game as he doesn't get much power play or penalty-killing time, and he delivered the exact spark Bylsma was looking for. (It's worth noting that Sykora seems to have hit the wall. Later in the game Sid hit Sykora with a pass on the man-advantage when the game was still within reach, and while the pass was a little behind him, Sykora didn't try a one-timer, but settled the puck and stickhandled himself into position but didn't get off a good shot. We've seen him put imperfect passes into the net before, and so while it's unknown whether he's seeing the effects of a high mileage career affect him physically, or whether his long cold streak is just getting to him mentally, it's not all that inconceivable that he might not find himself watching Miro Satan take his lineup spot before the series is over. Bylsma stuck him back in his customary spot on Malkin's right to start the next period, but he can only let him play through this for so long.) Then, the Penguins' second goal was scored off a deflection off a Flyer, it was clear to anybody who saw a replay that it had changed direction, but NBC was disinterested in replaying the goal at an angle which would show where the deflection occurred.