4 Penguins vs. 5 Flyers: PREDICTIONS

Well, it’s playoff time again in the NHL. After a season I’d describe as freakin’ awesome, 16 teams now have to battle it out to go for the Cup. They already announced the schedule for the first round and pretty much every game will be on national TV.

Last year I predicted each series round-by-round and I was correct with 10 out of the 15 series. I thought it was pretty solid for my first time around. I got several upsets right and I got 7 out of 8 first round series correct. So here I go for the 2011-2012 Playoffs!!!!!

EAST

4. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 5. Philadelphia Flyers

Philadelphia won regular season series 4-2

This is easily the most intriguing first round matchup in the East. These two teams are familiar with each other and every time they play theirs always some bad blood. Things especially heated up in their game on April 1st when they had a huge brawl in which even the coaches got involved. That definitely got everyone excited for this series. Then they faced each other several days later on the last day of the season. So let's just say they know each other by now.

Their intensity hopefully does not shadow the great hockey that will be played in this series. The Penguins and the Flyers finished 1st and 2nd (respectively) in the entire league in scoring. Both teams are highly experienced with playoff hockey. This is certainly going to be one hell of a series.

OFFENSE:

Like I said, these were the top two offensive teams in the league. We'll start here with the Penguins who have the Art Ross Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin (109 points). Malkin has been unstoppable (called it) and showed everyone his injury problem was not so big. He had to carry his team without Sidney Crosby and did a fine job doing that. He had help though as James Neal, after doing 0 for the Penguins last year, finally proved his worth and had very good numbers at the end of the year (40 goals, 41 assists). These two players were sick all year. And then Sidney Crosby came back. Crosby chipped in 37 points in his 22 games and opened up the games of guys like Pascal Dupuis and Steve Sullivan. Throw in Matt Cooke's solid season and a couple of other solid secondary scorers, and you have yourself a pretty damn good hockey team.

The Flyers players were streaky all year. Jaromir Jagr was very good at times in his return to the NHL and Philly received nice help from Scotty Hartnell. When Claude Giroux wasn't injured, all he did was beast it up and he ended the year with 93 points in just 77 games. But the Flyers are a bit deeper than Pittsburgh I feel. Danny Briere has yet to ignite offensively and they have guys like Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds who have been adding timely scoring all year. They have 4 full lines of offense who I feel can all cause damage (and this is without injured forward James van Riemsdyk).

EDGE: I'm giving this to the Flyers. I just feel that the Flyers have more depth. The Penguins I feel can't simply match the same amount of scorers Philly has and although Malkin, Crosby, and Neal are all top 10 forwards in the league, it won't necessarily help if they aren't given any secondary scoring.

DEFENSE:

The Flyers have been in trouble defensively this year especially after Captain Chris Pronger was announced out for the year back in November. Unfortunately, nothing has changed since. Pronger was their leader and they had trouble replacing him (I mean Nicklas Grossman isn't THAT good). Kimmo Timonen is a solid player though and he's made a good pair with Matt Carle. But Philly's D just isn't that strong and they definitely have holes in them.

Pittsburgh's defense, on the other hand, looks very strong on paper. Brooks Orpik has had a nice year and Kris Letang has really proven to be a great defenseman. Then comes, in my opinion, one of the most underrated players in the league. Paul Martin has to be one of the most well rounded defenseman in the NHL. He quietly shuts down top forwards night in and night out. He doesn't have a demanding physical presence and doesn't score too much either. But there honestly aren't too many great defenseman who get as little attention as Martin. And for some reason Penn fans don't like him too much either.

EDGE: I feel that Pittsburgh has the defensive crew to get things done. In a tight series I think they'll hold together and play better than Philly's unit. I find Pittsburgh's Dmen better in their own zone and offensively also.

GOALIES:

For Pittsburgh, it's been a shaky season for Marc-Andre Fleury. He started out a little weak but really improved throughout the middle of the season. But by the end of the year he started playing bad hockey again (and enabled me to win in a fantasy league (he was the other team's goalie)). In the last week of the season, Fleury was 0-3, had a 5.31 GAA, and a SV% of only .788. That's not very good. Thankfully, his regular season stats were not as awful. Overall, it was pretty much an orthodox year for him. But his play down the stretch might concern some. I feel that it was just a phase. He's won a Stanley Cup and I'm certain he'll get into a groove once the playoffs start. It's what Penguins fans expect of him. Numbers: 42 wins, GAA 2.36, SV% .913, 3 shutouts.

Well the Flyer's goaltending situation has been a conundrum for the last few years. It came to a point where we just expected their to be a carousel of netminders for them come playoff time. But this year was supposed to be different. They paid top dollar for a legitimate starting goalie and expected him to carry them to the promise land. But Ilya Bryzgalov, aside from entertaining the hockey world with his observations, did nothing for the Flyers. He was miserable for the first half of the season and was punished by not playing in the Winter Classic. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky did a very good job playing instead of Bryzgalov. Eventually Bryzgalov started playing fantastic hockey and that lasted several weeks. So at this point, people assume Bryzgalov will start, but there has still not been official word on the matter. But I think Ilya has overcome a lot this season and he has more motivation now to quiet his critics. Numbers: 33 wins, GAA 2.48, SV% .909, 6 shutouts (yes those are his numbers thanks to his incredible stretch of games at one point where he was lights out. But these numbers don't reflect the type of season he's been having).

EDGE: The Penguins have the edge here. Fleury has proven himself to be one of the best netminders in the world. Whether or not Bryzgalov shows up, we all can assume Fleury will bring his A game which is always tough to top. In a close series like this, a goalie like Mar-Andre Fleury can make all the difference.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Philly leads the league in powerplay goals. By a lot. The players they have out there are all so good at what they need to do. Giroux can snap one in from anywhere, Hartnell and Simmonds can both create traffic down low, and Kimmo Timonen can quarterback the powerplay and take blasts from the point. Philly also leads the league in powerplay opportunities (thanks to their fans, I'm sure) and they do a lot with their chances. However, Philly is also the most penalized team in the league. I'll get to how good Pittsburgh is on their powerplay in a moment, but Philly cannot just give them chances. They have to do a better job of playing disciplined hockey. And that's a lesson they have to learn fast. There penalty kill isn't THAT solid either so dumb penalties might be their downfall.

Pittsburgh is right up there with the best powerplays in the league. Their first powerplay unit is Malkin-Crosby-Neal-Kunitz-Letang. The skill in those 5 alone is remarkable. But all of them on the ice together, especially one at least one of them is guaranteed to be open at any point, is just scary. The damage they can do is remarkable. They'll have plenty of chances against Philly, the most penalized team in the league. And just because Pittsburgh has to be good at literally everything, they are ranked as the 3rd best penalty killing team in the NHL. 

EDGE: Pittsburgh again. Although Philly has the most powerplay goals in the NHL, Pittsburgh has a better powerplay percentage. Also Pitt will undoubtedly have more chances on the PP and they have a better kill anyway. Easy choice.

CONCLUSION: This will be the closest played series in the first round. The pride of Pennsylvania is on the line and both teams will stop at nothing to win this one. Expect to see a lot of chippy play with a plethora of hits. If you want to see hockey at it's finest watch this series. You'll see big hits, sick saves, gorgeous goals, and who knows, maybe we'll even see Crosby fight. But I think the fact that Fleury is better than any goalie Philly uses and the deadly powerplay of Pittsburgh, it should be somewhat predictable who'll win this.

PREDICTION: PENGUINS IN 7 GAMES

Note: stick tap to dailyfaceoff.com for supplying starting rosters and stuff. Pretty sick site.