Forget Game 1?
Wow, no!
Honestly, who concocted this absurd concept that the Penguins should, for any reason at all, clear their minds of that touchdown-sized trouncing of their archrival if they're to best prepare for Game 2?
Wait, what? It was the Penguins themselves?
"It's one game," Sidney Crosby was saying Thursday after practice at the Lemieux Sports Complex. "Whether it's 7-0 or 1-0 in double-overtime, it's one game."
Except no. No, it actually isn't.
"A win is a win," Matt Murray would basically echo, which usually means this had been discussed in some group setting. "In the playoffs it doesn't matter whether you win 7-0 or 1-0 in overtime, it resets after that. We'll take the win and move on."
Move on?
Surely Mike Sullivan wasn't partaking in this nonsense, right?
Or maybe he was, because when his post-practice press conference opened with a question about putting Game 1 into the past, the coach coolly came back, "Well, I think our players are well aware of how the playoffs operate. We were obviously pleased with the effort we had in Game 1. But that's all it is, one game. We watched some film this morning and looked at ways we can get better, areas where we had success, and we showed them that. And now we've got to reset our mindset."
Never mind. I give up. They're right, and I'm wrong.
But I'll stubbornly insist, anyway, that Game 1 will come with more reverberating benefits than what the hockey culture could ever concede, and here are a handful:
1. The longer the Flyers are frustrated offensively, the shorter the series will be.
That doesn't mean Murray extending his shutout streak into infinity. But it does mean continuing to make life hard for Philadelphia's forwards -- 10 total shots in Game 1 from those guys! -- and in particular Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier and Wayne Simmonds, all of whom barely showed. This opponent feeds off offense and, like any offensive team, it can get increasingly deflated without scoring chances.
That's a pretty powerful lesson gained from Game 1, and it doesn't deserve to fade away: Defend, defend, defend.
2. That young defense is dynamic but also easily exposed.
Shayne Gostisbehere attempted 10 shots and registered five, a superlative figure for any position, let alone a defenseman. He also was a minus-4 and is still inhaling Evgeni Malkin's exhaust on that epic coast-to-coast rush. Ivan Provorov attempted six shots and registered four, but he was a minus-2 and only marginally better. No one else mattered much in either direction.
The lesson's equally powerful though simpler: Making them play at the other end is the equivalent of knocking 200 points off their batting average. Front them in the Pittsburgh zone, track them in the neutral zone, and bury them in the Philadelphia zone.
3. Stay out of the box.
For reasons I'll never fathom, the Flyers did absolutely nothing Philly-like once Game 1 got out of hand. I'm not counting on that again in Game 2, and neither should anyone.
"They're going to come out hard," Patric Hornqvist was saying Thursday. "We know that. They're going to come out really hard, and we've got to be ready for it."
The lesson, also culled from Game 1: Keep playing. And by that I'm not referring to turning the cheek anywhere near as much as, you know, keep playing. If that means Jamie Oleksiak crushing Oskar Lindblom in the third period, as he did, so be it. It was totally clean. It was hockey. The Penguins didn't turn soft just because they were up big.
4. Feed the bear.
With all due respect to Crosby's hat trick and his latest brilliant baseball-type goal, Malkin's at some superhuman level right now, and the Flyers can't even pretend to keep up.
Were they really serious in asking 19-year-old Nolan Patrick to follow him?
Come on.
The lesson: Get the puck to that guy. And to the other guy, too.
5. Shoot.
Dear God, shoot the puck on these guys. The Penguins ultimately would have won Wednesday no matter what else occurred, if only because they beat Brian Elliott on their third, seventh and 10th shots, all in the first 15 minutes.
Cling to that lesson from Game 1 like bloody fingernails to the cliff's edge.
• Is it possible for the Penguins to improve upon Game 1?
Overall, that's inconceivable, but here's one area via spoken word:
• No one has what the Penguins have in the combo Crosby-Malkin threat, certainly not any participant in this tournament. Connor McDavid is a generational talent, but he's not ready to do what either Crosby or Malkin did in Game 1. Not yet. Something to bear in mind when anyone, in Edmonton or anywhere, wastes breath attempting to rate him a cut above.
• Why does Dave Hakstol hate winning?
Really, how does a head coach oversee a Game 1 like the one the Flyers just experienced, particularly the passivity, and still choose to keep the lineup completely intact?
I'd bet against it. He's got to mix it up. At the very least, Robert Hagg, a rugged defenseman, will be inserted. And there's no way he can't address the invisible top line of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Michael Raffl. Bump Raffl in favor of Travis Konecny, who at least performed with a pulse and has previously been highly effective with those two.
• Pekka Rinne was beaten on the Avalanche's first shot last night in Nashville, a wrister by Nikita Zadorov, which extended his streak of getting beaten on playoff shots to two.
Thanks. I'll be here all week.
• Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury opening these playoffs with matching shutouts is maybe the most Murray/Fleury thing ever.
• Looks like the Blue Jackets chose well. They're probably very proud.
• Can't knock the Pirates' 9-3 start on any count. Not anymore.
That doesn't mean they won't eventually reach water level, but it does mean they just went into Wrigley and took two of three from the team most, if not all, expect will wind up atop the Central. What's more, they did it in the one way that looks sustainable over a full summer, meaning they hit the snot out of the ball: 19 runs on 29 hits, including eight home runs and 14 extra-base hits.
I've written since the opening of spring training that this team will hit and that the one way they can compete is to hit exceptionally well. They've done that, and they've done it against everyone so far.
No asterisk needed anymore.
• Gregory Polanco deserves all the early praise for his power after two more bombs Thursday, but credit, too, the richly productive starts of both of the lineup's newcomers: Corey Dickerson, acquired by Neal Huntington from the Rays in an exchange that also managed somehow to ship out Daniel Hudson's onerous contract, is batting .341/.386/.610. Colin Moran, acquired by Huntington from the Astros in the Gerrit Cole package, is batting .343/.425/.486.
That doesn't mean both will keep it up. Based on their histories, I could see the production for both slowing but also the power for both rising. They've each got one home run. Dickerson's got an impressive eight extra-base hits, but Moran only three. They've both shown to be capable of sending balls over fences, so it'll be neat to see how that balances out.
In the interim, a productive start for both was obviously ideal, for the individuals and the collective. And that, in and of itself, is a credit to Huntington and all concerned.
• No thanks to a quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft.
The more I look at where these Steelers are, what they've already got and the tightening window in front of them, the more I cringe at any high pick that doesn't address an immediate need. And by that, of course, I mean inside linebacker and safety. And the defense in general.
Besides, when it's really time to replace Ben Roethlisberger, let that be the firm plan, not simple happenstance. Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin should identify the quarterback they really want in a given year, then build up the bank of picks necessary to trade up and get him. A franchise quarterback needs to be replaced with one of similar pedigree, not with crossed fingers.
• Back to furiously flipping through the channels for first-round playoff hockey. Nothing better.
