Pens - Flyers Game 1 Fallout: Breaking down what went wrong for Penguins & their early dominance in 1st period

One reason I haven't been ready to jump on the Penguins bandwagon in recent days and proclaim them as heavy favorites to win the Eastern Conference and even the Stanley Cup like many NHL pundits have, has been because of their defensive issues and Marc Andre Fleury's inconsistent play in the post-season since 2010 where he's 10-11 in his last 21 playoff games with an .891 save percentage. After game 1, I'm still not sold on both.

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What has plagued the Penguins for a while now is poor puck management in the neutral zone, struggles to defend the cycle and losing players in space in the defensive zone. They all showed up Wednesday night.

Opposition Getting Behind Penguins: The first issue to attack for the Penguins is how susceptible they are to letting the opposition get behind them. It happened twice in Game 1 and has been a common problem for weeks.

With Pittsburgh dominating play and leading 2-0 in the first period, Jaromir Jagr got behind Zbynek Michalek, receiving a stretch pass and coming in on a breakaway against Marc Andre Fleury who made a pad save to preserve Pittsburgh's 2-0 lead.

Pittsburgh though would later pay when Danny Briere got behind Paul Martin and Brooks Orpik on a clear off-sides, scoring a breakaway goal at 6:22 of the second period to get Philadelphia back in the game.

Regardless of the fact that Briere should have been called off-sides, why the Penguins remain so vulnerable in this area is mind boggling. Yes, the Penguins poor puck management in the neutral zone has been their achilles heel and was in Game 1 especially on the Briere goal where Joe Vitale lost the puck at center ice, but the Penguins defensemen deserve just as much blame as they get caught too far up the ice and struggle with their awareness of the situation.

Defending the Cycle: Coming into the series, it has been well documented that the Penguins are vulnerable defensively against the cycle and it was likely going to be an area the Flyers could exploit. How effective Philadelphia was in Game 1 on the cycle should not have been a surprise.

"They had repeated pressure in just a short amount of time, " head coach Dan Bylsma said on the overtime goal."

An argument is the Penguins struggles on defending the cycle can be pointed to a personnel issue but a big issue continues to be the forwards getting caught watching the puck and losing an open player in space. The overtime goal by Jakub Voracek was a prime example of that. Matt Carle throws a puck to the net and Jordan Staal never picks up Voracek at the side of the net, as his eyes are set on the puck the whole time, a poor play from one of the best defensive centerman in the game.

A positive outlook is that It's a fixable thing in the defensive zone with players just needing to show more attention to details and awareness of their surroundings, but it hasn't been fixed yet.

*Notes after the 2nd period I worked up last night on the Penguins dominance early on, Plus "What we Learned" segment from Game 1*

First up, A look at the good from the Penguins in the 1st period

The Penguins came out of the gates buzzing and they were the quicker and faster team, winning numerous battles for the puck and they set tone just minutes into the game by coming at the Flyers and near the 2:30 mark, the Penguins 4th line established a presence down low setting up a sequence where the Penguins would dominate play for the next minute in a half.

Pittsburgh forced 2 icing calls in the first 3:12 of the game,