Flyers – Penguins Game Day Buzz: Four Key Storylines & Today’s Lineup

Time: 3:00 p.m. | Where: Wells Fargo Center

Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Pascal Dupuis

Eric Tangradi – Evgeni Malkin – James Neal

Matt Cooke – Brandon Sutter – Tyler Kennedy

Tanner Glass – Dustin Jeffrey – Craig Adams

Matt Niskanen – Kris Letang

Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin

Simon Despres – Deryk Engelland

Scott Hartnell – Claude Giroux – Brayden Schenn

Max Talbot – Sean Couturier – Jacob Voracek

Wayne Simmonds – Scott Laughton – Matt Read

Ruslan Fedotenko – Eric Wellwood – Zac Rinaldo

Kimmo Timonen – Luke Schenn

Braydon Coburn – Nick Grossman

Andrej Meszaros – Kurtis Foster

Special Teams: Last season the Penguins were never able to solve the Flyers power play. In the regular season, Philadelphia went 6-29, 20.7% on the power play against the Penguins then were unstoppable in the first round series, going 12-23, 52.2%, as the Penguins constantly had no answers for the Flyers quick movement on the man-advantage. Today the Penguins will be giving the Flyers a different look at least from a personnel standpoint. Brandon Sutter and Tanner join the Penguins penalty kill as regulars and head coach Dan Bylsma has hinted at finally taking the training wheels off Sidney Crosby and let him kill penalties. Great players of Crosby’s skill level have always killed penalties in the past and just the presence of Crosby being out there could have an impact for the Penguins on the penalty kill as the opposition will have the threat of Crosby taking the puck the other way for a shorthanded chance in the back of their mind. Mario Lemieux had 49 shorthanded goals in his career, including seasons of 13, 10, and 8 shorthanded goals.

Penguins shutdown pair vs Claude Giroux: The Penguins new shutdown pair of Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin will be tested in the first two games of the season. Today they have task of shutting down Claude Giroux who is arguably the third best player in the game behind Crosby and Malkin. The Penguins couldn’t slow down Giroux in the post-season who had 14 points in six games. Giroux has 22 points in his last 11 games vs Pittsburgh (including post-season).

Sidney Crosby: Fully healthy and motivated, Crosby will be looking to make a statement today and get the bitter taste out of his mouth from last years playoff debacle. The Flyers always bring out the best in Crosby who has 27 goals and 66 points in 39 career games vs the Flyers. Look for the Flyers to play physical with him early.

GOALTENDING: If there’s one player who should be extremely motivated today it’s Marc Andre Fleury. Fleury posted a 4.63 goals-against average and .834 save percentage in the Penguins – Flyers series last post-season and he was a disaster. Aside from his lackluster performance vs the Flyers in the post-season, Fleury overall has been solid in his career vs Philadelphia. He comes into today’s game with a 21-13-1 record in his career vs Flyers with a 2.82 goals-against average. Then there’s Ilya Bryzgalov who the Flyers never know what they’re going to get from him on a game by game basis. Bryzgalov though has been successful vs the Penguins, going 2-0 with a 2.60 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in the regular season vs Pittsburgh last season, followed by a 4-2 mark in the post-season vs Pittsburgh. Since 2008-2009 season (including post-season), Bryzgalov is 8-3 vs the Penguins with 1 shutout.