In 2012, we were never able to get off that craziness of the physicality. And that was punctuated — good job by the Flyers in that particular case — on the first shift of Game 6 when Claude Giroux knocked Sidney Crosby down with a hit and it just continued. The Flyers won 5-1 and the series was over.
From the Flyers perspective going into Game 6, I think one of the keys for them to have success in this series is the special teams. Pittsburgh, at least from a head-to-head standpoint, had a big advantage during the regular season both on the power play and penalty kill, and that’s still been the case.
The Flyers did a good job of killing off penalties in the first two games. But the physical game, the emotional game, tends to get the game into a power play/penalty kill situation.
I think Philadelphia’s mindset is, “We can and we will beat these guys 5-on-5, and if we can minimize and keep them off the board on the power play, we’re going to get back to winning hockey games.”
From a schematics standpoint, the Flyers have shown that they can have success with quick transition and coming out of the defensive zone quickly against the Penguins defense. So, I would be heavily emphasizing how we can continue to do that.
I think you show your team the things that you’ve done to have success. You show your team the things that I think have frustrated the Penguins.
At times in this series, the Penguins have had a tough time getting opportunities, chances and shots on net. I think you remind your team that’s where you’ve had success when you talk about playing 5-on-5.
It’s, “That’s where we’re going to win this hockey game. This is why we’ve done well 5-on-5. We’ve done a good job defensively against this group, we’ve frustrated their good players, and we’ve got to continue to do that.”