Philly Sports Today

It was a pretty tough night for Philly sports teams. The Flyers dropped the puck on the road for Game 1 of their first round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it was just like the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals. The Penguins significantly outplayed the Flyers the entire night as the rolled to an easy 4-1 victory and a 1-0 series lead. On the flip side, it was a good night for the Sixers as they closed out their regular season with a 111-110 overtime win on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the win, Philly clinced the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and became the first Eastern Conference team to win in Cleveland this year. However, this win becomes a lot less impressive when you find out that LeBron James, Mo Williams, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas didn’t play. Either way, a win’s a win and now the Sixers don’t have to play the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, even though they’ll still get crushed by the Orlando Magic, but I digress.

Let’s start with the Flyers, who were flat out dominated by the Penguins in Game 1. I’m glad that Philly decided to revert back to taking careless penalties all night since that strategy worked out so well for them all season. Less than five minutes into the first period, Arron Asham couldn’t get off the ice during a line change, stayed out for an extended shift and drew a pivotal hooking penalty. Only fifteen seconds into the power play, Sidney Crosby made the Flyers pay with a goal that gave the Pens a 1-0 lead. Sid the Kid threw the puck down low to Evgeni Malkin, whose rebound deflected off Crosby’s skate, the goal post and Martin Biron’s right skate before settling into the back of the net. The play was reviewed, but the goal was upheld when it was confirmed that Crosby didn’t intentionally kick the puck.

The Penguins extended their lead early in the second period after Braydon Coburn committed a costly turnover in the neutral zone that allowed Jordan Staal to start an up-ice rush with Tyler Kennedy that finished with Kennedy beating Biron, who made 29 saves, with a chip shot that went top shelf. The goal also ended Kennedy’s streak of 20 straight playoff games without a goal. You expect Crosby and Malkin to get theirs during the playoffs, but when guys that are in goal-scoring slumps break out against you, it’s normally not going to be your night. Oh year, it’s also never good when you don’t record a shot for the first ten minutes of a period like Philly did in the second. It’s pretty tough to score goals when that happens.

Pittsburgh blew the game wide open in the third period after another costly turnover by the Flyers. Mike Knuble tried banking a pass off the back wall, but the puck went right to Malkin like his stick was a magnet and he quickly beat Biron with a backhander to make it 3-0. Four minutes later, the Pens lit the lamp once more when Mark Eaton, a Delaware native and former Flyer, scored on a shot from the point that increased the lead to 4-0. Simon Gagne finally got Philly on the board late in the third with a power play goal, but that was pretty much the only bright spot for the Flyers all night. Marc-Andre Fleury, who was idle for much of the first two periods, stopped 26 of the 27 shots that he faced as the Penguins cruised to victory. For his career, Fleury is 15-6 against the Flyers during the regular season and is not 5-1 against them in the playoffs, so Philly is definitely going to have a tough time winning this series.

The Flyers will look to even the series tomorrow night in Pittsburgh. If Philly falls into a 2-0 series hole, it’s pretty much over for them.

Let’s Go Flyers!

Now, a quick note about the Sixers. The win in Cleveland was nice, but barely beating a team in overtime that didn’t have it’s best three players is hardly impressive. Especially when one of those players is LeBron James. Either way, Philly did what they needed to do and now get “rewarded” with a first round game against the third-seeded Orlando Magic instead of the second-seeded Boston Celtics.

The two Andres carried the Sixers as they have pretty much all year. Miller led the way with 30 points, eight assists, three steals, and a rebound, while Iguodala poured in 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Thaddeus Young continued his stellar late-season play by adding 20 points, nine rebounds, three steals, and an assist. Louis Williams came up big off the bench with 19 points, and Reggie Evans had a yeoman 10 point and seven rebound effort.

With the stars out of the line-up, it was Daniel “Boobie” Gibson’s time to shine. Despite coming off the bench, Boobie, who averaged 7.8 points per game, went off for 28 points, seven assists, three rebounds, two steals, and a block. Wally Szczerbiak, who only averaged 7 points per game this year, stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. It was the first time since May 2, 2008 that Szczerbiak broke the 20-point plateau in a game and it was the first time since February 19, 2008 that he did it during the regular season. I guess that’s what happens when 68.6 points per game are in street clothes. Sasha Pavlovic, who only averaged 4.6 points per game this year, poured in 20 points with three rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Seldom-used Darnell Jackson and his 1.9 points per game average chipped in 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

The Sixers will open their first round playoff series against the 59-23 Magic on Sunday night in Orlando. The Magic swept the season series 3-0, but all of the games were decided by 10 points or less. Additionally, with two of the games taking place in November and the other taking place in February, I’m not sure how much those results will be able to tell you about either team. Orlando is 5-5 in their last 10 games heading into the playoffs, while Philly is 4-6. I think that the Sixers can be competitive, just like they were last year against Detroit, but I don’t see any way that Philly will be able to pull off the upset. The Magic were 32-9 at home this year, so unless the Sixers win all three home games and somehow steal a game in O-Town, they’ll be one-and-done for the second straight year.

Go Sixers!

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