Pitt-Philly Game 3: Predictions

-Pittsburgh will get more penalties than Philadelphia

-Danny Carcillo will do one thing that's completely retarded.

-Jeff Carter will get a goal.

-Evgeni Malkin will tally an assist and then get chased by angry villagers back to his castle.

-Martin Biron will make at least one Philadelphian scream, "Whatsa matta with yous, guy?"

-My brother will call me to talk about this game and say, "He's a Philly cheesesteak kinda guy," at least once. He's an idiot.

-Sidney Crosby will breathe through his teeth when giving an interview and piss people off.

-My Ducks fan roommate will walk by the TV and say, "Is that Dan Bylsma?" I'll reply, "Yep," and he'll say, "He fucking sucked."

-A Thrashers fan will watch Braydon Coburn drive the puck up the ice and flip it to a forward for a great scoring opportunity; that fan will then set himself on fire. No, not himself, Alexei Zhitnik. He'll set Alexei Zhitnik on fire.

-Marc-Andre Fleury will play well once again (Isn't it weird that he even looks like a poor man's Roberto Luongo?)

-The Flyers will match up Jeff Carter with Malkin's line and Richards with Crosby's and it will prove fairly effective; Danny Briere's line will match up with Jordan Staal's and play even


-The Flyers will win, 3-2

Update: I guess I should have predicted that this game would be fun as fuck, because that would definitely have come true. Jesus.

Pitt-Philly, Game 2: The Genius of Dan Bylsma

Dan Bylsma is a genius. I remember Dan Bylsma playing for the Kings when I was a kid because he was the first player I remember watching and thinking, "Wow, that guy sucks." But I guess he took that amount of time he had sitting around watching good people play hockey to become a good coach, because he did a pretty masterful job during game 1. And most of it revolved around the centers.

The centers in this series are really the key to the whole thing. The Flyers generally use Mike Richards against another team's top line while Jeff Carter takes advantage of the fact that other teams don't have the offensive depth that the Flyers do. That strategy, however, doesn't really work against the Penguins because 1) Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are too good to be stopped by Mike Richards, and 2) Jordan Staal's line can severely hinder Jeff Carter. In Game 1, Bylsma generally rotated Crosby and Malkin while inserting Staal whenever Carter was on the ice. The strategy worked well: Crosby and Malkin both had a goal and an assist while playing only 17 minutes a game, while Jeff Carter was held scoreless (albeit with 8 shots on goal).

Of course, this will probably only work at home, because the Penguins have the option of last change. The Penguins kind of remind me of the Arizona Diamondbacks back in 2001; they don't have the most depth or range of skill, but they do have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling and that might be enough. The Flyers better hope Danny Briere does something tonight or this thing might be over soon.

(Oh yeah, I'm covering this series for James. Woooooooooooooooooooo)