Game #71 Preview: Flyers @ Penguins 3/22/09

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I'm not going to do the usual why each team will win thing, because honestly I can't come up with many decent reasons why the Penguins won't win this game. They're 13-1-2 since Bylsma took over. Malkin could be missing the game with a suspension for his late cheapshot vs. L.A., which would be nice, but probably won't be the difference.

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The difference for this team, which doesn't get talked about enough, is Fleury. Fleury was phenomenal in the playoffs last year, and was terrible early in this year. Now he's playing pretty well, and so is the rest of his team. The Flyers have only won once against the Penguins this season, and that was with the terrible Dany Sabourin in net for the flightless birds.

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This game is even more important than the average Pittsburgh game since it's the last time the Flyers and Penguins play in the regular season, before they almost certainly meet in the first round of the playoffs. If the Flyers can really just injur every decent Penguin--Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Fleury, Staal, Kunitz, Sykora--that would be good. Hopefully then Carolina would be able to move into the #5 seed, which would be a much easier opponent, and be the first time that the Flyers ever faced the Hurricanes/Whalers in a playoff series, leaving the Thrashers as the only Eastern team the Flyers have never faced in the playoffs.

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And the game is on NBC, which is good because I'll get to see it, but terrible because NBC's coverage is awful. Mike Milbury is awful. Pierre McGuire is awful. Whoever keeps them on the air is even more awful.

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Hopefully the game won't be awful. Hopefully the Flyers win. That would be good.

Puck drops at 12:30 in the Igloo. Go Flyers.