Published: May 13, 2008 12:03 am            

ERIC KNOPSNYDER | In defense of the Penguins

Unless Kate Smith can play defense, she might not be enough help for the Philadelphia Flyers when the Pittsburgh Penguins visit the City of Brotherly Love this week.

The late singer has been a good-luck charm extraordinaire for 40 years, but a video of her belting out “God Bless America” might not be enough to get the Flyers back into their best-of-7 Eastern Conference finals series with the Penguins, who hold a 2-0 lead heading into tonight’s game.

The Flyers could use some luck, to be sure, but more importantly, they need some help on the blue line, which has been the difference in the series so far. First, they found out that all-star defenseman Kimmo Timonen would miss the series because of a blood clot in this left ankle. That news came less than 24 hours before the puck dropped on the series and was a difficult blow for the Flyers, who needed all the help they could muster to contain the Penguins’ high-powered attack.

Things got even worse for the Flyers just two minutes into Game 2, as their second-best defenseman, Braydon Coburn, took a puck to the face. Coburn, who reportedly needed about 50 stitches to close the gash, missed the rest of the contest and is doubtful for tonight’s game.

The loss of Timonen and Coburn only highlights what was arguably an advantage for the Penguins entering the series: Strong blue-line play.

Forwards are almost always going to dominate the highlight reels, and with stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa among the league leaders in scoring, it’s easy for Penguins fans to forget about the guys on the other end of the ice. Throw in Marc-Andre Fleury, a former No. 1 pick in the NHL draft who is playing as well as any goalie in the playoffs, and Pittsburgh’s defensemen quickly disappear into the shadows.

But make no mistake, the play on the blue line is a large part of the reason why the Penguins are just two wins away from their first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals in 16 years.

During that lull Pittsburgh has had a number of offensive stars but failed to make a run like this. The reason? Most of those teams had the kind of defensive liabilities that aren’t evident on this team.

Coach Michel Therrien has concentrated on a strong defensive mind-set to go along with the high-powered offense, and it’s paid big dividends thanks to the play of Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik, Hal Gill, Rob Scuderi, Ryan Whitney and Kris Letang. And should the Penguins suffer an injury like the ones that have limited the Flyers, two-time Cup winner Darryl Sydor is waiting in the wings after being a healthy scratch throughout the playoffs.

How good has the defense been? In addition to having the best goals-against average in the playoffs (1.91), Pittsburgh has shut down Philadelphia’s top line of Daniel Briere, Vaclav Prospal and Scott Hartnell, as those three have combined for zero points in two games.

That has impressed Therrien.

“Well, it's not an easy thing to do,” the Penguins coach said Monday. “They've got a lot of skill. And one thing, Gonchar is doing a fantastic job. Like Gonchar (Sunday night), picking up three assists, playing so solid defensively. He's been doing that for a long time for us. Last night I thought he was phenomenal and deserved more credit than he receives right now.”

The same could be said of all three of the Penguins’ defensive pairings.



Eric Knopsnyder is the sports editor of The Tribune-Democrat.

        

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