The “Keystone State” Battle - I-76 Series

Separated by a little over 300 miles through I-376, these two teams will be facing off in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2000.

This also marks the fourth time that they’ll face one another in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with Philadelphia having won the three previous series. 

This past year, Philadelphia won the season series 5-3, winning all four games at home and one on the road, while the Penguins three wins all came at the Igloo.

But that was then – the regular season.

During the current playoffs, these two teams have turned up the scoring as the Flyers have scored four or more goals six times I their twelve playoff games, scoring four goals on four occasions and six goals on two others.  Pittsburgh has done equally as well, scoring four or more on five occasions in their nine playoff games, scoring four goals twice and five goals three times.

In what could be a very important factor for both these teams is that neither one will be leaving the Eastern time zone… matter of fact, the last time each team played out of the Eastern zone happened in December.  Philadelphia last game out of the zone occurred against the Vancouver Canucks on December 8th, while the Penguins happened on December 7th in Denver.

Hometown Flavor: This series will feature two players born in Pittsburgh: the Flyers' R.J. Umberger and the Penguins' Ryan Malone.

Philadelphia Bloodlines: Penguins GM Ray Shero was 11 years old in 1974 when the Flyers started their two-year reign as Stanley Cup champions behind the coaching of Ray's father, Fred.

Thank You Nashville: Pittsburgh wing Adam Hall is an alumnus of the Nashville Predators, as are Flyers Scott Hartnell, Scottie Upshall and Kimmo Timonen. Philadelphia's Ryan Parent was a 2005 first-round pick by Nashville but did not make an NHL appearance with the club prior to his acquisition by the Flyers in February 2007.

No Looking Back: The Penguins trailed only 4:28 in their first-round elimination of the Ottawa Senators and have trailed only 62:43 of their 547:10 of total playing time over their nine playoff games. That figure is the lowest of all playoff teams.

Sid The Kid Stuff: With his 2-12-14 this playoff season and 5-14-19 for his 14-game playoff career, Sidney Crosby already is tied for 17th on the Penguins' all-time playoff scoring list.

Evgeni Malkin, 21, and Sidney Crosby, 20, lead the Penguins with 14 playoff points, one behind League leader Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers. Malkin (6-8--14) has tallied a pair of game-winning goals, while Crosby (2-12--14) ranks first in postseason assists.

Successful season: The Penguins captured their first division title since the 1997-98 season... They earned 100 points in consecutive seasons for the second time in franchise history, following 1992-93 and 1993-94... They posted a +31 goal differential, second in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the NHL... They closed the season earning at least a point in 11 consecutive home games (9-0-2), in 16 of the final 17 home contests (13-1-3) and in 22 of the final 24 (19-2-3)... They sold out all 41 home games in 2007-08, drawing 700,137 fans for an average crowd of 17,076. It marked the first time the Penguins sold out every home game in an entire season.

Historic Playoff Improvement: Since the playoffs expanded to four rounds for the 1979-80 season, only the Detroit Red Wings finished with the worst record in the NHL one season and then reached the third round of the playoffs the next year. They finished last overall in 1985-86, then reached the Conference Finals in 1987 (where they lost to Edmonton in five games).

Over the same time span (since 1979-80): No NBA team has gone that far in the playoffs one season after finishing with the worst record in the league... In MLB, the Atlanta Braves had the worst record in the majors in 1990 and reached the World Series in 1991 (where they lost to the Minnesota Twins in seven games), but they needed to win only one playoff series to get there (the NLCS)...  No NFL team has gone three rounds deep one year after finishing with the worst record.

Regular-Season Improvement: The Flyers finished the 2007-08 regular season with 95 points (42-29-11), a 39-point improvement over 2006-07 (22-48-12, 56 points). They were the NHL's most improved club, ahead of Washington (+24), Boston (+18), Chicago (+17), Edmonton (+17) and Phoenix (+16). The Flyers also made the League's biggest defensive turnaround from last season. The team reduced its goals-against by 70 from 303 in 2006-07 to 233 in 2007-08.

Martin Biron: Flyers G Martin Biron on his first-ever Stanley Cup overtime game (a 4-3 victory against Washington in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-final): "It’s like that [tension] the whole game. In overtime it is just amplified by 10. You do not want to make any mistakes, especially as a goalie because one mistake could mean the game. It was my first time playing in an overtime game in the playoffs and it was fun. The pace of the game is so high and stakes of the game are so high. It just felt like it flew by."

Martin Biron entered the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs having played in 378 career regular-season games without a playoff appearance, second all-time among goaltenders to Mike Dunham (394). Biron has been spectacular in backstopping the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Final, posting an 8-4 record with 2.72 goals-against average and .914 save percentage.

Welcome to Stanley in Philly: Six members of the Flyers – goaltender Martin Biron, defenseman Braydon Coburn and forwards Riley Cote, Lasse Kukkonen, Ryan Parent, Patrick Thoresen made their NHL playoffs debuts on April 11. That contest also marked the first playoff game as Flyers for Daniel Briere, Jim Dowd, Scott Hartnell, Joffrey Lupul, Jaroslav Modry, Jason Smith, Kimmo Timonen and Scottie Upshall.

Quite a debut: The Flyers' Mike Richards is one of only two players in NHL history to record his first career Stanley Cup playoff goal on a penalty shot (Wayne Connolly, Minnesota in 1968).

Experience counts: The Flyers have three players who have won Stanley Cups: Jim Dowd (with New Jersey in 1995), Derian Hatcher (with Dallas in 1999) and Mike Knuble (with Detroit in 1998). The 39-year old Dowd is the fourth-oldest player still competing in the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs behind Detroit’s Chris Chelios (46) and Dominik Hasek (43) and Pittsburgh’s Gary Roberts (41). Dowd: "I was fortunate to come up with New Jersey with guys like (John) MacLean, (Ken) Daneyko and (Claude) Lemieux. When you lost, there weren’t smiles until you won again. It carried through to the playoffs. When the playoffs rolled around, it was the way they went about their business. It was, ‘Hey, this is it. There is no tomorrow,’ even if we were up 3-0. That was their thing."

Broken Record: R.J. Umberger set a Flyers record for a five-game series by scoring eight goals against Montreal in the Conference Semifinal.