Penguins’ Reality Check: Series with Flyers Exposing Regular-Season Illusion

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers is beginning to reveal a harsher truth than their regular-season record suggested—the Penguins just aren’t as good as this past season led us to believe.

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Now down 3-0 in the series, it’s become clear that the overachieving group of veteran Penguins achieved something over 82 games that was potentially unsustainable. Sidney Crosby and his Penguins are now being tested in a far more demanding environment—and they’re failing.

Regular-Season Success Does Not Mean Playoff Wins

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m surprised. I took the Penguins to win this series, in part because I assumed the inexperienced Flyers might have overachieved. I had it backward. For much of the season, the Penguins outperformed external expectations, and while they found ways to collect points, when push comes to shove, the older and slower Pens are being pushed around.

The playoffs have exposed that this Penguins team is just a touch too old and can’t match the intensity Philadelphia brings to the table. Philadelphia has leaned into a simple but effective postseason formula: speed, physical pressure, and sustained forechecking. That approach has disrupted Pittsburgh’s transition game.

And, the longer this series goes — it doesn’t look like it will go much longer — the more it favors the Flyers. Philadelphia is increasingly forcing the Penguins into reactive hockey, and as seen by Crosby’s embellishment penalty, those reactions aren’t positive.

This Is The Dubas Way, Argues One Analyst

Sid Seixeiro argued that Penguins’ fans who are annoyed by this turn of events better grab their popcorn. There is more of this coming, the hockey host suggested. He took shots at general manager Kyle Dubas, saying this is his modus operandi. Dubas builds strong regular-season teams that crumble when the games matter. He did it in Toronto, and he’s doing it in Pittsburgh.

Perhaps that’s not a fair assessment or comparison of this Penguins roster. This Pittsburgh team was not supposed to compete this season. It was unexpected that they would make the playoffs; thus, seeing them lose in this manner shouldn’t be a surprise.

The question now is, does this series change the game plan?

The way the regular season went, some might have assumed plans to tear it down and retool were off the table. This series with the Flyers proves it might be too early to make that assumption.

Next: Insider: Maple Leafs Doing Due Diligence on the Two GM Finalists