Never poke a "cowardly" Penguin

So, perhaps in Philly a lesson has been learned, bravado is one thing, boneheadedness another.

The Flyers and their followers learned the latter rather harshly after the Penguins gave them a lesson in the subject of total domination on Wednesday night.

Ably assisted from some of the worst goal tending since, well the last game, the Penguins filled the net, chasing Ilya Bryzgalov out of the nets and then making back up Bobrovsky probably wondering why that invisibility cloak he had wasn't working, who me?  You want me to go in the nets?

With Captain Sidney Crosby the subject of an in-depth satirical photo essay in the tabloid Daily News on game day, the Penguins led by the subject of the Daily News' poke stormed back into the series with a more than convincing 10-3 shelling of the Flyers.

While goal tending has never been the key in this series (yes I know obviously) the complete storming of the Flyers end of the rink and the resulting success surely has served two purposes.

One it puts the Penguins back into believing mode, something that didn't look too sure 48 hours ago and over in Philly judging by the newspapers poke poke poke at Crosby, the  Sidney bashing backfired a bit, as the Philly scribes are now turning their attention to more pressing concerns, that of the woeful state of goal tending in Philly.

Philadelphia Daily News-- Can Flyers say ... Michael Leighton?
Philadelphia Inquirer-- Bryzgalov meltdown comes at wrong time for Flyers
Philadelphia Inquirer-- Giroux: 'I"m not worried about Bryz'
Pittsburgh Tribune Review-- If Fleury is back, so are Penguins

All we can say is that judging by that particular item of concern in Pennsylvania of late, we wonder if there is not some statute in the Pennsylvania constitution that says all hockey contests must be settled by total goals scored...

The road of course is still a long one to comeback on for the Penguins, one win, lopsided as it was is not the guarantee of certain success, but, and it's a big BUT, the seed of defeat is now firmly planted in the Flyer dressing room.

When down 3 games to 0, that's a pretty good start for a comeback.  If you're the Flyers, you're not feeling quite so cocky this Thursday morning, if you're the Philly papers the task ahead is quite easy, Shhh, wake the Penguins again if you dare...

You can review all the thoughts on Game Four and of the games prior from our Stanley Cup archive, which you can find here.