NHL East Finals Preview: Penguins vs. Flyers - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

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Holy cow. The Penguins and the Flyers are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals. If you live or have lived in Pennsylvania, you understand what a big deal this is. The players from these teams don't like each other. The fans of these two teams despise each other. There's a ton of civic pride on the line here. This is everything fans look for in a playoff series.

But to make this series all about the rivalry doesn't give these two teams the respect they deserve. The Penguins have played great hockey since January. The Flyers have been on fire since around the trade deadline, when everyone had left them for dead. They both disposed of their very talented second round opponents with surprising ease. There's really no doubt left that these two teams are the best teams in the Eastern Conference right now. The rivalry only heightens the intensity.

Offense: The temptation here is to say, "Malkin, Hossa, Crosby," and just move along. That completely short- changes the Flyers forwards, who have been on fire, and the fact that the Flyers actually outscored the Pens this year. Western PA native RJ Umberger, who always kills the Penguins, is on another planet right now. Mike Richards lives and breathes to play against Sidney Crosby. Daniel Briere has been all over the ice in the playoffs. I swear that every time I watch the Flyers play, Scottie Upshall's scoring a big goal. The problem for the Flyers, in terms of the offensive matchup, is that the Pens have upped their game just as much in the playoffs. Almost every single time the Pens have needed a goal, Evgeni Malkin's stepped up. Marian Hossa's firing good shots left and right, finding the net four times in five games against the Rangers, including the OT series winner in Game 5. Sidney Crosby didn't score a goal against the Rangers, but he had two three-assist games and was generally responsible for all of the good looks that Hossa got. While Carey Price played terribly against the Flyers, the Penguins made Henrik Lundqvist look bad.This category is still Advantage: Penguins, but it's closer than you think.

Defense: You'll hear a lot about how the Flyers are a bigger, meaner team than the Penguins, but it was the Pens that allowed fewer goals this year. While Martin Biron seemed like he was single-handedly keeping the Canadiens down, the Penguins' defense held the Rangers to some incredibly long shotless stretches and the tandem of Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi made Jaromir Jagr almost invisible in the games played in the Mellon Arena. To the Flyers' credit, they did a great job of shutting down the Canadiens' vaunted power play in the Eastern Semis and they made Ovechkin disappear between Games 1 and 5 in the first round, and I'm not even sure if Kovalev played against them after Game 1. The problem is that Timonen and Coburn can only play against one of the Pens' top two lines, unless they split them up, whereas the Pens' top two pairings (however Therrien chooses to align them) should match up fairly well with the Flyers top two lines. Advantage: Penguins

Goaltending: One of these two goaltenders is probably turning into a pumpkin in this series and there's a good chance it's going to cost his team the series. Marc-Andre Fleury leads the universe in just about every tangible goaltending stat during these playoffs while Martin Biron was absolutely silly against the Habs. Entering the playoffs, Biron and Fleury were two of the biggest goaltending questions among contenders, right behind Jose Theodore and Carey Price. Theodore and Price are both still in a daze after being de-pantsed in the second round. I'd be absolutely shocked if both of these guys stayed hot through this series. Who's more likely to suffer the meltdown? Hard to say. Advantage: Even

Other things to keep in mind: Most Penguins' fans are slow to admit this, but Michel Therrien has done a great job in the playoffs. He shuffled his defensive pairings to put Scuderi and Gill on the Jagr line and they mostly shut the line down in each of the three games that Therrien had the last switch. Special teams will certainly play a role in this series as both teams looked awesome on both the power play and penalty kill in the second round, but that could just as easily be due to Montreal and New York's power plays units taking an early vacation. Still, that Crosby-Malkin-Hossa-Sykora/Malone-Gonchar line that the Pens roll out as their top power play unit is something to see. I mentioned this once, but it's worth mentioning again: RJ Umberger kills the Penguins. He had 5 of his 13 goals during the regular season against the Pens and he had eight in five games against the Habs. I can't mention him enough.

Prediction: These breakdowns are a funny thing because if you were just counting up ticks in the "advantage" column, you'd think this series would be a romp for the Penguins. There's certainly no questioning that they're the more talented team. And still, it would be insane to think that the Flyers won't make a run at them after seeing them dispense of Montreal so quickly. These Flyers aren't the Flyers of old because they really have a ton of talent and the ability to put a big number on the scoreboard in a hurry (they did just that against the Penguins in December in an 8-2 win over the Penguins). Still, they'd be poorly served to try and beat the Penguins that way. And saying that they aren't the Flyers of old isn't to say that they're not a big, physical team, because they certainly are. The thing is, the Penguins are, too. The Rangers series was just the type of series the Penguins used to watch slip away in the middle and late 90s, with the all flash but no defense Lemieux and Jagr teams. This Penguin team is more than all offense. They've played some great defense this month and they're certainly not afraid to mix it up with the other team and get their hands dirty. In the end, that might be more important in this series than all the offensive firepower in the world. Penguins in six.