COMON Network

By COMON Network Team

1/13 – Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0, 2 pts) 6 def. Pittsburgh Penguins (0-1-0, 0 pts) 3

The Penguins lost their 2021 56-game season opener 6-3 to the Flyers Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

It was Pittsburgh getting on the board first with Mark Jankowski at 5:12 of the first, but the Flyers lit the lamp twice to take the lead after one with goals by James van Riemsdyk and Nolan Patrick. Both of those came on the powerplay.

In the second, Sidney Crosby’s backhand off a turnover tied the game before Joel Farabee broke the tie. Brandon Tanev tied things just a hair over three minutes into the third period before the Flyers scored three goals before the finish to take the game.

1/15 – Philadelphia Flyers (2-0-0, 4 pts) 4 def. Pittsburgh Penguins (0-2-0, 0 pts) 2

Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on the first six shots he faced before being pulled as the Pens fell 4-2 in the “series finale” in Philly Friday night. Travis Konecny scored a hat trick and Oskar Lindblom scored the other marker for the Flyers, who had a 3-0 lead after 11:30 of game play. Sidney Crosby and Brandon Tanev scored the goals for the Pens in the loss, which saw Casey DeSmith stop 13 of 14 shots he faced in relief of Jarry.

The Penguins will return home for two against Washington, with game one set for Sunday at noon on NBC.

COMON Network Team Commentary

AUSTIN SHAW

• The Pens having to start this very odd season in Philly against a very solid team is no easy task. I think game one was pretty solid. Although the score was 6-3 Philly, I don’t think the Pens were three goals worse Wednesday night. To be honest, I only got to watch the first period live but got a solid recap from Ryan and then watched the highlights myself. 
• Sidney Crosby did Sidney Crosby things on that goal. I mean no one else can do it like him. They went back and forth with the Flyers and then it was just the Flyers that came out on top late. I think Hayes is really hitting his prime hard. He’s solid every time he touches the ice. Hart is going to be tough to score on every time he’s in net. I wasn’t really mad about this performance. Game one could have absolutely gone the Penguins way, but didn’t. No sweat, yet. 
• Game two was over before it started it seemed. Jarry let in 3 goals in the first 12 minutes. That’s unacceptable. I don’t even know how that 3rd goal got through but it was ridiculous. DeSmith came in and the Pens flipped the switch with two quick goals. Tanev and Crosby both have two goals in two games so far. So that’s a positive, but other than their 32-second spurt they had nothing. 
• Letang being -4 isn’t surprising and shouldn’t go unnoticed. He was honestly trying hard to add to the offense but it didn’t help. -4 is never okay.
• There aren’t many good things to say. There is something wrong with the Penguins. They look exactly like they did against Montreal. They can’t score much besides little bursts. They have nothing else. It’s as if COVID changed the Penguins. If we are being honest, they were damn good last regular season as they beat nearly every team in the league at least once and some twice. They just need to FITFO. What else can we say? They got rid of Murray and shouldn’t have. Murray and the Sens beat Toronto 5-3 tonight. Yinz rode Murray for years. I’ll ride Jarry and talk Murray up all season if Jarry keeps sucking and Murray keeps rocking.  
• Washington at home Sunday and Tuesday. Kapanen should be in the lineup so hopefully he will help. Talk to yinz then. 

3 Stars of the Series – 3. Kevin Hayes (PHI) 2. Carter Hart (PHI) 1. Travis Konecny (PHI)

RYAN SIMPSON

• Game 1 was obviously not the ideal start to the season. Sid had his traditional ‘Hey don’t forget how INSANE I am at hockey’ moment, stealing the puck from Carter Hart and scoring on an empty net. Past that, it is hard to take away anything positive from this game. Jarry looked ok in his first game was the starter. First goal was a great deflection by JVR and then he got screened on the second goal. Pens battled back to make it a 3-3 game but then the firepower of the Flyers took over. Sloppy play led to the Pens dropping the season opener. 
• Pens came out got throwing the body and trying to set the tone. Pens picked up a too many men penalty after Sam Lafferty blew up Sean Laughton in the neutral zone and then Chad Ruhwedel was put in the box for tripping. Flyers capitalize on the Pens mistake and got first tally. Downhill from there. Jarry gets pulled after two more goals. Crosby tallies a powerplay marker because he loves scoring on Philly. Tanev scores 32 seconds after Sid to make it close. Second period was full of chances for both teams yet no goals were netted. Third period saw Konecny complete his hat trick and an empty netter sealed it up. Tough start to the year, but somewhat expected. 

3 Stars of the Series – 3. Sidney Crosby (PIT) 2. Travis Konecny (PHI) 1. Carter Hart (PHI)

JACK HILLGROVE

• Oof. Not a good start for the Penguins, especially Tristian Jarry. Six goals in game  one, three in the first period of game two, and he gets pulled. I think I speak for Penguins fans everywhere when I say we expected better after trading a two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender in Matt Murray. 
• The blue line was a concern of mine heading into this season, and one half of the Hornqvist haul looked absolutely terrible in the opening game. Mike Matheson is a guy with a ton of potential, but he has a ton of work to do. Hopefully this isn’t a Jack Johnson 2.0.
• Sidney Crosby is still one of the worlds best players. That’s it. 

3 Stars of the Series – 3. Joel Farabee (PHI) 2. Sidney Crosby (PIT) 1. Travis Konecny (PHI)

KYLE DAWSON

• I watched the first game in full. Every second. Part of me wishes I hadn’t. The Penguins fought for the better part of the game and then got dominated down the stretch. Matheson was terrible. Jarry wasn’t very good. The defense overall was terrible. Sidney Crosby’s goal and Brandon Tanev were about the only positives. Not a good start to the season, and reportedly nearly 1 million people watched it on NBC. Yikes.
• I didn’t get to see a single second of tonight’s game, which I hear is good. I was busy calling a 2 OT thriller of the high school boy’s basketball game. Who had the better time? I’d have watch Kris Letang go for a minus-4 and watched Tristan Jarry give up three goals on six shots in the first 11:30 of the game. That’s unacceptable… his fault or not.
• The Flyers are very good. Much better than the team from this side of the state. See if the Pens rebound against Washington.

3 Stars of the Series – N/A (Didn’t watch both tilts)