#rossi and co prolly lurking on ao3

[rinkrats]

Clearly the beat writers really, really, reeeally miss hockey. Their fantasy take on the Pens vs Flyers (can this outcome be real life please?):

Game 4

On the off day between Game 3 and 4, Evgeni Malkin made a prediction: “We win next game, and who knows?”

OK, so it wasn’t exactly Mark Messier-stuff. But, as did Messier in the 1994 conference final for the Rangers, Malkin said his piece and then delivered in a must-win game for the Penguins. His first-period hat trick chased Carter Hart before 15 minutes in the Penguins’ 12-4 win in Philadelphia.

“I think it was finally good luck for us,” Malkin said after his first five-goal game at any level of hockey. “Maybe, you know, we see good Penguins rest of way?”

Malkin’s five goals tied Mario Lemieux’s franchise record for a playoff game. It was Sidney Crosby, however, who nearly made Lemieux’s record for most points by a Penguins player in a playoff game his own record. Crosby’s two goals and five assists — including three on power-play snipes by Malkin — gave him seven points. Lemieux’s added three assists to his five goals in the Penguins’ Game 5 win at home against the Flyers in the 1989 Patrick Division final.

Game 5

Flyers captain Claude Giroux tipped his cap to the Penguins. He said their decision to play with seven defensemen has changed the series.

“It’s not the extra D,” Giroux said. “It’s having Crosby or Malkin on that fourth line. Those guys are great players. It’s hard enough when they’re not double-shifting. When they are, it’s almost impossible.

“We need to make an adjustment. We need to win the next game. It’s our Game 7.”

Game 7

Insanity. The Penguins pull off the comeback.

Sidney Crosby tried. He really did. Like, he really, really tried to cover his face by burying into his gloves.

Nope.

He was laughing. Hard. Guffawing, actually. His face as red as the goal light he had lit four times.

And as the final minute passed on Game 7 for the ages — and a series for history — Crosby didn’t want anybody to see just how much he was enjoying the sight of Evgeni Malkin standing at the end of the Penguins bench and playfully conducting fans at PPG Paints Arena through a “Go Home Flyers” singalong.

“After G’s last four games, he can do whatever he wants,” Crosby said.

The Penguins’ 4-2 victory in Game 7 will be remembered for a lot of reasons:

Crosby outscoring the Flyers by himself

Crosby scoring four goals five ways (power play, penalty shot, even-strength and a shorthander into an empty net)

Crosby captaining the Penguins to a successful rally from a 3-0 series deficit

Still, one of the truly sensational elimination-game performances in NHL history was a subplot to the story of this series. And that would be the combined dominance of Crosby and Malkin, who had combined for only three goals and four points in Games 1-3.

“I’m thinking the last four are what we’ll remember,” Patric Hornqvist said. “One day, I’ll bring my kids back to Pittsburgh, show them the statues of Sid and G, and I’ll say, ‘You don’t remember it, but those two had a hundred points for us when we came back against the Flyers that one year.’”

Not quite.

But Malkin (5-6-11) and Crosby (6-7-13) sure looked like they were doing the impossible while spearheading an improbable comeback in Games 4-7.

“Our job’s to score,” Malkin said. “Not just score, but lead team. It’s Sid’s team. He’s best player. Of course, it’s his team. But I’m great player, too. Like I tell you (last) summer, I’m top 10 player. Still. We have, you know, me and Sid, and if we do job — it’s, like, ‘Go Home Flyers.’”

Malkin won 57 percent of his faceoffs and took only a minor penalty for tripping in the series. It was a performance, as coach Mike Sullivan said, that cemented a Hall of Fame future.

“If you ask me, Geno’s been our best player all season, and he’s probably the most underappreciated all-time player in our sport,” Sullivan said. “I honestly believe people take him for granted. And I understand how that could happen. Geno plays with Sid, and like I’ve said so many times, I think Sid is the most complete player in our game. I think if you look at this series, Sid is still the best player in our game.”

Or …

“Ever,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said from inside a dressing room that emptied out quickly after Philadelphia again blew a lead headed into the third period.

“I know everybody wants me to say something else, to keep the feud fresh or whatever; but Crosby is the best player right now, like he has been for a long time, and he might be the best player ever. He beat us himself tonight. We had the matchup we wanted every time. He was just better than what we had.

“I’m disappointed. I can’t say I’m upset. We played well for a lot of this series. People will say we choked. I’ll say we ran into the greatest player of at least this generation and probably the best second center a team has had, at least offensively. The level Crosby and Malkin were at those final four games — don’t tell me we choked.

“If we did, they strangled us.”

...Not much was said in the Penguins’ room. Instead, Malkin walked to the whiteboard and wrote “4-2 final” in blue marker.

Why blue?

“Other one was orange,” Malkin said of the available markers. “No, no!”

...Niskanen thew his stick at Crosby.

A penalty shot was awarded.

Crosby froze Carter with a leg kick and perfectly placed a wrist shot in the left corner.

“When he pumps, he wants to go backhand,” Carter said. “He froze me because that backhand is probably the best backhand you’ll ever see. You have to respect it.

“I wasn’t going to get beat backhand.”

Crosby didn’t divulge his plan for the penalty shot. He also didn’t feel good about his chances.

“Hart’s been the best goalie in hockey for a few months now,” Crosby said. “He doesn’t give you anything. I saw the corner, and to be honest I don’t think it was the right decision. It’s a low-percentage shot in that situation. Last thing you want to do is miss. Like, make the goalie stop a shot.

“It was G who told me to go for the corner. I was at the bench. You can see he says something to me.”

What did Malkin say exactly?

“Like, Sid, you shoot corner,” Malkin said. “I promise goalie.”

The Flyers pulled Carter with a bit more than two minutes remaining and Kris Letang serving a minor penalty for slashing. But Crosby killed the bulk of that power play, playing 1:27 of the two minutes. He scored into an empty net with 13 seconds remaining on that penalty kill, and then never took another shift.

“My skate actually broke on that last shift,” Crosby said. “Thank god I scored, because it was the only way I could get off the ice.”

Told after the game that Crosby scored his fourth goal while playing on a broken skate, Flyers coach Alain Vigneault has no choice but to laugh. He recalled an exchange with Flyers assistant Michel Therrien, who was Crosby’s coach for three seasons.

“Michel said Crosby should have to play every game on one leg, so it’s fair,” Vigneault said.

“But I don’t know if that would make it fair. If you play the Penguins and Crosby and Malkin catch fire, it’s not fair. It’s not fun.”

-Simulating the 2020 Playoffs: Penguins vs Flyers, 19 April 2020