You know how some players have a green light/red light on things like 3-0 pitches or stealing bases? I wonder if teams have applied that to hitters with ABS challenges.

The Flyers pretty much had zero leverage when they traded Claude Giroux and basically had to send him to Florida, because that's where he wanted to go. And they still came away with a first-round pick and Owen Tippett. How the hell did they pull that off.

I would say the Penguins are in trouble in this series. They are not done. They just need to join the rock fight. It will not be pretty. It can not be pretty.

The Flyers have successfully ripped the offense out of the series against the Penguins. Also, some numbers comparing these two games to past Penguins playoff games in the Sidney Crosby era. www.pensburgh.com/analysis/759...

The Penguins *allowed* just 0.77 expected goals during 5-on-5 play last night. That is their third-lowest number since 2007. The Flyers are not even trying to generate offense. They are simply waiting for the Penguins to make a mistake. Their patience is being rewarded.

Follow up vet visit went much better than the initial vet visit last week. We are doing better.

The flyers are playing great. Flawless defensively. Not only a well earned two wins, they dictated everything and took them. Penguins have zero answer for any of it. And that's a Penguins problem. The power play alone is enough to skewer them. No excuse for that group.

Oh man Penguins get Garrett Rank tonight.

Somebody asked me yesterday who I think the Steelers are going to take in the draft and it was at that point that I realized I had not given the draft or the Steelers even an ounce of thought recently. Not sure what that says.

Tired: complaining about what jerseys the penguins are wearing. Wired: being mad about no more free t shirts at every home game.

If you tell me "next year's quarterback class is going to be better" I am going to ignore it. This year's class was supposed to be the "next year's class is going to be better," and this year's class sucks. The guy at the top wasn't even on the radar at this time last year.

Should the Penguins shake things up for Game 2? And how much of a leash should they have with everybody if not? www.pensburgh.com/analysis/758...

An equally fun game would be Oilers players that were good that Edmonton media tried to convince you were bad. Ales Hemsky.

Tortorella is going to lose his mind.

Not to pile on ESPN, but the intermission analysts not being able to pronounce the name of the Sabres goalie and laughing about it, and then Leah Hextall telling Tage Thompson, drafted by the Blues and having played a season there, that "buffalo is the only NHL team you've ever known..." is OOF.

Beef on weck for everybody.

What a crowd pop that was.

Tage Thompson said FUCK THIS SHIT.

I call this "Days that end in Y" for me. But honestly, just start writing what you think will be the terrible first draft because 1) It's almost certainly not as terrible as you think, and 2) Even if it is, it'll be easy to fix it and write a good draft with fresh eyes and seeing what didn't work.

Waiting 14 years for a playoff game and then getting goalie'd in the first game would be a rude re-introduction to how cursed all of this is.

YES

Holy crap that's awesome.

Broadcast just flashed on the screen that last Sabres playoff goal was scored by Brad Boyes. And I gotta tell you. I have no memory of him being a Buffalo Sabre. So how's THAT for a remember a Sabre?

Juraj Slafkovsky is a dude.

By the way, great win for the Pirates today. Keller was great. Needed a start like that from the rotation given the state of the bullpen right now. Solid home stand.

There it is

Jochen Hecht

Jochen Hecht!

Let's remember some Buffalo Sabres. Maxim Afinogenov

It's 735-way tie for first. The only one not in the tie is Nate Schmidt.

Cold. Windy.

Valid X2

Valid

I thought Skinner was pretty good tonight. Which is something. The skaters will play better (they better, anyway). Need Skinner to repeat that.

The Penguins didn't lose because they rested people or wore the wrong jersey. They lost because they played like crap and Philadelphia didn't.

Even then they made an impossibly stupid pass to nobody that made them reset.

But if the Penguins do not play about 200 percent better they won't win two themselves. Played like it was some throwaway game up in Rochester.

Y'all manifested this by complaining about the jerseys. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Penguins have just never gotten anywhere close to where they need to be tonight. Not even close to good enough.

Look. I am not an X's and O's guy. But to my dumbass eyes I think the Penguins overcomplicate their zone exits sometimes and that leads to a lot of their problems.

That is a lot of really bad losses for the Pirates lately.

Both teams have two power plays. I would bet ... a buck ... that the only penalties we get in the third period are two players at a time or nothing at all.

The Pirates are about to have three "how in the fuck did that lose that game?" losses in a span of a week. That is a concerning number to be adding up. That is what bad teams do.

Man did they need that.

That excuse works for 10 minutes. 34 minutes into the game, get your shit together.

The Flyers are playing extremely well. The Penguins are playing horrific. Honestly no excuse for a team with this many veterans to be this unprepared for a playoff game.

Man they look awful lol

The Penguins look like they are trying to play with a tennis ball.

Nothing about the Penguins game is crisp right now. But then ESPN's offensive zone time clock says they have spent an extra minute in the offensive zone.