Flyers & Penguins; Firewagon Hockey


The Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins have scored 45 goals over the first four games of their first round series. The record for most goals in one NHL playoff series is 69 by Edmonton and Chicago in the 1985 Campbell Conference Semi-finals. Through four games of that series the Oilers and Hawks combined for only 44 goals.

Amazingly, goalies in the Pens/Flyers series have a WORSE Save Percentage than the barn burner of 27 years ago. Bryzgalov, Bobrovsky, Fleury and Johnson have bumbled their way to a Roller Hockey-like Save Pct. of .818. Back in 1985 Grant Fuhr, Andy Moog, Murray Bannerman and Warren Skorodenski combined for a far more impressive .825 Save Pct. Yikes. In fact after only the first four matches of the 1985 series the teams had a Pct. of .835, the last two games were even worse for poor Murray Bannerman. In Game 5 he allowed 10 goals on 51 shots and in Game 6, 8 of only 27 shots got past him. He would finish the six game series with a .812 Save Pct. Marc-Andre Fleury's is currently at .817.

On the individual scoring front, Flyers Claude Giroux's 10 points is only 1 behind Wayne Gretzky's first four games of the '85 Semis. Sidney Crosby has 8 points so far, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal have 7 each and four others have 6 points which is comparable to the leaders through four games of that '85 series. Glenn Anderson had 8, Denis Savard 7, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Darryl Sutter all had 6 points each.

Who's going to bet against the Flyers and Pens not putting 15 goals on the board in Game 5 as happened on May 14, 1985 when Edmonton beat Chicago 10-5.

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