PITTSBURGH — The hostilities were renewed before the teams even took the ice.
An hour before the puck dropped on Game 1 of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers’ first-round rivalry revival Saturday night, the fans started streaming into PPG Paints Arena, packing the stands with black-and-gold sweaters of every vintage. A few minutes in, a minor commotion broke out. A lone orange Flyers jersey punctured the golden throng in the lower bowl.
The dissenter was serenaded with boos, the jeers crescendoing into a chorus, a wave of ill will that rippled from the fans in the immediate vicinity out to the rest of the section, the rest of the bowl, the rest of the rink. A reminder that there remains no love lost between these two franchises. The Flyers admirer stood with his arms raised, unfazed, absorbing it all.
Then his club took the ice, came out of the gates flying, and did the same — battering and pummelling their way to a 3-2 series-opening victory as the hometown fans rained down their discontent.
“They make it hard,” Penguins head coach Dan Muse said as the dust settled on his club’s Game 1 loss.
It wasn’t just the early physicality that got his squad off their game — the Flyers laid the body 17 times in the opening frame — it was the speed, too. The visitors’ ability to pounce on any moment of disconnection and funnel play the other way.
“That’s part of their game — they’ve been doing that for a while,” he continued. “I think we got away from things that worked. Part of that is intensity — everything’s ramped up here in the playoffs. But they’ve been playing that way now for a while, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Give them credit — they came in, they executed their game plan. We need to be better in terms of executing ours.
“We’ve just got to be better in general.”
Much was made in the lead-up to this series opener of the hefty disparity in experience. On one side: a few vets in orange, and a crew of bright-eyed first-timers. On the other, a pack of future Hall of Famers. Ten minutes into this one, it became clear that imbalance would matter little, the Flyers’ few seasoned veterans making their presence known from the jump.
“The Penguins had two or three really good hits, the crowd was going, and (Sean Couturier) went out on that shift and he got somebody,” Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said of his captain’s first time over the boards. “I think it helps settle our bench down, and the young guys, when your captain does that. He answered the bell.”
So too did defender Travis Sanheim, who did a little bit of everything Saturday night — throwing the body, leading the stymying of Pittsburgh’s prolific offence, and scoring a filthy third-period go-ahead goal that saw him dance around Elmer Soderblom, carry the puck into the slot, and whip it past Stuart Skinner’s glove.
“I think Sanny set the tone,” Tocchet said post-game. “In these playoff games, you have to play uncomfortable. You’ve got to do some stuff that you normally do not do. … I don’t know how many minutes he played tonight, like a ton of minutes. And to play physical, that’s hard. And then try to supply offence, kill penalties — it’s a tough night, and he really led the physicality for us.
“And, obviously, hell of a goal.”
The problem for the home side was that Philly’s young guns were no less impactful. Defender Jamie Drysdale opened the scoring midway through the second period, finishing off a sequence spurred by Trevor Zegras.
And the eventual game winner, wired home in the dying minutes of the game, came off the stick of 19-year-old Porter Martone — who’s potted five big-league goals already after joining the squad only three weeks ago.
“It was pretty cool,” the teenager said of his first taste of playoff hockey. “You know, skating out for warmups — I’ve never seen an arena fully sold out. We really built off the energy there. … I think we were all pretty excited going into this game. Being able to play in the playoffs. For me, it’s my 10th NHL game. It’s pretty special.”
The 2025 sixth-overall pick took some time to find his legs in Game 1, before ripping a wrister from the right circle to clinch a 1-0 series lead for his club. For his coach, it’s that ability to rise to the moment even when it all seems to be going off the rails that makes Martone’s potential clear.
“That’s maturity,” Tocchet said. “I explained to the players — there’s going to be some games you don’t have it. For 30, 40 minutes. You know, he was trying to figure out the pace, he had a couple turnovers. He knew it. And then he just gets a goal like that.
“I mean, it’s hard to find guys like that. In the playoffs, you’ve just got to stick with it, and you could have that big moment.”
Tocchet’s former club finds itself still waiting for its moment. Entering Game 1 as the presumptive favourite — one of the most dangerous offensive squads in the league, led by some of the most lethal scorers the game has ever seen — the Penguins found themselves largely unable to break through Saturday night, lacking the flowing, seamless sequences that have defined their offensive success this season.
“We’ve just got to be better. We’ve just got to be better in all areas, to be honest with you,” captain Sidney Crosby said from the Penguins locker room post-game. “Execution, just being a little bit more connected. We just have to be better.”
Continually getting caught up in chippy, physical battles egged on by the visitors didn’t help Pittsburgh’s cause, either.
“We need to play our game,” said Evgeni Malkin, who scored Pittsburgh’s first of the night, beating Dan Vladar five-hole in the middle frame to tie the game. “I think we lost control a little bit in the second period. We started fighting — this is what they want. … We know it’s Philly, we know it’s playoffs, we know it’s coming. I like to play physical, I like hard games. But after whistle, we need to just go away, and play smart.
“It’s the only way. Because they love a greasy game. You know, after whistle, they come and cross-check. But we know it’s coming. We just, everybody, should be a little smarter.”
“That’s going to be part of a series,” added Crosby. “I think we’ve got to stay out of it a little bit more, and trust that when they do it, and they try to stir it up, that they’re going to get penalized for it. That’s more something I think they’re looking to do. We’ve got to stay out of it and trust that they’ll be undisciplined.”
The night could’ve gone much worse for the home side if not for the play of netminder Stuart Skinner, who stymied the Flyers on four breakaways or partial breakaways over the course of the tilt. Still, the two-time Cup finalist’s heroics weren’t enough to salvage this one, the Penguins managing only 17 shots of their own against Skinner’s counterpart. So, the focus shifts to Monday’s Game 2, and a chance to even the series before the battle shifts to Philadelphia.
“You don’t win the series in Game 1,” said veteran Erik Karlsson. “We know that we’ve got a lot better in here. We’ve got to focus on ourselves and find a way to get back to what made us successful throughout the year. It’s the same game out there — a little bit more intensity maybe, but still the same game. And we know how it’s played. We’ve just got to get back to that.”
On the other side of the aisle, the Flyers eye Game 2 looking for more of the same. More of what they brought to Game 1, more of what they’ve been bringing for a while now.
“We’ve been playing some big games for the last month, month and a half,” said Flyers captain Couturier after Saturday’s victory. “Meaningful games. Must-win games. You know, I think we’re up to the test.”