Pittsburgh is Through

The Penguins did it and did it in a marvelous fashion. The Penguins finally eliminated the Flyers on Sunday afternoon with a 6-0 win at home in Pittsburgh.

The huge scoring output really solidified the belief that the Penguins are a highly skilled offensive team, but the goose egg showed all the critics that the team is good defensively and have a keeper that can do the job presented to him.

The elimination of the Flyers now eliminates 40 selections from the pool, as they were the underdogs going in to the series (pool-wise). Jeff Carter (Box 18) was the most popular Flyer of the bunch, taken 12 times, while Randy Jones (Box 22) was taken 9 times as their most popular defenseman. No one took Martin Biron (Box 24), who finished with a team-high 21 points.

In a 6-goal performance, it was the first goal that was the game-winner and that came courtesy of Ryan Malone (Box 17) at the 2:30 mark of the first period. It was Malone's sixth goal of the playoffs and it was his second game-winner. Malone was taken six times in the pool, including by our leader, Angela. Those six teams, including Angela, have benefitted from Malone's 17 points in these playoffs, including the 7 points from these Conference Finals.

The win and the shutout brought Marc-Andre Fleury (Box 24) even further away from all of his competitors in the hockey pool and it was his third consecutive series with 10 points. This brings his playoff total in points up to 30 and is quickly becoming the most valuable player in the pool. Fleury was taken 11 times in the pool, far from being the most popular choice, but certainly the correct choice.

Also having big afternoons for the Penguins... Marian Hossa (Box 15) had a goal and three assists, Ryan Malone (Box 17) finished with 2 goals, an assist and the bonus point, Maxime Talbot (Box 18) had a pair of assists, as did Sidney Crosby (Box 13). Plenty of points to go around through the Penguins line-up, which aided a lot of the top teams in their pulling away from the rest of the pack.

Kimmo Timonen (Box 20) returned to the Flyers line-up, but Braydon Coburn (Box 21) did not. The return of Timonen didn't help the team at all, but it wasn't like he hindered the side either. Unfortunately for both of them, they won't make any difference for the rest of the playoffs... eliminated!