The Pittsburgh Penguins are desperate and it’s wonderful to see. Ahead of Game 3 against the Philadelphia Flyers, as we head into the Xfinity Mobile Arena feeling better than we ever thought we would after the first two playoff games in six years, Penguins head coach Dan Muse has shuffled his forward lines in an attempt to find an answer.
The Penguins have been dead in the water for two straight games and their coaching staff can sense something needs to change. Too bad it’s not “get better players” and it instead has to be trying to shuffle up a lineup full of old and washed-up or young and bad forwards in desperation.
Penguins scramble to make lineup changes for Game 3 vs. Flyers
This is what the Flyers are going to be up against Wednesday night for the first postseason home game since 2018.
Penguins lineup for Game 3, as a poor attempt to get anything going against this Flyers team:
Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust
Evgeni Malkin — Tommy Novak — Anthony Mantha
Yegor Chinakhov — Ben Kindel — Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
The major changes are in the top nine as the Penguins’ fourth line has been unchanged. Chinakhov has been moved away from Crosby’s line and is now down on the third line with fellow youngster Ben Kindel. Additionally on that third line, Elmer Soderblom is going to be the healthy scratch and the also very tall and big Justin Brazeau is going to be taking his place.
Up in the top six, Novak is taking over as second-line center after being on the wing for that line in both games of the series so far, replacing Rakell, who then replaces Chinakhov on the top line alongside Crosby and Rust. And of course, big boy Anthony Mantha is going to get promoted from the third line to being on Novak’s win and is now playing with Malkin.
Basically, after trying to describe a big-time scramble of the Penguins’ top three forward lines, it all comes down to the fact that Muse is trying to find an answer to the Flyers defense. And of course, no real lineup change is going to make that happen. It won’t be because of the fact that Malkin is now playing alongside Mantha, or that it’s not Chinakhov next to Crosby but is Rakell instead, that is going to have the Penguins average more than one single goal per game.
No, if the Flyers end up getting dealt with it will be because of their own doing and not being able to keep the same defensive structure that severely limited the Penguins’ scoring chances through the first two games and earned them the 2-0 series lead.
A simple little personnel change of who is playing with who will not just casually mean that the Flyers are going to stop trying to clog the neutral zone and then have Dan Vladar stop being the team MVP all of a sudden. It’s grasping for straws at this point and unless the Penguins suddenly have one of the biggest comebacks, considering just how solid the Flyers have been and how dominant they have looked through two games, then they are cooked. Which would be great. Go Flyers.
