Judged:

2

2

1

I don't think the Penguins are going to haunt the Flyers either, as I also agree with Richards. They did take advantage of their bounces and got more breaks than the Flyers did. Fleury absolutely heisted game 4 of that series, Pittsburgh got lucky on a bad call against Carter (which was actually Staal grabbing Carter's stick and pulling it up to his armpit) to tie the game on an ill-deserved powerplay and winning in OT, and besides game 1, and half of game 6, the Flyers outplayed, outshot, and outchanced Pittsburgh for long stretches of that series. Also in game 2, Fleury got off the hook when Carter chose not to elevate the puck on an open net, which would have put Pittsburgh away.

The Penguins have just been fortunate over the past 2 seasons that they've been running into the Flyers when they (Pens) are completely healthy and the Flyers are banged up. Last year, Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn were out of the Eastern Conference Finals, and when you're missing your top 2 defensemen, you're going nowhere. In the first round this year, Carter was playing with a seperated shoulder for games 3-6 and Richards had two torn labrums (one in each shoulder).

I'm so tired of hearing phrases like "what do the Flyers need to do to close the gap with the Penguins," or "The Penguins are better than the Flyers." It's so sickening because in my honest opinion, the Flyers are a better team than the Penguins. Yes, the Pens have two of the three best players in the world with Crosby and Malkin, but who else? Gonchar was mediocre against the Flyers, Kunitz didn't score, Bill Guerin was solid with a couple goals, but it really came down to Pittsburgh's third line of Staal and Kennedy and Cooke, along with Fleury, and had MAF not play as good, the series would have been 4-1 Flyers.

Now, if the Penguins go out this summer and get a bonafide top-line winger to play with Crosby and can get close to what Hossa brought, then I definitely will say that Pittsburgh is a little better, but until then, I'll just say they've been more fortunate than good against Philadelphia.