The tone for the remainder of the first-round showdown between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers has been set.
The physicality, feistiness and excess of after-the-whistle confrontations between the two rivals that dominated Game 1 on Saturday appear likely to continue.
After the Penguins’ 3-2 series-opening loss at PPG Paints Arena, a key element of their attempted recalibration ahead of Game 2 on Monday will be better handling Philadelphia’s rough style.
“We know it’s Philly. We know it’s the playoffs. We know it’s coming,” alternate captain Evgeni Malkin said. “I like to play physical. I like to play a hard game. But just after a whistle, we need to just, like, go away and play smart. It’s the only way because (the officials) allow it. This game, coming to you, cross-check, you know? But again, we know it’s coming. Everybody should be a little bit smarter. That’s it.”
Malkin, who has helped the Penguins to three Stanley Cup championships, has displayed a tendency for letting his emotions get the better of him on the ice throughout his illustrious career.
After all, he is Pittsburgh’s all-time leader in penalty minutes (1,263) as well as postseason penalty minutes (242).
That said, in a Game 1 that featured nine minor penalties, Malkin was whistled for none, although he should have drawn at least one, as in the second period Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler violently whacked Malkin’s arm in a behind-the-play kerfuffle that went uncalled.
Fellow franchise pillar and Penguins captain Sidney Crosby could have better kept his own frustrations in check, as he was called for two penalties, one for roughing and one for slashing.
Crosby’s latter penalty for slashing on Philadelphia’s Travis Sanheim came with 1 minute, 9 seconds left in regulation and the Penguins trailing 3-1.
Travis Sanheim and Sidney Crosby both head to the penalty box late in the third period pic.twitter.com/fRuIMa6HDh
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 19, 2026
Earlier in the second period, Crosby exchanged a barrage of cross-checks with Flyers captain Sean Couturier, a longtime Penguins antagonist, before heading back to the bench.
“That’s going to be part of a series,” Crosby said. “I think we’ve got to stay out of it a little bit more and trust that when they do it and try to start it up, that they’re going to get penalized for it. But that’s more something I think they’re looking to do. We’ve got to stay out of it and trust they’ll be undisciplined.”
Post-play extracurriculars are not a statistic kept by the NHL, but hits certainly are, and the Flyers entered the postseason with the fourth-most (1,882) over 82 games.
By comparison, the Penguins ranked 30th (1,444) in the league.
But Saturday night, it was the Penguins who edged the Flyers in that department, 41-40, with fourth-line winger Connor Dewar leading his club with six. Couturier paced Philadelphia with seven.
For rookie forward Ben Kindel, who turned 19 on Sunday, his final night as an 18-year-old constituted his introduction to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In Kindel’s eyes, while there are plenty of corrections and adjustments to be made in advance of Game 2, the Penguins aren’t in need of an sharper physical edge.
Instead, Kindle suggested the Penguins would be best served by keeping their tempers after the whistle blows.
“I think obviously just trying to have a good mindset, stay disciplined — they have a few guys there that are looking to agitate and we’ve just got to try to stay away from that and not feed into that stuff,” Kindel said. “That’s what our mindset is going to be (Monday).
“Obviously, it’s a physical game. That’s just how it’s going to be in the playoffs. You’ve got to be physical yourself. I don’t think our team or myself personally shied away from that. I think we were on the attack, as well. Just got to continue to do that — it’s a long series — and wear them down.”
Goaltender Stuart Skinner, who made 17 saves on 20 saves Saturday, echoed a similar point.
“You’ve kind of got to pick the moments where you do pick it up,” Skinner said. “There’s moments where you’ve really got to just calm yourself and keep on going.”
Coach Dan Muse said the tone of the opener was what the Penguins expected considering the rivalry between the teams. And now it’ll be on the Penguins to appropriately respond Monday.
“I think you can’t be surprised by it,” Muse said. “It’s going to be part of it. I think how they dealt with it, I thought guys were looking to be physical as well, whether it’s the 1-on-1 battles — I think we got involved too much in some of the scrums, that we probably didn’t need to. But that’s playoff hockey. So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise.”