Cup of Joe: Starkey on sports in 400 words or less (sometimes more)
Hello?
Anybody there?
We’re four games into the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, and Penguins wingers Anthony Mantha and Egor Chinakhov still haven’t picked up the phone.
In the regular season, those two combined for 100 points and 51 goals in just 124 combined games.
In this series, they have combined for — let me grab the calculator — zero goals, zero assists and nearly zero positive impact.
They’re not the only ones underperforming. When you’re down 3-1 and a game from the golf carts, everyone has a hand in the pile. The Penguins could use more from their stars (although the stars won Game 4) and from rookie Ben Kindel, for sure. But if I’m looking for the biggest reasons why the Philadelphia Flyers have quieted the highest-scoring team of the Sidney Crosby era, these are arguably the top two:
• Mantha, who led the Penguins in goals with 33, has just five shots and a series-worst minus-5 rating in four games. He’s been the Invisible Man-tha, except for his team-leading 18 penalty minutes (tied with Kris Letang). He has not scored a goal in 18 career playoff games.
• Chinakhov’s GPS is broken. He can’t find the net. In Game 4, he went 0 for 6 from the field — none of his six shot attempts reached Flyers goalie Dan Vladar. Five missed the net. The other was blocked. He also had an oh-fer in Game 1.
Chinakhov has directed 27 shots toward Vladar in the series. Only six made it that far. Ten have been blocked. Eleven — including some glorious chances early in games — have missed the net altogether. He has plenty of company there. The Penguins have been blasting pucks wide and unintentionally triggering Flyers’ breakouts with caroms off the boards.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet clearly identified the 25-year-old Chinakhov — a playoff novice — as a key player and one who could be roughed up and perhaps taken off his game.
So far, Tocchet’s right. Flyers tough guys Sean Couturier and Nick Seeler hammered Chinakhov early in Game 1. He still hasn’t really entered the series. He’s minus-4 and has been returned to the second line with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin, where he had great success in the regular season.
Chinakhov finished second on the team to Crosby in goals per game after he joined the Penguins midway through the season. He might be their best sniper. Both he and Mantha have seen ample power-play time in the series, as well, but still nothing. Seven of Mantha’s 12 shot attempts have been blocked.
Here’s the good news: It’s not too late.
I mean, it’s 1:55 a.m. and the bar closes at 2, but it really isn’t too late. Sparked by Crosby’s magnificent Game 4 performance, the Penguins have life. They scored four goals, equaling their output from the first three games. The place should be rocking for Game 5. Get this thing back to Philly, and the Flyers might be the ones squeezing the sticks.
Only four teams (out of 213) have come back from a three-games-to-none deficit to win a playoff series — the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1980 New York Islanders, the 2010 Flyers and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings. If the Penguins have any chance of becoming the fifth, two of their biggest guns need to start firing.
Preferably on goal.