In the days leading up to what has become a highly contentious, increasingly fascinating Eastern Conference quarterfinal, Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said his team needed to “go after” the Penguins stars.

What he meant is subject to interpretation, but the Flyers have absolutely “gone after” Crosby in this series, only to see him toss on the Superman cape in the past few games.

Cup of Joe

I don’t know if Crosby is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but if he leads the Penguins back from a three-games-to-none deficit against his hated cross-state rival, it’ll rank with the greatest and I would imagine most fulfilling achievements of his career.

He has to survive first. Both teams have crossed the line, but the Flyers seem to have particular interest in butchering the Penguins’ captain.

They aren’t the first. Some have succeeded. Remember when the Penguins were about to eliminate the New York Rangers a few years back only to see Rangers headhunter Jacob Trouba take out Crosby with an elbow to the skull in Game 5?

Tocchet’s guys don’t confine their cheap shots to the actual game, either. They wait till after the buzzer.

When a scrum developed near the boards after the end of the Penguins’ Game 5 victory Monday, Flyers winger Travis Konecny snuck up behind Crosby and delivered a wicked, gutless crosscheck to his lower back. Crosby crumpled to the ice.

How some people can look at that video and describe it any other way is beyond me. It echoed the post-buzzer scrum in Game 4, when Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen skated up on Crosby, who was flat on his back with several bodies on top of him, and chopped his stick down on Crosby’s glove.

Crosby had delivered a perfectly legal hit on Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim just before time ran out, as Sanheim directed a shot toward the Penguins net. That led to a scrum and ultimately to Ristolainen’s chop.

In Game 3, it was Garnet Hathaway who clipped Crosby in the face on a reckless play before a faceoff (I’m not sure Hathaway meant to connect, but he meant to come close). And yes, Crosby embellished that one to try to draw a penalty. He then became the focal point of the series, taking all kinds of heat (never mind that it all began with a high stick to his face).

The Hathaway clip and aftermath, however, seemed to spark something — and Crosby sure didn’t embellish the blindside stick to the spine from Konecny on Monday. That was at least Konecny’s second blindside cross check of Crosby in the series. He was penalized for one in Game 2.

Here’s the thing, though: It’s not working. Crosby is only getting stronger. The Penguins have risen from the canvas and are still battling, having won two in a row to force a Game 6 on Wednesday.

Crosby has been the catalyst. After delivering just one point (an assist) and going minus-three over the first three games, he has a goal and four points in the past two — and he just missed a couple of attempts at the open net at the end of Game 5.

More to the point, Crosby is flying around and making ridiculous plays like the soccer-style pass to Kris Letang at the point in Game 4.

He appears to be highly energized and singularly focused. Even after getting his knee cracked by a teammates’ slap shot and absorbing the Konecny crosscheck, he made it a point to fairly sprint down the runway after the game and take a twirl as the game’s second star.

The odds remain with the Flyers. Only four teams in NHL history have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. But the way Crosby has historically tortured this team, you wonder.

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Might this become his greatest feat yet?