Two Stanley Cup playoff games tonight, and one first-round series can end: Philadelphia visits Pittsburgh holding a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference matchup. But perhaps the Penguins found something with a goalie change to Arturs Silovs in their Game 4 win, so I think they will force a Game 6. Tonight is a 7 ET puck drop on ESPN.
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- Penguins Money Line
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I’m perhaps a tad biased as I want the Penguins to keep winning because I’ve enjoyed watching future Hall of Fame forward Evgeni Malkin all these years. One of my favorite players of the past two decades or so, with the 39-year-old Russian widely expected to retire when the campaign ends. Not out of the question that 38-year-old Sidney Crosby does too, although he has a contract for next season. Malkin does not. Ideally, they both go into the Hall in Toronto together.
Stuart Skinner, acquired in a midseason trade with Edmonton, was the Penguins’ guy in net the first three games. He wasn’t terrible the first two but pretty bad in the third game, with his team falling down 3-0. So Silovs got his shot in Game 4 and led a 4-2 road upset with 28 saves to keep Pittsburgh’s season alive. Needless to say, the Latvian will be in there tonight. Silovs became the second goaltender in franchise history to make his Penguins playoff debut in an elimination contest and earn a win after Frank Pietrangelo in 1991.
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Silovs didn’t have great regular-season numbers but seems to shine in the postseason. You may remember that in the 2024 playoffs as a rookie with only nine total RS games of experience, he was thrust into a first-round series with Vancouver and led a series win over Nashville. Silovs at the time became the second goaltender in NHL history to secure his first career shutout (regular season or playoffs) in a series-clinching win. And then in the 2024-25 AHL season, Silovs was the MVP during the Calder Cup playoffs to secure an AHL championship for the Abbotsford Canucks. He had five total shutouts in that postseason.
Crosby was also excellent in Game 3, opening the scoring with his first goal of the playoffs in the first period and setting up blueliner Kris Letang’s critical third-period goal with a sorta soccer-style kick of the puck to Letang. It was Crosby’s 16th career playoff goal against the Flyers to pass Wayne Gretzky (15) and Malkin (15) for the most against the franchise. Crosby also passed Juri Kurri with 203 career playoff points, third-most in history by a player with a single franchise. Gretzky naturally holds that mark of 252. Crosby is set at -290 for a point in Game 4 and is the +185 anytime goalscoring favorite.Â
The Penguins also kept their composure for the most part after the Flyers got under their skin at times in the first three games and forced stupid penalties. Pittsburgh was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill in Game 4 and 1-for-3 on the power play. If you score on the man advantage in the playoffs and don’t allow one, you most likely are winning.
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“I thought we were a little bit more poised. I mean, that stuff’s going to happen. It’s playoffs, but we just have to be a little bit more smart about it,” Crosby said. “I thought we did a better job of that. Ultimately, we got to save our energy for in between the whistles. I think that translated into the way we played. We had a lot of guys contributing, generating really good chances, and looked more like ourselves.”
The Pens forced Game 5 after facing a 3-0 series hole for the third time in franchise history. All of them have come against the Flyers in the “Battle of Pennsylvania,” also 2012 and 1997. They lost in ’97 in five and in ’12 in six.Â
Dan Vladar had been lights out for Philly in the first three games in stopping 70 of 74 shots for a .946 save percentage and a 1.33 goals-against average. But he completely blundered on Pittsburgh’s early second-period goal for a 2-0 hole in Game 4.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet indicated some lineup changes could be coming for Game 5, but Vladar certainly will remain the starter. Struggling forward Matvei Michkov didn’t have a spot in the team’s top four forward lines during practice Sunday, so he might be a healthy scratch. The 21-year-old was tied for third on the Flyers in scoring in the regular season with 51 points, including 20 goals. But he has zero points and is minus-1 in this series.Â
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When you give a player like Crosby a second life, you are probably going to pay for it. While I’d still expect Philly to win the series in six games, I do like the Pens to at least force it.  This is the 11th time they are facing a 3-1 series deficit and are 5-5 in Game 5 across the previous 10. The Flyers own an all-time record of 44-36 in potential series-clinching games, including a 21-21 mark away. Check out other expert picks in the SportsLine daily newsletter.Â
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