Quote Originally Posted by Ex Lion Tamer
The match-up they want - that ship has sailed with Timonen and now Coburn both out. No disrespect to Hatcher, but if he's playing 24 minutes like he did in game 2, the Flyers are in trouble. I see this series going 4 - maybe 5, not more.

Wings/Pens will be a very good series. And I don't really understand the hate on everyone seems to have for Crosby - well i understand it from Swish - hockey fans, for some reason just love to eat their own.
Hate's a strong word. Hockey's a sport that's built on a weird code of honor. It's okay to high stick a guy in the face, but if you whine about being hit in the face, or "oversell" the injury you're villified. Soccer players would be executed for some of the stunts they pull.
Crosby has some old bad habbits he developed in the QMJHL - it was common for him to have 3 guys hanging on to his sweater and arms, so he learned to lunge a bit and fall down "easy". It was the only way he could get space and it worked so often (still does). Most of the time it works to draw a penalty, which in all honesty should be called 100% of the time anyway, but there's a few too many times it's just blatant diving.
It's infuriated a lot of the NHL stars in this league - Sundin, Jagr, Alfredsson, Shanahan, Sakic, among others are all on record saying he's got to stop that. It's not helping when Ovechkin, a European (the horror) is playing a much grittier, less whiny game while racking up similar numbers. He is, to his credit getting much better, but still has a ways to go.

Some of the hate of course is just the same anti-hero sentiment that other greats like Gretzky and Lemieux had as well. I'm sure in a few years Crosby will look a lot different than he does now and they'll be picking on some other rising star.

As for line matchups, you're right, the injuries are an unfortunate blow to the Flyers, but I was thinking more in line of forward line matchups. Malkin's line has stayed away from Briere's for much of the first 2 games. It'll be interesting to see if that changes in Philly.
But damn, with Coburn and Timonen out, it might not matter much now. Philly needed a bit of luck to win this series, and so far luck's been against them.