2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs Blog - Conference Quarter-finals

The Pittsburgh Penguins don't need Harvard degrees to know the Philadelphia Flyers are far easier to beat in a playoff series if defenceman Kimmo Timonen is tired, hurt or out of the lineup.

It's the biggest reason Timonen has been hit more often and more viciously than anyone on the ice in the Eastern Conference quarter-finals that resume Tuesday tonight at the Wachovia Center.

Early in Game 3 on Sunday, Penguins left-winger Chris Kunitz left little doubt about his intentions when he lined up Timonen and plastered him into the glass behind the Flyers net with a clean but purposeful hit.

"We know this is a long, hard series and the more bumps you get the harder it is to pass the puck." Kunitz said Monday as the Penguins, who lead the series two games to one, prepared for Game 4 in Philadelphia.

Flyers coach John Stevens took issue with Kunitz' hit, saying his intention was to injure the Flyers' top defenceman.

"I'm not sure you want to go there with me," Stevens told reporters Monday. "It was a hard, hard hit. My only concern is if it was a hit to the head. He's not just trying to get the puck there. He's trying to hit him to hurt him.

"It shouldn't be OK for me. It's a good hit, but your team should be able to respond. That's playoff hockey and emotions run high and I feel the game has a way of policing itself. Maybe I'm different than a lot of people but over an 82-game game season, you can't let your best players get run like that or you won't have any best players at the end of the year."

According to NHL statisticians, Timonen has been hit 12 times in the first three games of the series. He said he knows he's being targeted by the Penguins, but is not losing any sleep over it.

"If they're going into a game trying to hurt me, that's fine," he said. "I don't really care. Hopefully, we can do the same thing to them tomorrow. It really doesn't bother me."

Flyers centreMike Richards said the Penguins' tactics are no different than their own.

"Every chance I get I'm trying to hit (Evgeni) Malkin and (Sidney) Crosby and I'm taking runs at (Sergei) Gonchar, too. I'm sure they're not too thrilled about that, but that's playoff hockey."

MOST INTIMIDATING?

Last year, The Sporting News anointed Philadelphia as having the most intimidating fans in hockey and the Flyers have incorporated that message into their pre-game production. In each of their home games during the playoffs the team is handing out orange T-shirts that read Hungry For More.

"They call themselves the most intimidating? That's pretty pretentious," Penguins centre Max Talbot said. "They try to be intimidating. They're all dressed in orange T-shirts and they scream a lot. Does that make the Flyers a better team? I don't think so."

Flyers winger Danny Briere disagrees, saying Philadelphia has always been one of the most difficult cities for NHL opponents.

"The crowd was wild (Sunday) and got us going early on," he said. "We've got to give them credit for the start we had."

PICK YOUR POISON

In Games 1 and 2 in Pittsburgh, Penguins coach Dan Bylsma did not shy away from matching Sidney Crosby up against Mike Richards. In Game 3 in Philadelphia, Flyers coach John Stevens went with Jeff Carter against Crosby and Richards against Malkin.

"I don't know what it is with Malkin," Richards said. "The puck just seems to find him. You've got to know he has the puck a lot and wants the puck. He's such a big guy that you're not going to overwhelm him with strength. You just need to keep him to the outside."

Crosby said Carter and Richards pose similar challenges.

"Richards is a little more physical than Carter," he said. "They're both good at both ends."

In Game 3, Bylsma loaded up on his top three centermen by using Malkin with Crosby in the third period. He also matched Malkin with Jordan Staal.

Stevens said he's not looking to get away from any matchups against the Penguins' top two lines and does not want to wear out Richards, whose logging more than 23 minutes a game.

"I just don't want to get people on the ice who are tired against competitive players like that," Stevens said.

THAT'S JARED ROSS, NOT ART ROSS

On Sunday, Jared Ross became the answer to the following trivia question: Who is the first Alabama-born player to score a goal in a Stanley Cup playoff game?

It came 3:42 into the third period when Ross swatted a broken-down Andrew Alberts slapshot past Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Flyers a three-goal lead en route to a 6-3 win.

"Growing up you watch playoffs on TV and you think, ‘Wow, it must be crazy to be out there, seeing the way guys hustle and the atmosphere is so great,'" Ross said. "It's so neat to be a part of that intensity. The Alabama state governor might call me."

A shifty 5-foot-9, 165-pound centre, Ross played two years of high school hockey in Huntsville before transferring to a Michigan high school, where he led the state in scoring as a senior.

Ross returned to play four years at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, where he became a Hobey Baker finalist under his father, Doug, who was a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Having bounced around the minors for three years Ross found a home with the AHL Phantoms and led the club in scoring (69 points) and plus-minus (plus-17).

"He is a little guy, but he is very competitive, responsible and gave us some great minutes," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "To see him score a goal there on a great cycle shift, I thought was terrific."