Leafs-Lightning has been the wildest #NHLPlayoffs series so far: tons of goals, thrilling lead changes, and even a fight between two stars. For many, it recalls the classic 2012 Penguins-Flyers Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. One of the most epic series of all time, a 🧵:
As @PR_NHL shared last Thursday night, Maple Leafs-Lighting is the first opening round series to see 19+ goals scored in Games 1 and 2 since that fateful 2012 Penguins-Flyers series, which featured an even 20. But that’s not where the similarities end between the two.
Saturday’s Game 3 fight between former 60-goal scorers Auston Matthews and Steven Stamkos echoed 2012’s Game 3 fight between the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby and the Flyers’ Claude Giroux, the only postseason fight over the last 30 years between a pair of eventual 1000-point players.
In Penguins-Flyers Game 1, with home ice, the Penguins took a 3-0 lead in the first period. But the Flyers battled back to win 4-3 in OT, thanks to a game-winner by Jakub Voracek. The shell-shocked Penguins had been 29-0-0 with a three-goal lead during the 2011-12 regular season.
In Game 2, Pittsburgh built another early multiple-goal lead in Game 2, starting with a marker by Sidney Crosby just 15 seconds in, matching the team record for the earliest goal to start a playoff game in Penguins history.
However, the Flyers once again ruined the party in Pittsburgh, winning 8-5 on a pair of hat tricks by captain Claude Giroux and then-rookie Sean Couturier. It was the 9th (and still the most recent) occasion of teammates each scoring three or more goals in a playoff game.
Game 3 was another wild affair, this time in Philly. The Pens again scored the first goal but were unable to hold the lead. The Flyers won 8-4 in a game that had 158 minutes in penalties, just one of four playoff games since 2000 with 150+ total PIMs.
Game 4: The Penguins stave off elimination with a 10-3 victory in Philly, thanks in part to a Jordan Staal hat trick. The 10 goals matched the Canadiens’ total in the 1945 Stanley Cup Semifinal for the most ever scored by an NHL team facing elimination.
Game 5: Back in Pittsburgh, the Flyers took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. However, Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury then stopped all 19 shots he faced over the next two periods to lead the Pens to a 3-2 comeback victory and stave off elimination a second time.
Game 6: The game begins with perhaps the most memorable opening shift in Flyers playoff history. Giroux knocked Sidney Crosby onto his seat with a hit just five seconds into the game and then opened the scoring at the 32-second mark.
Giroux would add two assists en route to a 5-1 Flyers victory, at last eliminating the rival Penguins. It would be 10 years until another player had as many as Giroux’s 14 points in a playoff series: Oilers’ star Connor McDavid did so in the first round last season vs. the Kings.
How the rest of Leafs/Lightning will play out is anyone’s guess. But this early comparison to the Penguins-Flyers 2012 Eastern Conference QF has grabbed our attention at Elias. With Game 4 on tap tonight, we’ll be on the lookout for more NHL records to be matched, or even broken.
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