What's old is new again in Pennsylvania as the Penguins and Flyers renew a long-simmering rivalry

TL;DR

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers are set to renew their rivalry in the playoffs, with Sidney Crosby leading the Penguins against a Flyers team looking to make an impact. This matchup marks their eighth playoff meeting, highlighting the long-standing competitive history between the teams.

Key points

Penguins and Flyers renew rivalry in playoffs
Sidney Crosby leads Penguins against Flyers
Rasmus Ristolainen makes playoff debut
Goaltending decision for Penguins remains uncertain

Mentioned in this story

Sidney CrosbyRasmus RistolainenRick TocchetEvgeni MalkinKris LetangSean CouturierDanny BriereTravis SanheimTravis KonecnyDan MuseStuart SkinnerArturs Silovs

Pittsburgh PenguinsPhiladelphia Flyers

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby would not take the bait, even though the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye hinted that maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins captain kind of wanted to. Told that Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet — an assistant with the Penguins when Pittsburgh won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 — knew his current team was going to have to “get after” Crosby and longtime running mates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang when the cross-state rivals open their first-round series on Saturday night, Crosby just grinned. “I mean, to be expected, what else can you expect me to say?” the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer said with a small laugh. “We’re all out there competing. We all are after the same thing. That’s how it works.” Technically, that's how it always seems to work whenever the Flyers and Penguins get together, regardless of circumstance. Things only figure to be ramped up considerably during the eighth — and perhaps most unlikely — playoff meeting between two teams separated by 300 miles geographically and considerably more in terms of postseason success. The three Cups that Crosby has won during his 21-year career are one more than the Flyers have in the franchise's nearly six-decade history, and yes some are still keeping track of Philadelphia's long nuclear winter since its last championships. The chances of either club being the last one standing when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands the Cup to the victors in early June are slim. Oddsmakers put the resurgent Penguins in the middle of the pack to win it all, while the Flyers — who needed a 14-4-1 sprint to the finish to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 — are among the longest shots in the 16-team field. Not that any of that will matter when the puck is dropped and the venom that has long defined the contentious relationship between the clubs bubbles back up to the surface. That venom on Philadelphia's side has long been targeted at Crosby, who has beaten the Flyers three times in four playoff meetings, with the one loss coming during a frantic six-game series in 2012. Almost all the faces from those teams are gone. Except, of course, for perhaps the most important one. Crosby, the only player in NHL history to average a point a game in 21 straight years, remains a threat and highly motivated by the return to the playoffs following a three-year absence. “We have a ton of respect for Sid,” Tocchet said. “He's an unbelievable person and player. But we've got to get him in the ditches right? We've got to make it hard on him.”