Winning the fourth game of a seven-game series when you lead the series 3-0 is not a foregone conclusion, but awfully close to one.  Sure, the Pens have yet to earn the final, most difficult victory in any series - the last one.  But if their 4-1 smothering of Philly in game 3 is any example, the Flyers are in deep, deep trouble.

What do we - as fans - expect from the Pens on most nights?  The Crosby-Malkin-Hossa-Sykora-Malone-Depuis show.  That is, high flying offense, tape-to-tape passes from left-right-left leading to a spectacularly easy virtual empty net goal for the lucky guy on the end of the second pass.  The Pens figuring that physical play isn't necessary, nor is strict adherence to a tight defensive checking system because it's possible to generally outscore the other team most nights.  So defense be damned.  Let the creativity flow, and put on a show for the home folks.  Sure, the Pens are capable of doing it.  Better than most teams, too.

So the Stanley Cup playoffs start, and no one really expects the Pens to actually play defense.  They expect the same high-wire act that we got from 1990 through 1992 - the two seasons that ended in 91 and 92 with the franchises two Cup wins.  We expect either Crosby or Malkin (or hell, maybe both) to split the D, nearly fall to the ice while zipping a truly amazing goal past a goalie who's only reaction is to hang his head.  But play defense?   Bah.  Boring.  Stifling.  Uncreative. 

Oops.

Michel Therrien deserves an unbelievable amount of credit right now - far more than he's getting.  He has this young group of offensive wizards actually playing great team defense.  Nothing is overlooked.  The system is the law, and the Pens players are enforcing it.  First, attempting to get a group of younger players to adhere so tightly to a tough defensive system is a challenge enough.  But asking superstars like Crosby and Malkin to do the same?  To take that same responsibility into their own end?  Well, some how, same way, he's gotten the team to buy into what he's selling.  Totally and completely, without reserveration - and the results are simply stunning to watch.  Philly cannot generate any offense whatsoever, and they've defeated two superior opponents to get to the ECF.  Yet they look like boys among men right now.  In two periods last night, the Flyers generated 8 shots.  That's right - eight.  They got 18 total, and in desperation flung everything at the net in the third.  Of course, forty-five foot shots from the right boards aren't exactly high-percentage shots...but they do count as shots, and in the Cup playoffs, any shot is a good shot.  Or so the adage goes, right?  The Flyers are getting beaten at their own game.  That might be the most impossible statement of all.

Last night, the Pens played classic road game hockey.  They weren't the aggressors; they remaining cautious and tight defensively, allowing Philly to come towards them but ensuring they slowed Philly down as best as possible.  They forced the Flyers to dump and puck, and then beat them in the corners to it.  They kept the Flyer forwards out of the slot, and funneled players and the puck to the boards and corners, where they can do little damage.  They sagged their defense back, but at all times remained on the lookout for the counter-attack chance.  And when they got them, they attacked using all of their formidable offensive skills.  Malone's third-period goal was a direct result of a boneheaded play by a Flyer rookie, who's flat, slow pass was easily picked off by Malkin, resulting in a ####-#### play going the other way.  The Pens counterattacking style last night was "out Deviling" the Devils - playing the neutral zone trap style to absolute perfection, and just like the Devils, making those sudden counterattacks count.  Philly couldn't absorb the change fast enough to get their offense untracked, and when they finally did...it was too little, too late.

I would expect the same Pens defense tomorrow night.  The only difference is that Philly has to salvage something from this series.  Getting swept, at home, by their most-hated in-state rivals is simply unacceptable.  Unheard of.  Disgusting.  Puke-worthy.  I think half the Flyers fans would drink themselves into oblivion and then puke, while the other half simply would puke.  So the Flyers cannot allow the Pens to win this game.  It would be a surly sight I think, so the Flyers are going to come out all guns blazing and then some.  But whether or not they can pierce Pittsburgh's suddenly excellent defense is another question entirely.  Because the Pens have personal reasons to complete the utter humiliation of the Flyers.  Malkin and Crosby both would simply love nothing more than to destroy the Flyers, sweep them, and do it in front of fans both players seem to despise.  So of course the Pens are going to keep to their system.  It's got them this far, and they see no reason why it can't take them further. 

The vaunted Commonwealth Finals have not materialized, and for many reasons.  Key Philly injuries are the most common blame.  And it's simply impossible to play "what if" in this case.  Everyone figured this was going to be a long series - at least six, likely seven.  And it's still possible.  But the odds are long.  And it could just be that the Pens are by far the better team.  With or without Timonen.  And that is simply because - as it stands, right now - the Pens young guns have listened to the coach, nodded and then executed.  And for Pens fans, you just can't ask for anything else.