With a commanding 3-0 series lead, the Philadelphia Flyers are about to face a desperate Pittsburgh Penguins team doing anything it can to stay alive in the stanley Cup playoffs.
The Flyers just got some important news for their own hopes, as it was announced Saturday afternoon that goalie Dan Vladar would start after an injury scare kept him off the ice for the last two days.
Penguins forward Bryan Rust landed on Vladar's hand during Game 3, but after a brief conversation with trainer Tommy Alva, the Flyers goalie carried on and finished out the contest.
Vladar, 28, is 3-0-0 this postseason with a 1.33 GAA, .946 save percentage, and one shutout.
As for the Penguins, they're making further lineup changes in an effort to keep this series going.
Pittsburgh head coach Dan Muse announced Saturday that goalie Arturs Silovs would start for the Penguins, replacing the incumbent Stuart Skinner, who backstopped the Edmonton Oilers to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals.
The problem for them, though, is that Silovs was one of the worst goalies in the NHL this season, going 19-12-8 in spite of a porous 3.07 GAA and .888 save percentage.
According to MoneyPuck, Silovs, 25, allowed 11.9 goals over expected this season, ranking 89th out of 98 goalies.
Comparatively, Vladar saved 13.8 goals above expected for the Flyers, which was 10th-best in the NHL.
Further complicating matters is the fact that Silovs played under Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet for parts of three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, so if anyone knows what Silovs' weaknesses are, it's him.
The Latvian played 10 games for Tocchet and the Canucks last year, going 2-6-1 to the tune of a 3.65 GAA and .861 save percentage--the former was fourth-worst in the league among goalies with at least 10 games played, and the latter was second-worst under the same parameters.
This is all to say that Tocchet has seen Silovs at his worst and should know better than most how to get the 6-foot-4 netminder off his game and what strategies are most effective against him.
Muse and the Penguins might be looking for a spark, they might think Skinner deflated the team after a bad goal allowed to Rasmus Ristolainen in Game 3, or they might be waving the white flag and want their younger goalie to get playoff reps.
In any case, Silovs is just 5-5-0 in his career in the Stanley Cup playoffs and owns a .898 save percentage.
The numbers don't lie, and the Flyers must take advantage of a vulnerable young player on a desperate team.