The Penguins opened their 2015-16 rivalry against the Flyers with an ugly first period, markedly bad, giving up two power play goals to the opponent and trailing by that same number. The Penguins kept the course, maintained the things they were doing right, came out and dominated the second period.

They gave themselves a two-goal lead of their own, and held onto it for the win.

The Penguins have continued to take flight (get it?) under Mike Sullivan in terms of shot attempts. They are out-attempting opponents on the regular, save for a few games scattered across the board since the Penguins made a coaching change.

Last night was another game with a positive differential.

Lines and Pairings

West side, best side. These guys are ready for the Battle of PA. pic.twitter.com/Tq9SvVcE92 — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 21, 2016

Highlights

Positives

A normal hockey game. Would you look at that? The Penguins and Flyers played and it wasn't a total clusterfuck. Maybe part of this can be attributed to two new coaches in Mike Sullivan and Dave Hakstol. Or the fact that both Pittsburgh's and Philadelphia's rosters have gone through overhauls in recent memory, and some of the culprits of the nonsense are gone. Either way, it was a nice change of pace.

Phil! Nice to see him get some good finishes. The speed that Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel have while on the ice together is remarkable.

Resolve to come from behind. Down 2-0 after 20 minutes, it felt like a game that the Penguins either get their heads on straight and come back and win, or they lose 6-2. I'm glad it was the former and not the latter.

Crosby's ridiculous, silly goal. It was one of those ones when you can't believe he shot it, and that it went in.

Crosby ties the game pic.twitter.com/3psqEjP6p7 — Stephanie (@myregularface) January 22, 2016

Even strength play. The Flyers scored all three of their goals with the man-advantage, but the Penguins and Marc-Andre Fleury were all business at even strength.

Trevor Daley, man. I don't care how much salary the Penguins had to retain on Rob Scuderi. He needed to be off of the team, and the Penguins didn't just get a draft pick for him or a warm body. Trevor Daley has shown he can play, and has played very well since coming to Pittsburgh in the trade from Chicago.

Negatives

Flyers power play is still deadly. The Penguins had no answer for it during the first period. It all runs through Giroux on the half-wall, but even when you know the setup, there's not much you can do about it. Very talented unit.

Giving up the third goal. Giving the Flyers life was a bit too close for my liking, but a win is a win.

I don't think this is a positive or negative. But whatever the hell that was when Steve Mason thought that Patric Hornqvist scored but he didn't.

Steve Mason is too chill. https://t.co/hOgLJGPPJ8 — Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) January 22, 2016

Stats

Flyers Penguins Goals 3 (Schenn, Voracek, Giroux) 4 (Daley, Crosby, Kessel x2) Shots on Goal 32 45 5v5 Corsi For Percentage 36.1% 63.9%

Analytics

The Penguins caught the Flyers flat-lining for multiple stretches, and their tying and go-ahead goals came during one of those segments as well. When you have a team on the ropes like that where they are getting hemmed into their own end, or peppered with shots, you need to capitalize and need to finish on your scoring chances.

Even Strength Shot Attempts

Shot volume! The differences that catch my eye between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia re that the Flyers did not have nearly as many shots blocked, especially from the right side of the net. I wonder if that's a coincidence, or if it has something to do with the Flyers players who shoot from the right, or the Penguins defensemen who play on the left? I have no idea.

Power Play Shot Attempts

The Penguins did a good job of getting in on the act here too, but my word, the Philadelphia Flyers power play. Talk about being deadly.

Shot attempt charts provided by War on Ice.

Expected Goals

A refresher of the key for these charts:

More information and description/analysis of Expected Goals can be found here on Hockey Graphs.

In the previous post here using these charts for the first time, I mentioned how it factors in things like shot quality. A more detailed list of what factors into that shot quality is below:

Expected Goals map provided by Don't Tell Me About Heart.

Head-to-Head Shot Attempts

Oh my. The Penguins line of Kunitz-Crosby-Hornqvist went H2H with Voracek-Giroux-Simmonds and it was fuuuuuuun. The Penguins top-six in general did the work they needed to. The forward depth had their struggles against some of the Flyers line combinations, but in general, this is what you want to see from your team at 5v5.

A basic description on how to read these charts: Cross reference a player from each team, and that box shows how many shot attempts each team had while those two players shared ice time. The + and - are from the home team's perspective.

For a refresher on how to read these charts, a write-up with descriptions of what colors mean, which lines to read, and more: H2H Corsi Chart Primer

H2H Chart via Muneeb Alam from Japers' Rink

Individual Shot Attempts

Again, this is what you want to see. When your 4th line is the one below the positive/negative line, and they're the only players in that range, you know you had a good night as a team in terms of shot attempts.

Individual Shot Attempts Charts via War on Ice

Line-by-Line Shot Attempts

Having only three forwards below 50% is never a bad thing. Seeing Matt Cullen sky-high while his linemates are in the depths can be explained by Cullen slotting into Chris Kunitz's spot when he left the game after injuring himself falling on what appeared to be his tailbone when he got twisted up with Claude Giroux.

Great. Very good. Good. What you want from your three pairings.

Individual Player Corsi Data via Hockey Stats

The Penguins are scheduled to host the Vancouver Canucks in a 12:30 afternoon matinee tomorrow afternoon, and then head to Washington, DC to take on the Capitals in a Sunday afternoon 12:30 matinee, but no one knows whether that is actually going to happen. With the winter storm headed our and their way, everything is up in the air.

Pittsburgh is expecting snow tonight through tomorrow, and DC is expecting a full-on blizzard, which will make getting to Washington very complicated, and their Metro system is preparing for a shutdown ahead of time. I would bet on a re-scheduled Capitals game for Sunday, if I was a betting man.