Back in Pittsburgh

After playing Games 3 and 4 in a hostile environment at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Penguins are thrilled to have the series back in front of their fans for a must-win Game 5, as they trail the Flyers 3-1.

“That was kind of our motto when we were in Philadelphia, just try to get it back to Pittsburgh and use the home crowd to our advantage,” Ryan Shea said. “I know that the crowd is going to be crazy tonight, as it should be. Hopefully, we can put together a better performance than we did in the first two games.”

“The importance of the game and the energy that we can feed off of from them, I think it's really important,” Sidney Crosby added. “It's great that we were able to push the series, and we got to do something with the opportunity now.”

The Penguins held a full morning skate on Monday following a travel day on Sunday. Head Coach Dan Muse stuck with the same lineup used for Game 4, with the lines and D-pairings looking like this:

Rakell-Crosby-Rust

Chinakhov-Novak-Malkin

Soderblom-Kindel-Mantha

Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari

(Brazeau, Hayes)

Wotherspoon-Karlsson

Girard-Letang

Shea-Solovyov

(Graves, Clifton)

Muse confirmed that Arturs Silovs would start in goal for the second-straight game after Stuart Skinner played the first three.

“Both of those guys work extremely hard,” Bryan Rust said. “Obviously, they’re guys who have played well for us all year, and they’re guys who can make big saves for us. We’ve got a lot of confidence in our goalies."

For those first three games, the sentiment around the room was that the Penguins didn’t look like themselves. But in Game 4, they started executing on a lot of things that had gotten them into the playoffs to begin with.

“I think we played more whistle to whistle,” Muse said. “I think we just started to play with the puck, and had puck support. I thought that was better. When you have that, it leads you to be in better positions as you navigate through the neutral zone overall. Some of the decisions being made to try to set up in the O-zone, overall, it was better, but there's still room for even more there. We have to continue to take steps and continue to tighten up some things defensively.”

Another area that could use improvement is the power play. In Game 4, the Penguins capitalized on their first opportunity of the game when Crosby scored off a set faceoff play. But on their next two man-advantages later in the game, both units struggled to generate chances, surrendered some shorthanded ones, and gave the Flyers momentum.

“I think we’ve just got to simplify and take what’s given,” Rust said. “I think the minute we try to force things is when things kind of go awry.”

But ultimately, the Penguins got the job done, and forced a Game 5. They are eager to feed off the passion from the fans inside PPG Paints Arena tonight.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re bringing the energy as well on the ice, because they’ve been bringing it there in the stands, and it’s been awesome,” Muse said.