Pens look for hostile environment to focus their game

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s been done, even by some guys on this team in the biggest series of them all. Pens talk about the mindset being down 2-0 heading to Philadelphia and the game Wednesday night.

That series was the Stanley Cup Final in 2009 when the Pens fought back from down 2-0 to beat the defending champion Red Wings in seven games.

Kris Letang was a key part of that team and said of overcoming an early deficit.

“Keep focusing on our game and what we do well and what worked all year long for us,” Letang said. “It’s a long series. We have to stay focused and realize we are still in it and (Wednesday) is going to be a new day.”

“It’s been a lot of frustrations for us,” said forward Rickard Rakell. “These two games haven’t gone the way we were hoping for, but at the same time, we are a very tight group. We know we have been through adversity before. We know that we can get ourselves out of this, but it’s going to take everything.”

“We lost our first two games at home, we just got to leave everything on the ice for this next game. It’s a huge game for us.”

Pens head coach Dan Muse said it’s been done before. Historically 14% of teams that lose their first two games of a seven-game Stanley Cup playoff series have done it. Over the span of NHL playoff history, that’s over 50 teams. Last year the Edmonton Oilers lost its first two games and went on to play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Penguin Stuart Skinner was their goalie.

“We have experience where times have gotten hard for us, this group has risen up, found a way to do it on the road,” Muse said. “You refer back to things that have happened in the past. This group has done it over the course of the year, finding ways when things get hard to elevate our game.”

Pens defenseman Erik Karlsson said minutes after the game on Monday that everyone in the locker room is looking forward to getting out of Pittsburgh and get to Philly.

“Hopefully the hostile environment can make us just focus on playing in the situation we are in and not what is going on around us,” Karlsson said.

Letang agrees.

“You get caught in the hype and you want to do it so bad for the fans you kinda freeze, so sometimes when you go on the road it makes it more simple,” Letang said. “You just go out there and don’t worry about anything else other than our game. Your focus is only on one thing.”

To do that the 38-year-old said you need to learn from the mistakes and then turn the page as quick as possible to forget that emotion. Forget about both games and go in with a clean slate.

“Obviously we are not happy with how the first couple of games have gone,” Rakell said. “We definitely have a lot of things where we can improve. At the same time, we got to go to Philly and change this series around. That’s all that matters for us right now, is to turn this around and to do what it takes to tie this series up.”