Elliotte Friedman

They clinch an overtime at home.

The place is going nuts.

Philadelphia is orange again.

It's a great thing that they've got going.

But we even talked about, as Pittsburgh was...

Extending the series one by one here, you know, some of their young players hitting a little bit of a wall.

It's going to be the ultimate test, I think, of their careers to this point to go, OK, it's been a long year.

We've been through a lot.

It's been demanding in the playoffs, but finding the necessary energy.

to withstand how Carolina plays.

It's a great test here for a young Flyer team that has already done some really impressive things that they'll be able to look back on going forward.

All right, Pittsburgh Penguins.

So, I mean, as you touched on, Elliot, I'm sure kicking themselves for taking too long to get into this series, but this is a team that played six more games than all of us, and surely their fan base, by and large, would not have seen coming at the start of the year.

That has to be seen as a positive.

Do you think any of this season and how it played out changes how Kyle Dubas views the immediate future?

And, of course, the big question to start with is what are they thinking with Evgeny Malkin?

So another one I wondered about, I mean, hey, for the last few years, and certainly the feeling around the Penguins and how they looked was much different than how they've been this year.

But with each season, you're almost counting down, okay, one less year on that Eric Carlson contract.

Oh, another signing bonus.

That knocks down the amount of money that you would be on the hook for if you were to take it on.