Here Are 6 Of The Best Moment From the Flyers-Penguins 'Battle Of Pennsylvania'

The Stanley Cup Playoffs get underway on Saturday. Without question, one of the best match ups on the docket is the long-awaited revival of the Battle of Pennsylvania between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The two teams entered the league in the same year, 1967, as part of the NHL's first wave of expansion, which doubled the league's size from six to twelve teams.

In the early going, the Flyers dominated the rivalry with the Broad Street Bullies, making back-to-back Stanley Cups and making a few more Cup Final appearances after that.

In the '90s and 2000s, the Penguins have been more successful, buoyed by superstars like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Marc-Andre Fleury.

Still, anytime these two teams get together, it can get wild. 

So let's look back at some of the most memorable moments of one of hockey's most intense rivalries.

Crosby Hates Everyone

When Sidney Crosby was drafted by the Penguins in 2005, they were bad. 

However, within a few seasons, they were Cup contenders, but the Flyers were usually one of the teams battling them toward the top of what was then the Atlantic Division.

Crosby was all in on the rivalry in 2012 when the two teams met in the opening round of the playoffs. In Game 3,  he — somewhat childishly — batted Flyers forward and Jakub Voracek's glove away from him.

Obviously, frustration was mounting as Pittsburgh lost that one 8-5. It was the second straight game in which they yielded 8 goals to the Orange and Black.

After the game, Crosby, to his credit, not only owned it, but also dropped one of the most iconic quotes in the rivalry's history.

Claude Giroux And ‘The Shift’

Our next moment comes from that very eventful 2012 opening round series.

The Flyers entered Game 6 in Philadelphia with a 3-2 lead looking to clinch the series, and it didn't take long for everyone to know the Flyers would be moving on.

The Flyers' biggest name at the time was Claude Giroux, and he took the opening draw against Crosby and then delivered what is still to this day referred to as "The Shift."

Giroux planted the Penguins captain on his ass just six seconds into the game, then scooped up a puck after a great play in the neutral zone by Jaromir Jagr (who knows both sides of this rivalry well) and buried it with an incredible shot into the back of the net behind Fleury.

I mean, it was one of the best 32-seconds I think I've ever seen from a single player.

The Flyers won the series but lost in the next round to the eventual Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Devils. 

The Hulk Hogan Incident

Let's rewind a bit to the end of the 2011-12 NHL regular season and the penultimate meeting between the two teams.

Jakub Voracek scored an empty-netter to seal the deal for the Flyers, but on the ensuing faceoff, the Penguins put their fourth line out on the ice. 

A few seconds later, with just over a minute left in the game and the two teams scheduled to meet again days later to close out the regular season, Penguins forward Joe Vitale leveled Flyers star (now GM) Daniel Briere with a clean, but wildly unnecessary hit in a 6-3 game.

That started an all-out line brawl as the Flyers defended their star, and led to Flyers coach Peter Laviolette climbing the glass to give the Pittsburgh coaching staff a piece of his mind.

Meanwhile, Flyer Scott Hartnell was on the bench and started mixing it up with a Penguins fan named Cy Clark, who had a striking resemblance to Hulk Hogan.

Once the season was over and the two teams met in the opening round of the playoffs, guess who the Flyers brought to town to get the crowd fired up?

Sadly, Clark passed away just a couple of years later, with Hartnell paying his respects to him on social media, but there's no doubt he left his mark on this rivalry.

Jake Guentzel's 4-Goals To Send The Flyers Packing

The last time these two teams met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs was 2018, and that year, the Penguins were on the hunt for their third-straight Stanley Cup.

Their opening round opponent was the Flyers.

It was a fairly back-and-forth series, but in Game 6, Jake Guentzel absolutely popped off with a four-goal performance that sent the Flyers to the golf course.

Unfortunately for the Penguins, they were bounced in the next round by another major rival, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, who went on to win the Cup.

2019 Stadium Series

The 2019 Stadium Series between the Flyers and Penguins was the second of a home-and-home series, with the first game being played in Pittsburgh in 2017.

The 2019 game was played at Lincoln Financial Field and had the intensity of a playoff game.

It was ultimately long-time Flyer Wayne Simmonds' final game with the team, and he left his mark with an absolutely bone-crushing hit on Pens defenseman Brian Dumoulin, which led to a massive brawl.

But the big story of that game (which I'm proud to say I was at) came when the Flyers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the final minutes to force overtime.

In the extra frame, Claude Giroux capped off one of the wildest comebacks in outdoor game history (until quite possibly this year's Stadium series in Tampa, which I also happened to be at, so it must be me, I guess).

The Longest Game In NHL History

Of course, we have to mention this one…

The Flyers and Pens met in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Game 4 took place at Mellon Arena on May 4 with puck drop coming a little after 7:30 ET.

Alex Kovalev (who was so nasty, I think people overlook him sometimes) scored just over two minutes into the game, but the Flyers answered back in the third when John LeClair deflected a shot from Eric Desjardins to force OT.

It wasn't until seven hours after puck drop in the fifth overtime that Keith Primeau shot one past Penguins goalie Ron Tugnutt and won the game on a filthy shot from the faceoff dot.

From there, the Flyers battled all the way to the Eastern Conference Final, but lost to the eventual champion New Jersey Devils.

…

So, lots of history in this matchup, and hopefully, we get a bit more this time around.