Certainly, Pronger is entitled to a bad game. He had one in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Montreal, and the Habs got their only win of the series, 5-1.
But Pronger's timing couldn't have been much worse as his struggles helped lead the Flyers down the path of a 7-4 loss to the Blackhawks on Sunday at the United Center.
The win gave Chicago a three-games-to-two lead with Game 6 Wednesday at the Wachovia Center, and it backed the Flyers into a corner. They now have no margin for error if they are to win their first Cup since 1975.
Pronger, booed when he carried the puck, was on the ice for six Blackhawks goals, and he was in the penalty box when Chicago built the lead to 5-2 on a power-play goal by Dustin Byfuglien late in the second period.
Byfuglien is the 257-pound power forward who entered the series with eight playoff goals. Pronger had made sure he was stuck at eight, refusing to yield the front of the net to the bullish Byfuglien, relentlessly unnerving him.
So Byfuglien must have felt as if he was sprung from a trap as Pronger sat in the penalty box.
Just about everything went wrong for Pronger, and much of it was his own doing. On the Blackhawks' first goal, Pronger closed his legs in an attempt to block Brent Seabrook's shot. But the shot ticked off him and trickled past goalie Michael Leighton for Chicago's second power-play goal of the series.
After Seabrook scored, Dave Bolland and Kris Versteeg were in Pronger's vicinity, yet still had enough time and space to increase the Blackhawks' lead to 3-0.
Pronger's grim night ended when Byfuglien beat him to the puck and sent it into an empty net.
