Penguins

About 10 seconds before the puck dropped on Sunday afternoon, Claude Giroux circled by Danny Briere at the Flyers bench. "He came over to me and said, 'Watch the first shift,' " Briere said after the Flyers eliminated the favored Penguins from the NHL playoffs with a 5-1 rout. In one 32-second burst, Giroux quelled the fears of a quiet, on-edge capacity crowd at the Wells Fargo Center with a first shift out of a scene in the cult classic flick Slap Shot . Bodies decorated the ice after three big hits.

Scott Gomez scored twice and the New York Rangers held visiting Pittsburgh to five shots through two periods en route to blanking the Penguins, 4-0. Henrik Lundqvist, back in goal after sitting out one game with the flu, needed to make only 18 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and 13th of his career. Martin Straka and Chris Drury each had a goal and assist, and Michal Rozsival set up three goals for New York, which was 1-4-1 in its previous six and allowed 24 goals in those losses.

WHILE HOCKEY teams always scratch players from their lineups, it's rare for a television analyst to miss games. Mike "Doc" Emrick skated shorthanded two games last weekend, including Game 3 of Flyers-Pittsburgh, because his NBC booth analyst Ed Olczyk, a former NHL player and coach, was bedridden with the flu. "It's a 24- to 48-hour flu that puts you in bed," Emrick said Monday from St. Clair, Mich., where he resides. "He lives in Chicago and does the Blackhawks [during the week]

The contrast only makes it worse. A year ago, the Flyers eliminated their bitter rivals from Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs. The year before, the Flyers went one round further than the Penguins. The year before that, the Flyers went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. On Thursday, Penguins fans woke up to news that their first-place team had acquired future Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla in a late-night trade. Iginla joined winger Brenden Morrow and defenseman Douglas Murray, brought in as Pens general manager Ray Shero loads up for a run at the Cup. Flyers fans?

This is hockey. Playoff hockey. High sticks and low blows. Slashes and crashes. A poke in the eye is almost as important as a puck in the net. If it's class you want, you're going to have to wait until the bloodied players shake hands at the end of this series. "You've got to keep your foot on the rattlesnake," coach Terry Murray said after the Flyers' 3-2 win last night gave them a two-games-to-none lead in their opening-round playoff series with Pittsburgh. And this is the time of year when rattlesnakes like Darius Kasparaitis, the Penguins' infuriator, are nearly as valuable as Mario Lemieux.

From the moment he was rocked, Danny Briere knew that Joe Vitale's brawl-inspiring hit on Sunday in Pittsburgh was a clean one. But Briere certainly wasn't willing to concede that Vitale's intent was pure, hunting for a blow that has ultimately ended Briere's regular season prematurely. Briere said Tuesday morning that he believes Vitale was sent to the ice with the intent to injure. Peter Laviolette was fined $10,000 Monday for his on-ice antics with Penguins assistant Tony Granato and his subsequent comments for coach Dan Bylsma, whom he called "gutless.

Every summer has its improbable hit. In 1999, Disney marketeers didn't know what to do with The Sixth Sense, but audiences did - spending $293.5 million on tickets. In 2001, another creepy ghost story, The Others, skulked from nowhere to snag theatergoers by the droves. Last August, the subtitled, Mandarin-language martial arts spectacle Hero soared to box-office heights, after sitting on a Miramax shelf for a couple of years. But a documentary about flightless birds waddling around Antarctica?

1. Sydney Crosby, Penguins: Scored the first goal and added an assist. 2. Tyler Kennedy, Penguins: His goal gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. 3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins: Contributed a goal and an assist.

PITTSBURGH - In their BB - Before Bylsma - dark period, when the Penguins went 12-19-1 in midseason to fall into 10th place in the Eastern Conference, defenseman Rob Scuderi occasionally thought of his final collegiate season at Boston College. "There were times when we weren't playing very good, but nobody got down because of our experience - so, there's something to be said for having it, absolutely," Scuderi said of that 2000-01 campaign, which Boston College capped with an NCAA title after losing championship games the previous two seasons.

Penguins owner Ron Burkle traveled to Las Vegas yesterday to meet with the mayor to discuss the possibility of moving the team there. Burkle, who lives in Los Angeles, met with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman, according to Penguins spokesman Tom McMillan. Elena Owens, a spokeswoman for Goodman, also confirmed the meeting. Meanwhile, Burkle and co-owner Mario Lemieux prepared to meet with state, county and local officials today to try to resolve differences over plans for a new arena in Pittsburgh.