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NHL on NBC: Penguins, Flyers renew acquaintances

Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux

There will be no love lost on Saturday when the Flyers and Penguins meet at the Wells Fargo Center (3 p.m. ET, NBC.)

The two teams will renew what’s become the NHL’s fiercest rivalry, setting the tone for a condensed regular season in which they’ll meet four times over the next 65 days.

Highlighting the rivalry will be the head-to-head grudge match between Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby and Philadephia’s newly-anointed captain, Claude Giroux.

Giroux’s breakout 2011-12 campaign put him in both the star category and conversation with Crosby for the best player in the game.

Giroux heightened the debate in the playoffs, scoring 14 points in the series win over Pittsburgh, punctuating the victory with this sequence in Game 6:

And...

Afterward, Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette called Giroux “the best player in the world” while Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik admitted he was “the best player on the ice.”

The wild and emotional series hasn’t been forgotten by either party.

During the summer, Giroux told a reporter his surgically repaired wrists were a result of Crosby hacking and slashing him during the playoffs.

Crosby responded by saying he didn’t recall injuring Giroux but that if he did, he wasn’t sorry about it.

As for the impact the loss had on No. 87 -- well, it’s still fresh in his mind.

“I remember at different points, just kind of being in shock,” Crosby told the Post-Gazette recently. “A lot of different flashes go through my mind when I think about the series.

“Basically, what it came down to was, we didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t play well enough, all the way through.”

Tale of the Tape

Pittsburgh Penguins (2011-12)Philadelphia Flyers (2011-12)
Record: 51-25-6, 108 PTS (2nd in Atlantic; 4th in Eastern Conference)Record: 47-26-9, 103 PTS (3rd in Atlantic; 5th in Eastern Conference)
Leading Scorer: Evgeni Malkin (50G-59A-109 PTS)Leading Scorer: Claude Giroux (28G-65A-93 PTS)
Goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury (42-17-4, 2.36 GAA)Goalie: Ilya Bryzgalov: (33-16-7, 2.48 GAA)

Projected Lines

Philadelphia:

Scott Hartnell-Claude Giroux-Brayden Schenn
Max Talbot- Sean Couturier-Jakub Voracek
Wayne Simmonds-Scott Laughton-Matt Read
Ruslan Fedotenko-Eric Wellwood-Zac Rinaldo

Braydon Coburn-Nicklas Grossman
Kimmo Timonen-Luke Schenn
Andrej Meszaros-Kurtis Foster

Pittsburgh:

Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Pascal Dupuis
Eric Tangradi-Evgeni Malkin-James Neal
Matt Cooke-Brandon Sutter-Tyler Kennedy
Tanner Glass-Joe Vitale-Craig Adams

Matt Niskanen-Kris Letang
Brooks Orpik-Paul Martin
Simon Despres-Deryk Engelland

Reminder: If you’re unable to watch on TV, download NBC Sports Live Extra here or here.