Pens stomp Flyers

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

As soon as warmups began, the familiar boos for Sidney Crosby reverberated through the arena.

Flyers fans had long perfected that chorus against Philadelphia’s top antagonist.

The sound grew louder after the final horn — this time directed at the home team, the one buried in last place in the NHL.

Crosby, Jussi Jokinen and Chris Kunitz scored goals, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Thursday night.

The Penguins were the latest team to stomp the cellar-dwelling Flyers. Off to their worst start after eight games, the Flyers are 1-7 and mired in last place, with only a miserable two points. Consider, the Flyers have had more head coaches (2) than wins (1) this season.

“We’ve got to start believing in each other, believing in ourselves, and going out and play hockey like we can,” coach Craig Berube said.

Clearly, the coaching switch from Peter Laviolette, fired after an 0-3 start, to Berube isn’t working.

Evgeni Malkin added an empty-net goal in the final seconds, and Marc-Andre Fleury made an early lead stand with 24 saves.

Fleury is 6-0 and has more wins than all but one team in the East.

“He looks strong the whole season. He looked strong in the game,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said.

All the Penguins looked strong against the Flyers. The Penguins outplayed them from the opening faceoff, and nearly doubled the Flyers in shots through two periods. Crosby, who has 29 career goals against the Flyers, has a career-best, seven-game point streak to start the season.

Unlike their cross-state rivals, the Penguins (6-1) are riding high atop the East.

“It’s nice to get rewarded early on, and to build some confidence and momentum,” Crosby said.

Wayne Simmonds had the lone goal for the Flyers, who have yet to score more than two in a game this season.

The Penguins grabbed control for good in the second period, taking shot after point-blank shot at Steve Mason.

At one point, the Penguins camped out in the Philadelphia zone and held a 20-8 shots advantage. Sprawled on the ice, Mason made two straight fantastic saves against Matt Niskanen and Deryk Engelland.

Again, the Flyers couldn’t generate offense. Matt Read made a sweet steal at the blue line and took off on a breakaway but then whiffed from the circle. He slammed his stick against the boards on his shift change.

The Flyers later failed on three attempts to clear the puck, and Jokinen pounced, scoring his fourth goal of the season for the 1-0 lead. Jokinen scored on Pittsburgh’s 22nd shot.

The punchless Flyers didn’t attempt their first shot of the second until 10 1-2 minutes in.

“When you’re only scoring one goal a game, it’s tough to win hockey games,” Mason said.