PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Sidney Crosby would not take the bait, even though the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye hinted that maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins captain kind of wanted to.

Told that Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet – an assistant with the Penguins when Pittsburgh won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – knew his current team was going to have to “get after” Crosby and longtime running mates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang when the cross-state rivals open their first-round series on Saturday night, Crosby just grinned.

“I mean, to be expected, what else can you expect me to say?” the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer said with a small laugh. “We’re all out there competing. We all are after the same thing. That’s how it works.”

Technically, that’s how it always seems to work whenever the Flyers and Penguins get together, regardless of circumstance. Things only figure to be ramped up considerably during the eighth – and perhaps most unlikely – playoff meeting between two teams separated by 300 miles geographically and considerably more in terms of postseason success.

The three Cups that Crosby has won during his 21-year career are one more than the Flyers have in the franchise’s nearly six-decade history, and yes some are still keeping track of Philadelphia’s long nuclear winter since its last championships.

The chances of either club being the last one standing when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands the Cup to the victors in early June are slim. Oddsmakers put the resurgent Penguins in the middle of the pack to win it all, while the Flyers – who needed a 14-4-1 sprint to the finish to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 – are among the longest shots in the 16-team field.

Not that any of that will matter when the puck is dropped and the venom that has long defined the contentious relationship between the clubs bubbles back up to the surface.

That venom on Philadelphia’s side has long been targeted at Crosby, who has beaten the Flyers three times in four playoff meetings, with the one loss coming during a frantic six-game series in 2012. Almost all the faces from those teams are gone.

Except, of course, for perhaps the most important one. Crosby, the only player in NHL history to average a point a game in 21 straight years, remains a threat and highly motivated by the return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.

“We have a ton of respect for Sid,” Tocchet said. “He’s an unbelievable person and player. But we’ve got to get him in the ditches right? We’ve got to make it hard on him.”

A long-awaited debut

Rasmus Ristolainen’s agonizing wait to feel the vibe of playoff hockey is over.

The Flyers defenseman will make the first postseason appearance of his 13-year, 820-game career when he hops over the boards at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.

Ristolainen’s wait before his playoff debut is the third-longest in NHL history. The 31-year-old even played in the Olympics before a postseason game. He won a bronze medal in February while playing for Team Finland at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

“Just really excited to play meaningful games this time of year,” said Ristolainen, who played in just 44 games this season while battling elbow injuries. “It’s been a really, really fun last month or so.”

Skinner or Silovs?

First-year Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse has flip-flopped between goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs since the Penguins acquired Skinner in a trade with Edmonton in December.

Whether that will continue in the postseason is anybody’s guess. Skinner has a decided advantage over Silovs in playoff experience, having backstopped Edmonton to consecutive Cup appearances in 2024 and 2025.

Yet Muse has kept his thoughts close to the vest, and statistically speaking, Silovs and Skinner posted nearly identical numbers, none of them particularly great. Silovs finished the year with a .887 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average while Skinner had a slightly worse save percentage (.885) and a slightly better goals against (2.99).

“We’re looking at all factors,” Muse said. “As I’ve said multiple times, I think both guys have been great for us. Both guys are a big part of why we’re here today preparing for Game 1.”

What’s old is new again

Philadelphia forward Sean Couturier has played for the Flyers for so long that he was actually teammates with his boss, general manager Danny Briere.

Couturier was once a key cog during a previous rebuilding phase in Philadelphia, back when he was the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Couturier made his debut that season and has largely remained a steady presence in the lineup – save for back injuries that cost him the 2022-2023 season – and is the only Flyer still around from the franchise’s last home playoff series victory against, yes, the Penguins in 2012.

Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny are the only three Flyers on the roster to have played in a home playoff game, back in 2018.

“We were for a lot of years kind of in the middle, competing hard,” said Courtier, who had 12 goals and 24 assists this season. “We had some good teams. Just always missing a little something to get to the next step. I think it was maybe time to take a step back and rebuild. I’m just glad with how everything’s gone, honestly.”

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.