Penguins learned from dreadful '12 series against Flyers

It has been only six years since the Penguins and Flyers met in a train wreck of a series in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.

Allow Kris Letang to explain how long ago that feels.

“It's two different eras,” he said after practice Monday. “It's not even the same teams, same league. It's totally different.”

Letang is right, of course. Both teams have undergone massive personnel overhauls, head coaches and general managers included, since the first-round series in 2012.

Letang, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the only Penguins players who appeared in the series still on the roster. For the Flyers, only Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier remain.

The violence level in the game has changed dramatically, too. Six years ago, the Penguins and Flyers combined for 88 fighting majors in the regular season. This year, they combined for 34.

By any objective measure, it was a series played a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Still, though, there's a good reason to bring it up as the Penguins and Flyers prepare to meet again in a first-round series that starts Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The contrast between the combustible Penguins then and the collected Penguins now is a big reason why they come into the series as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and a prohibitive favorite to advance.

The Penguins were a hot mess in 2012. When adversity struck, their composure went out the window.

They lost their discipline defensively, giving up 20 goals in the first three games. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was visibly rattled. They also lost their cool, as Game 3 featured four fighting majors, seven misconducts and a match penalty. Letang pummeled Kimmo Timonen. Crosby fought Giroux.

“It was just a wild series,” Crosby recalled. “We won't see anything like that, I don't think, for a really long time, with the fights and the amount of goals that were scored and the margin of the games. It was just crazy. It's hard to compare, but certainly you can take some lessons from it.”

It might have taken a few years, but the Penguins clearly took lessons from the loss.

Once knocked as emotionally fragile, the Penguins are now lauded for their mental toughness.

Sure, Malkin will occasionally kick up dust with an opposing player or Crosby will every once in a while bark at a ref, but for the most part, they're unflappable.

How did such a stark transformation happen?

“We're all over 30 years old now,” Letang said. “We're all supposed to be mature.”

Letang was joking, but there's truth in his quip. The Penguins handle adversity better because, in general, 30-year-old humans are in better control of their emotions than 24-year-old humans.

There's also the matter of the change in coaches. Immediately after taking the reins in 2015, Mike Sullivan began to repeatedly remind his players of the value of composure. It's one of his core philosophies as a coach.

“I'm a strong believer that if a team is going to maximize its potential and contend for a championship, the first rule of thumb is to become a team that doesn't beat itself,” Sullivan said. “And the easiest way to do that is to lose focus or to lack discipline.”

This year's meeting between the Penguins and Flyers won't be a game of hopscotch. Radko Gudas is a prolific hitter on the Flyers' blue line. Brandon Manning is a tough customer. The Penguins will be challenged physically and mentally at one point or another.

Now, unlike six years ago, they seem equipped to handle it like pros.

“I think our team has shown it over time here that when we play with a certain level of focus and a certain level of discipline and that diligence shift in and shift out,” Sullivan said, “that's when our team's at its very best.”

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.