Goaltender Martin Gerber was, at least at times, Ottawa's best player, but that wasn't enough to keep the Penguins from sweeping the Senators in the first round of the playoffs.

The Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist, a more established goaltender, looked human at times, invincible at others, but New York still succumbed to the Penguins in five games in the second round.

Now the Penguins face Martin Biron, who is 8-4 with a 2.72 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage through two series after never appearing in an NHL playoff game before this spring.

"It was new ground for Marty," Flyers coach John Stevens said yesterday. "Nobody really knew what to expect. We all had confidence in Marty, but the fact that he had never been in the playoffs was a little bit of an unknown for him and for us.

"He's really settled right in. It seems like he's really thrived in the atmosphere."

Philadelphia sent a second-round draft pick to Buffalo for Biron in February 2007, an early move in general manager Paul Holmgren's reshaping of the club.

All time against the Penguins, Biron, 30, is 11-12-1 with three ties, a 2.78 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage.

Penguins center Max Talbot did not practice with the team at Mellon Arena as he had hoped to do.

He skated earlier and said it went well, although there is no new timetable for his return. He missed the final two games of the second-round series with the New York Rangers and is considered day-to-day with a broken foot.

During the Rangers' series, one of the hot topics was whether Penguins center Sidney Crosby took dives, embellished or got special treatment from referees. They said he did; he said he didn't.

This time, the Flyers are looking at whether Crosby runs his mouth too much -- except Philadelphia is putting in the past tense now that Crosby has played three seasons.

"You see him and how mature he is getting," center Mike Richards told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "[His] first year there [was] criticism of how he handled himself on the ice. As the second year went on, he got better. Now, he handles himself real well on the ice. He respects everyone. He gets along with the referees."

Richards said Crosby has matured since, as a rookie, he talked back to then-Flyers center Peter Forsberg.

"As a young player, you have no respect from other players because you haven't earned it yet," Richards said. "I don't think a rookie should be chirping at seasoned veterans."

Crosby, who strongly defended himself against the Rangers' allegations, wanted no part of the chirping topic.

"I'm not going to sit here and talk about my rookie season," he said.

There could be a good argument about who is the Penguins' next-best player after Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Perhaps it's goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Or center Jordan Staal. Or defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

Stevens has his choice.

"Their top three players are probably unlike anybody else with Crosby, Malkin and [winger Marian] Hossa," the Flyers' coach said. "They're almost in a class by themselves."

Stevens was talking in the context of how beating Montreal in the previous round helped to prepare Philadelphia to play the Penguins. The Flyers faced a couple strong Canadiens offensive players.

"I think [Alex] Kovalev's a great player and [Saku] Koivu's a great player," he said. "It might even go up from there when you go to Malkin, Crosby and Hossa."

Crosby and Richards, whose lines likely will be matched against each other, played on two World Junior Championship and one World Championship teams together for Canada. ... After having a day off Monday and easing back into things with a four-on-four scrimmage Tuesday, the Penguins had a more typical practice yesterday, including conditioning drills at the end. ... The team is calling for another whiteout at Game 1 tomorrow night.