PREVIEW (1:30 AM)
The 2010 Stanley Cup Final has come to this for the Philadelphia Flyers: Win the next game on home ice and play for the Stanley Cup Final in Chicago on Friday. Lose and feel the bitter sting of disappointment that comes with falling just short of the sport's ultimate prize.
For the Flyers to win Game 6, there are five primary adjustments that need to be made from the last game in Chicago:
1) The club must do a better job of handling the Chicago forecheck and gaining puck possession than it did in the disastrous first period of the last game. In order to do so, they need to be up their skates and initiate the play. They were flat-footed and reactive in the first period of Game 5, and a high-intensity effort from Chicago was too much to handle.
2) The Flyers need some combination of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and/or Chris Pronger to have monster games. It remains to be seen if the badly struggling Carter stays on the top line or gets swapped out (likely for Claude Giroux). The Blackhawks have been able to take the pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook off the Richards line to focus on the Scott Hartnell - Danny Briere - Ville Leino unit. The opportunity is there for the Flyers' top line to step up, and there will never be a more important time to do it.
3) Michael Leighton cannot allow any soft goals. If he plays the way he did in Game 4 or the first 10 minutes of Game 5, the Flyers have a good chance to force a Game 7. If not, it's unlikely that the club can overcome another mediocre outing from Leighton as it did in the overtime victory in Game 3.
4) The Flyers need to execute much better on the powerplay than they did in Game 5. Philly had the special teams edge in the first four games, and need to re-establish that advantage.
5) Hartnell in particular but the team as a whole needs to avoid taking bad penalties. The Hawks finally got their own powerplay on track in Game 5 after near misses in Philly. The Flyers have the personnel to come up with a few pivotal kills, but they can't afford to press their luck.
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Today's
Across the Pond at NHL.com will look at one of the lesser-known back stories to the Final:
Ville Leino and Antti Niemi have played a lot of hockey against one another over the courses of their careers -- they are the same age, emerged as stars in the Finnish league at the same time and were both signed to NHL deals after big years in 2007-08. Leino has often gotten the better of Niemi one-on-one during their careers -- a trend that has continued to the Final. Of course, Niemi would rather lose the battle but have his team win the war, and Leino would gladly do the same over the final two games.
Click
here to link to the article.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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