MINI-PREVIEW 7:45 AM EDT
One night after getting blanked on 43 shots by Chris Mason and the Atlanta Thrashers, the Flyers (46-21-10) will head to Newark to take on the New Jersey Devils (35-36-5). This will be the sixth and final meeting of the regular season series between the clubs. The clubs have not played since Jan. 22, when the Devils defeated Philly by a 3-1 count.
Since that time, New Jersey went on a torrid run after their dismal first half, but have cooled off of late, going 5-4-1 in their last 10 and have seen their faint playoff hopes fade away. Overall, the Flyers are 3-1-1 in the season series with New Jersey, but none of the games have been easy ones.
Last night, the Flyers had all kinds of early opportunities to jump on Atlanta, including a 2-on-1 rush, a power play (the first of six unsuccessful ones) and a point blank scoring chance for Danny Briere in the opening few minutes. They failed to capitalize, letting the Thrashers hang around all night and taking too many penalties of their own. Finally, Nik Antropov crashed the net and got rewarded with the game's only goal. The Flyers buckled down in the waning minutes but were unable to get a puck past Mason.
Despite the Flyers' regulation loss last night, they reduced their magic number to clinch the Atlantic Division to 4 points because the Penguins lost 2-1 in regulation to Tampa Bay last night. However, the Washington Capitals once again pulled within a single point of the Flyers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference by virtue of their OT win last night.
After tonight, the Flyers return home. They will play their third game in four days when they take on the Rangers in a Sunday matinee at the Wells Fargo Center.
PROJECTED LINEUP (subject to change, will post Devils later)
FLYERS
JVR - Richards - Versteeg
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
Nodl - Giroux - Carter
Carcillo - Betts - Powe
Coburn - Timonen
Carle - Meszaros
O'Donnell - Boynton
Bobrovsky/Boucher
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I am not going to be an alarmist about the reported "minor setback" suffered by Chris Pronger in his recovery from hand surgery that will keep him out for the rest of the regular season. Unless Pronger rebroke the bone in his hand, there is no reason why he should miss significant (if any) playoff time.
Flyers GM Paul Holmgren insisted that "nothing really" has happened to Pronger other than feeling the effects of shooting pucks a little too soon after the surgery and that the "doctors seem confident that he will OK" by the start of the playoffs.
You can never fully trust NHL teams' injury reports, especially this time of year. The Flyers in particular have a history of downplaying injuries that turn out to be more serious than initially let on to the press and public. Therefore, you have to take Homer's report on Pronger with a grain of salt. But the GM's explanation seems logical in this case.
With or without Pronger, the Flyers should be able to win two more games and clinch the Atlantic Division. Right now, I am not as concerned about being the number one seed as opposed to the second seed (in the event that Washington surpasses the Flyers to win the regular season Eastern Conference title). However, I would be very concerned about slipping to a four seed and playing Tampa Bay in the first round.
Regardless of the first round opponent the Flyers play, the biggest order of business right now is getting their own house in order.
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How important is it for a contending team to close out the regular season on a roll? I decided to put that to the test on today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com.
I looked at the teams that reached the Stanley Cup Final in each season since the end of the lockout. Of the 10 teams (I counted the 2007-08 and 2008-09 Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins separately for each season), five had winning records over their final dozen regular season games, two had losing records and three teams were at .500 if you categorize OT/SO defeats as losses.
Almost all of the eventual finalists had losses to non-playoff teams -- quite often in ugly fashion -- among their final 12 games.
Last season's Flyers had the worst stretch run of any of the participants in the last five Cup Finals (and probably longer than that), going 4-7-1. On the flip side, the team that had the best stretch drive of any NHL team since the end of the lockout (the 2005-06 Devils, who won their last 11 games of the regular season) ended up going out in five games in the second round of the playoffs.
In other words, folks, the playoffs really are a whole new season. Of course it's preferable to get hot down the stretch but, in the grand scheme of things, it's not the be-all and end-all of how a team is about to fare in the postseason.
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The next-to-last article in my 15th Anniversary series on the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center is now online at the Flyers' official Web site. In this edition, we relive the Flyers' memorable run in the 2004 playoffs.
Click
here to revisit the so-called "Primeau Playoffs."
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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