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Flyers Playoff Gameday: Game 1 vs Sabres |
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PREVIEW 10 AM EDT
The second-seeded Flyers begin their quest to return to the Stanley Cup Final when they take on the seventh-ranked Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Wells Fargo Center in the first game of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Tonight we will start to find out if the Flyers' offseason efforts to upgrade the defense will pay postseason dividends and whether rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is ready to handle the rigors of playoff hockey -- a whole different animal than the regular season.
Once the playoffs start, you can throw out the regular season series. The playoffs are all about preparation, matchups, attrition, depth and adjustments. Psychologically, it's important for the Flyers to put their poor stretch run -- and late-season struggles at home -- behind them by getting the jump on Buffalo.
If the Flyers are not careful, this series has the potential to play out similar to the Flyers' first-round losses to the Sabres in 1998, 2001 and 2006 -- all of which started out with the Flyers losing one-goal games (one in OT). Alternatively, if the Flyers can grind out a game one victory against Buffalo through their on-paper depth advantage, they can start to re-establish the approach that led to so much success last spring and in the first half of this season.
For the Flyers the keys to victory tonight and throughout the series are as follows:
1) Be hungrier for the puck, keep the game simple and render Ryan Miller a non-factor by scoring dirty-but-good goals. That will open up the finesse game later on.
2) Put the regular season power play struggles in the rear-view mirror. A huge key to the Flyers' playoff success last year was their 21.9 percent success rate on the power play. You can't always win games at even strength, especially in playoffs. At the very least, the Flyers need to generate good puck movement on the man advantage (even if they don't score) and avoid hurting their own momentum.
3) Sergei Bobrovsky needs to make Buffalo earn their goals -- a single soft goal can be a momentum changer. (We saw this in the Detroit-Phoenix game last night when a bad goal allowed by Ilya Bryzgalov gave Detroit a 2-1 lead and opened the floodgates for the Red Wings to take over the rest of the game.) Bobrovsky is also going to have to make some clutch saves on difficult but potentially stoppable chances. That's what Stanley Cup goaltending is all about, and it's virtually certain that Ryan Miller will make those saves.
4) Match the Sabres work ethic. On a game-in and game-out basis over the last three months, Lindy Ruff's team has been a harder working and more cohesive squad than Philadelphia. The Flyers need to do a much better job than they have in recent months of keeping their feet moving, establishing a forecheck and getting clean breakouts of the defensive zone. If it looks like there are two Sabres to every Flyer around the puck and Flyers players are constantly passing to no one in particular, it's because the Sabres are outworking them.
5) Walk the line between aggressiveness and recklessness. Players such as Scott Hartnell, Darrol Powe and Dan Carcillo need to push the envelope with their physical game but they can't afford to take costly penalties, especially in the offensive zone. Meanwhile, Danny Briere in particular needs to be smart about avoiding silly stick infractions (slashing, high sticking, etc).
It looks like Chris Pronger won't play tonight, but you never know. I'll post lineups later today when I get to the arena.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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