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Flyers Playoff Gameday: Game 5 vs. Sabres |
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PREVIEW 9:30 AM CDT
History shows that it is likely that the winner of the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup between the Flyers and Sabres will go on to win the series. From a Flyers' standpoint, the team has played well enough to have won all four games played to date but Ryan Miller has had other thoughts, authoring 1-0 shutouts in games 1 and 4.
In both losses in the series, the Flyers have had a few oportunities one-on-one with Miller in close but have failed to generate the types of scoring chances where the goalie has no hope of making the save -- deflections, screens, open shots from slot before the goalie can get set, etc. In the shutout losses, Philly was guilty of over-passing the puck or holding too long trying to find perfect plays that just weren't there. In their two wins, the Flyers got some deflections (Danny Briere), partial screens (Ville Leino), two-on-ones at point blank range (Dan Carcillo, Nikolay Zherdev) and three goals Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter) where the shooter snapped off a shot that simply beat Miller.
After a fairly cleanly played first game, the series has turned progressively nastier. Buffalo has been the more physical club in terms of landing the harder hits, but the Flyers have had the majority of the territorial play to their advantage.
For the Flyers to win two of the next three games and capture the series, they will have to continue doing many of the things they've established over the first four games. Most important, Brian Boucher will have to carry over his strong play of the last two and 2/3 games. The team in front of him will have to keep on backchecking and forcing Buffalo to the perimeter whenever possible.
Apart from the goaltending play of Miller, special teams have nearly been the Flyers' undoing in the series. The Philadelphia power play remains largely AWOL, as it was during the regular season. The PK was leaky at times in the two games Philadelphia won. In Game 4, the Flyers had to kill nearly 10 minutes worth of penalties. They did it successfully, but lost a lot of time off the clock on a night where they were trailing from the first period onward. There has yet to be a SHG in the series.
The Flyers may have Chris Pronger back in the lineup tonight. Jeff Carter (sprained MCL) is officially day-to-day but seems likely to miss the rest of the series. Andreas Nodl (deep cut under his eye) may be able to play tonight.
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A few people have asked me for my opinion about Lindy Ruff and Mike Richards' comments after game 4, and the assertion by Danny Briere and others that the five-minute penalty call against Richards by referee Francois St. Laurent was "personal".
As far as Ruff goes, the Sabres' coach was simply engaging in the type of gamesmanship that goes on every playoff year. Through the years, Ruff has hardly been immune to "whining" about calls he disagrees with, and I specifically remember him complaining about the Flyers crashing the net with alleged impunity in the 2000 series between the teams.
But Ruff is simply sticking up for his team, and you can't blame a coach for that. Anything he can do to take a little heat off his players and transfer it to himself. That way, his players can focus more on playing.
Personally can live without the trash talking. I don't like it when either side does it. It's unprofessional and unbecoming. I think the smarter you are, the easier it is to see right through the various forms of gamesmanship. But it will always be part of the game because sometimes it works to get under the opposition's skin and to get the media talking about nonsense. Just think about how much diversion Chris Pronger's "Puckgate" during the Finals last year caused after the first two games in Chicago.
As for the Flyers' assertions, I'm not aware of a "history" between Richards and St. Laurent where the player and referee have clashed and the referee feels compelled to stick it to the player at every opportunity. I simply think that the referee overreacted to the play by assessing a five-minute major in a situation where Richards was pretty much stationary and was defending himself against an oncoming Patrick Kaleta.
Was the play worth a two-minute minor? Sure. But it was certainly not worthy of a major, especially compared to the Chris Kunitz elbow on Simon Gagne the other night, which drew only a two minute minor (but subsequently earned Kunitz a one-game suspension).
An overblown call did not cost the Flyers the last game. It cost them three minutes of time off the clock in the third period. It was Philadelphia's inability to solve Miller that cost the Flyers a commanding lead -- or even a sweep -- in the series.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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