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Meltzer's Musings: 3/25/12

March 25, 2012, 12:45 AM ET [322 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Last night's Flyers-Montreal game was one of those matches where the stat sheet only tells part of the story. Ilya Bryzgalov may not have seen many shots until the third period of the game, but the ones he did face were often real testers.

The Flyers had their share of sloppy moments with the puck before settling in defensively for the rest of the game. However, as is plainly evident by even a cursory glance at the scoresheet, special teams were the single biggest factor in the outcome.

Philly's previously struggling power play ripped the Canadiens' penalty kill (which entered the game ranked first in the NHL) for three tallies. Meanwhile, the Flyers' penalty kill continued its hot run, killing off all five Montreal advantages, including an 81-second 5-on-3 power play in the third period.

In the short term, the biggest outcome from the Flyers' 4-1 victory was Philadelphia clinching a playoff spot with two weeks remaining in the regular season. But that was only a matter of time. What's more important is that the Flyers need to keep winning now in order for their games at the end of the season to mean potentially gaining home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs or even capturing the top seed in the East (still unlikely but possible).

Danny Briere finally got rewarded for the numerous scoring chances that have been coming his way of late -- his two-goal effort could be the start of his usual springtime hot streak. Philly also got goals from Kimmo Timonen (PPG) and Matt Read.

Bryzgalov became the first Flyers goalie since Bernie Parent (12/8/74 to 1/4/75) to yield 2 or fewer goals in 11 consecutive games. For the month of March, Bryz now sports a 10-1-1 record, 1.22 goals against average and .936 save percentage.

Here is my game report for NHL.com last night.

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Last night's game was Fan Appreciation Night at the Wells Fargo Center. The crowd showed some gratitude of its own when Chris Pronger was shown on the big screen, sitting next to Ed Snider. Even some of the Montreal players on the ice tapped their sticks on the ice in appreciation of the future Hall of Fame defenseman.

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I have written a profile article on Flyers' defenseman Nicklas Grossmann for the team's official Web site. The article should be posted either later today or on Tuesday. As soon as it goes live, I will post the link here as well as on Twitter.

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Before last night's game, I had the opportunity to talk hockey and enjoy the tailgate party held by a group of longtime HockeyBuzz readers. That's one of the definite fringe benefits of this job -- getting to know some great folks who are fellow hockey nuts.

Last night's game also marked the long-awaiting meeting of Tim Panaccio with "Fake Tim" of Twitter infamy. Although I did not initially know the identity of Fake Tim, I was let in on the secret last spring: Fake Tim is a former co-worker of mine from my years as an editor at Progressive Business Publications.

Fake Panotch is Sara Etter, better known to many on the HB message boards as SaraBriere. The real Panotch was a good sport about the whole thing.

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