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Flyers Playoff Gameday: ECSF Game 5 @ Devils

May 8, 2012, 6:48 AM ET [1694 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW 6:30 AM EDT

It has come to this for the Philadelphia Flyers: win three straight elimination games against the tenacious New Jersey Devils or go home. The team cannot undo the damage of Games 2-4 in a single night, but it is capable of sending this series back to Newark on Thursday. Tonight's game starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast nationally in the U.S. on NBCSN and across Canada on CBC.

One of the strangest things about the Flyers' playoff to date has been the bizarre "curse of scoring first". The Flyers are 4-0 in the playoffs when yielding the first goal and just 1-5 when leading first. The law of averages, however, suggests that the Flyers would be better off playing from ahead tonight.

If the Flyers are to prolong the series, they will have to do it without the services their best best player. The NHL gave Claude Giroux a one-game suspension for his head check on Dainius Zubrus in Sunday's game. It us a tough break for the Flyers to have to play an elimination game without their top player but the suspension ruling was justifed.

Apart from dealing with the absence of Giroux tonight, the Flyers are going to have to come up with some answers for creating scoring opportunities and handling the New Jersey forecheck. They have had all series to adjust, and they have not done so yet on any sort of sustained basis.

PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)

FLYERS

Hartnell - Briere - Voracek
JVR - Schenn - Simmonds
Rinaldo - Read - Jagr
Talbot - Couturier - Wellwood

Carle - Timonen
Grossmann - Coburn
Lilja - Gustafsson

Bryzgalov
[Bobrovsky]


DEVILS

Ponikarovsky - Zajac - Kovalchuk
Parise - Elias - Clarkson
Sykora - Henrique - Zubrus
Carter - Gionta - Bernier

Larsson - Volchenkov
Zidlicky - Salvador
Greene - Fayne

Brodeur
[Hedberg]

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I have two articles at the Camden Courier Post today. The first one looks at the anomaly of the team scoring first losing nine of the 10 games in the Flyers' playoff run to date. The second one looks at former Flyer Dainius Zubrus.

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