Game Preview: Flyers vs. Devils

 

PHI: 7-4 (2nd in Atlantic)
NJ: 4-5 (4th in Atlantic)
Where: Wells Fargo Center
When: Thursday, 7 p.m. on CSN
Last time met: April 1, 2011 – New Jersey Devils forward Patrick Elias recorded a hat trick in a 4-2 victory over the Flyers. Nick Palmieri added another goal for the Devils. Jeff Carter and James van Riemsdyk scored goals for the Flyers. Brian Boucher stopped 20 of 24 shots.

Probable Goalies – Sergei Bobrovsky (2-0-0, 3.74 GAA) vs. Johan Hedberg (4-3-1, 2.28 GAA)

Opposing player to watch – LW Patrick Elias: Simply put, Elias is a Flyers killer. In 71 career games, he has 32 goals and 38 assists. The small, shifty forward still has speed and can still score with the best of them. While he’s not the 40-goal scorer that he used to be, he’s someone who the Flyers definitely have to keep an eye on. The Devils have plenty of offensive talent with Elias and Ilya Kovalchuk.

Flyers spoil Boosh’s Philly return

There were questions surrounding the goaltending and defense coming into tonight’s game.

Luckily Ilya Bryzgalov and the rest of the Flyers looked to be out of the woods as they routed the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1.

Claude Giroux led the Flyers with a goal and three assists. It was his second career four-point game.

The Flyers took the early 1-0 lead on a nice goal by Scott Hartnell. The tally came off a beautiful spinning pass from Giroux to find Hartnell.

Hartnell has nine points in his last four games.

The Hurricanes did answer back towards the end of the second period with a goal from Jussi Jokinen.

But the Orange & Black took over in the third period. Jagr scored two goals in the period while Giroux and Max Talbot also lit the lamp.

Former Flyer netminder Brian Boucher was on the wrong end of the score sheet as he allowed all five goals on 34 shots.

Bryzgalov played very well in net tonight. He stopped 24 of 25 shots in a winning effort.

He looked to be very confident in net and was on top of his game. A good game against a solid team like the Hurricanes may have righted Bryzgalov’s ship.

The line of Jagr, Giroux, and Hartnell was also a big reason for the win. They combined for nine points on the night and have played incredibly well as of late.

The Flyers have a few days off before they’re back on the ice. They skate with the Buffalo Sabres on the road at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Game Preview: Flyers vs. Hurricanes

PHI: 5-4-1 (2nd in Atlantic)
CAR: 4-3-3 (2nd in Southeast)
Where: Wells Fargo Center
When: Sat., 7:00 on CSN
Last time met: February 18, 2011 – The Hurricanes beat the Flyers 3-2 in regulation. Carolina dominated the first period with two goals from Chad LaRose and Jeff Skinner. Blair Betts scored in the second period while Braydon Coburn added the Flyers second and last goal during the third period. Erik Cole also scored in the third period for the Hurricanes. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 29 shots.

Probable Goalies – Ilya Bryzgolav (3-4-1, 3.45 GAA) vs. Brian Boucher (0-1-1, 4.46 GAA)

Opposing player to watch – C Jeff Skinner: The Hurricanes leader in goals, assists and points will not doubt be on his game tonight against the Flyers. Skinner has showcased his talent during the first 10 games of the season with four goals, six assists and 10 points. Skinner is one of the most exciting young players in the NHL and even won last year’s Calder Trophy. Despite being 19, he is considered one of the leaders on the team. The Flyers will have to contain the combination of Skinner and Eric Staal if they want to win tonight.

Note — Center Danny Briere will not play in tonight’s game against the Hurricanes. He is reportedly out with an upper body injury.

Game Preview: Flyers vs. Maple Leafs

PHI: 4-2-1 (2nd in Atlantic)
TOR: 5-1-1 (1st in Northeast)
Where: Wells Fargo Center
When: Monday, 7:00 PM on CSN
Last time met: March 10, 2011 – The Flyers beat the Maple Leafs 3-2 in regulation. The Flyers had goals from Andrej Meszaros, Darroll Powe and Claude Giroux. Mikhail Grabovski and Joffery Lupul had the two goals for the Maple Leafs. Brian Boucher was in net for the Flyers and stopped 27 of 29 shots.

Probable Goalies – Sergei Bobrovsky (1-0-0, 2.01 GAA) vs. Jonas Gustavsson (1-1-0, 5.35 GAA)

Opposing player to watch – RW Phil Kessel:  The Maple Leafs are off to a hot start and Kessel is the primary reason. Kessel leads the Maple Leafs with eight goals, six assists and 14 points going into tonight’s game against the Flyers. Not only is he the team’s leading goal scorer and leader in points, but he is ranked first in the league in both categories. Kessel was one of the bright spots on a bad team last year and had an all-star caliber season. The Flyers will have to try to keep Kessel away from in front of the net and cut down on his scoring opportunities if they want to skate away with a win.

Flyers Fall In OT

JVR has been above and beyond the Flyers' best player this posteason. He's turning into an elite player. (Photo by: AP)

The Flyers got the scoring started off as Nikolay Zherdev played the puck ahead to Claude Giroux who fed van Riemsdyk for the easy goal to beat Tim Thomas.

I found it ironic that the first goal was from an American after the events that unfolded on Sunday evening.

About nine minutes later, van Riemsdyk struck again off traffic in front where he backhanded the puck past Thomas on a rebound to give the Flyers an early 2-0 lead.

The Flyers played very well in the first ten minutes of the contest and looked to be thriving in every facet of the game. But then the Bruins woke up.

Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand scored just 1:25 apart to tie up the game. The Kelly goal was made possible by tremendous traffic in front of Boucher.

Marchand’s goal came as a result of the Flyers being unable to clear the zone. Marchand stepped up in the slot and buried a wrister past Boucher to tie the game.

In the second half of the second period, Boucher hurt his hand and was taken out for the game. Sergei Bobrovsky came in and held the fort for the Flyers, making brilliant saves.

Miracliously Boucher was right back out there for the third period and looked very good. He made some tremendous saves down the stretch to keep the game tied.

The Flyers outshot the Bruins 32-12 during the third period and overtime. Tim Thomas stood on his head last night and made save after save.

Thomas stoned Danny Briere on a breakaway attempt about five minutes into the third period.

Boucher was equally good as he robbed Nathan Horton in front on a pass from Milan Lucic with five minutes to go in the third. It was perhaps his best save of the evening.

But with six minutes left in overtime, David Krejci buried a one-timer past Boucher to send the Bruins back to Boston with a 2-0 series lead.

It was a heartbreaking game for Flyers fans as they saw van Riemsdyk play his heart out. He led the Flyers attack as he netted both goals and logged 23:07 in total ice-time.

The Flyers played very well but just couldn’t get the puck past Thomas through three-and-a-half periods. The blueprint should remain the same going into Game 3.

They need to get more traffic in front of Thomas and make him uncomfortable. They had many opportunities last night to score, but Thomas just was outstanding.

There’s no reason to panic. The Flyers need to continue to take this one game at a time.

2010 taught us that a series is never over until you’ve lost four games.

Boucher To Start Game 2

Despite giving up five goals in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Boston Bruins, Flyers’ goaltender Brian Boucher will start Game 2 tonight. Boucher played about two full periods before being pulled for Sergei Bobrovsky. This shows that Peter Laviolette is committed to Boucher and thinks he will bounce back.

I think it’s the right call to go with Boucher. Aside from two games, he has been spectacular. In the four games that the Flyers have won this postseason, he has given up a total of six goals. This shows that he just had a bad outing and will be looking for redemption. He has the veteran experience to get the job done and has proved it all season long. I think that Boucher has a great game tonight and gives the Flyers a very good chance to win.

Notes: Chris Pronger’s status is questionable for tonight’s contest but he is expected to play. Pronger didn’t take part in the morning skate and Laviolette wouldn’t comment on the status of the Flyers’ star defenseman.

While this doesn’t have anything to do with hockey, I found it very interesting. As everyone is well aware, Osama bin Laden was killed over the weekend.  This quote from James van Riemsdyk  is very strong and shows how people feel about bin Laden being brought to justice.

“One of my good friends’ dad passed away that day. It was a sad day and a lot of good people died that day,” said van Riemsdyk. “To see (Bin Laden) finally brought to justice makes you proud to be an American.”

Game 1 Thoughts

Bruins' forward Brad Marchand reacts after scoring a goal during the third period of Saturday's playoff game. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Game 1 produced some results that certainly aren’t popular with Flyers fans. The Flyers were dominated in a 7-3 loss to the Boston Bruins. I highlighted a few key elements that contributed to the loss and some things to look out for moving forward.

LACK OF URGENCY —

While I was at the game, I noticed on several different shifts that players weren’t skating hard. One in particular was Mike Richards.

With the Flyers down multiple goals in the second period, I saw a lack of effort from Richards. It may be harsh to criticize the Flyers’ captain since he scored a third period goal that cut the deficit to 5-3 and had the Flyers believing again.

But it’s not just this game. Richards hasn’t played well throughout the majority of the second half of the season and definitely in the postseason.

His goal today was his first tally of the playoffs. While he does have five assists in the playoffs, he just isn’t stepping up and contributing to the team the way you would expect from a captain.

In the Buffalo series when things got tough, who got up in the locker room and made a speech to the team? Well that certainly wasn’t Richards.

It was none other than Danny Briere who is, once again, having a tremendous postseason.

I’d just like to see Richards give it his all and be a leader for this team. I know he has the potential to be great and I just want him to be all he can.

BAD DEFENSE —

Brian Boucher got the start in net today and didn’t play his best. But the loss can’t solely be placed on Boucher’s shoulders.

The defense wasn’t very good at all.

The Flyers allowed the Bruins to skate right into the slot and take control of the play. They weren’t clearing pucks and gave the Bruins second opportunities.

They were also allowing pucks to get through from the point and weren’t blocking many shots.

David Krejci and Brad Marchand looked like All-Stars out there today. They found ways to get to the net and make things happen for the Bruins.

This Flyers defensive unit has Chris Pronger back now and should be playing better than this. Some Flyers fans in my section were calling out Kimmo Timonen for playing soft and not making an impact.

That type of talk is absolutely 100% wrong. Timonen was one of the few Flyers that blocked a few shots and gave an honest effort.

Timonen has been steady all year and continued on that pace in the postseason.

BOB OR BOOSH —

Now that Brian Boucher was pulled after giving up four goals, the question could pop back up again. Which goalie starts Game 2 on Monday?

Bob played well for the most part but let in a few soft goals just as Boucher did.

I think Peter Laviolette will and should go back to Boucher. While he wasn’t good by any means today, the defense didn’t help him out.

He has also earned another chance after how well he has played overall in the playoffs so far this year. Boucher has shown constant professionalism after dealing with the goalie controversy all year.

With a sound defensive performance, I think everyone believes in Boucher again. He has the ability to be very good and he showed that in the Sabres series.