Let the worrying begin
Flyers lose Game 1
Let the worrying begin
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
With that, the worrying commences.
You are the favored team, you lose the first game, you lose it at home, and you then deal with the nervousness that rains down all around you. That is suddenly the Flyers’ predicament after their 1-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
They played well enough to win, but they didn’t. The Sabres were stable and persistent and they blocked about a thousand shots. The Flyers were physical and they sometimes were dynamic, but they couldn’t solve the goaltender (a song that people who follow this franchise have sung before).
The only goal of the game went down like this: a point shot by the Sabres’ Marc-Andre Gragnani, a save by the Flyers’ Sergei Bobrovsky, a rebound, and Patrick Kaleta sneaking between defenseman Danny Syvret and Matt Carle and scoring into the open net. It was 5:56 of the third period and the Wells Fargo Center was silent and that was that.
The Flyers had the better of the play for the first two periods -- not by a lot, but an advantage nonetheless. Whoever was worried about switches needing to be flipped after a lackluster last few weeks of the regular season need not have been concerned. A Flyers team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final last season, a team that knew when everybody would really start keeping score, arrived on time for Game 1.
That isn’t to say that they dominated, because they didn’t. Then again, nobody really expected them to dominate a Buffalo team that was uber-hot at the end of the season, a team with an elite goaltender named Ryan Miller. But the Flyers played physically and well. They just didn’t finish.
Through two periods, the Flyers were outshooting the Sabres by 26-19 and that was a pretty fair approximation of what went on. In the middle of the second period, the Flyers had their best stretch -- beginning with a two-man advantage that lasted 38 seconds and continuing on for the rest of the final penalty. A flurry of chances in front of Miller were swallowed up by either the goaltender or the scurrying traffic. And then, later in the period, Jeff Carter was denied twice.
James Van Riemsdyk played a great, involved game. Mike Richards, recovering from what has been reported to be a head cold, was engaged throughout. Claude Giroux, playing with Carter and JVR, was doing his best to create the kind of magic which has become to define his game.
There was all of that.
But the Flyers couldn’t finish.
Great game for the Flyers and definitely a big turn around from the last month. However, I would have liked to see at least one slip past Miller. Game 2 will tell the story of how this series plays out. I have no doubt if the Flyers keep playing like this we'll win the series but the forwards gotta find a way to put the puck in the net. I'm tired of hearing about how we got beat by a hot goalie. Nobody else in this league seems to have this problem. Failure to take advantage of the PP killed us...again.— Kanayd- Good one 32maniac. For someone sooooo smart about hockey I'll let you in on a secret. THEY DON'T PLAY TOMORROW. Nice try. I assume the rest of the fans up in that neck of the woods are morons too. But keep pretending. And do come back here when the Flyers are moving to the second round. Don't be a Buffalo wimp.— LuckyDog
- Please get 'no-goal Nodl' out of the lineup and put in Zherdev— kadhia
- Anyone who has watched this team over the last month really has no reason to be surprised by this result. Whatever the reason, be it Pronger and/or Shelley, they've lacked "it" the past month.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't be disappointed, because any fan should be. But disappointed, not surprised.
Let's go Flyers in Game 2!— evolutionary 
Comment removed.- the first two periods looked really good, but the Flyers came out in the third with noticably less energy than the Sabres. Bob was good, but he didn't really get any challenging shots, except for the one that went through.— stonelamb
- Welcome to Buffalo Sabres hockey since Jan 1st.... Go Buffalo!— Newsreader55
- My only gripe with Lavy all season, and if he doesn't change this now the Flyers are in trouble with or without Pronger, is his treatment of Zherdev. FACT: Zherdev 16G, +5 in 56 gms. FACT: Carcillo 4G, -14 in 57 gms. Keep the Carbomb in the parking lot where it belongs... Flyers in 6.— Brian F.
- Power play? Get to the video room PRONTO!— NYPHILLYPHAN
- Flyers in 5, see you Saturday. And to all those baseball fans out there blogging on the Flyers site, go get another hot dog!— Fabulous
- here's one they haven't tried: Versteeg out, Zherdev in.— stonelamb
- is anyone surprised?— Old German
- It's obvious by now that Pronger's hand isn't keeping him out of the lineup. It's a lot more than that. Unless his hand was practically decapitated, he should've been out on the ice 2 weeks ago. Why won't someone in the media press the coach or GM as to the REAL reason he's doing one hell of a Peter Forsberg imitation (as in maybe his foot has been busted up again?).— PHJR2010
- Saying the Flyers played better is like saying my diarrhea was much more enjoyable tonight.— AreaMan
