Archive: April, 2010
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Flyers took a three-games-to-one-lead over the New Jersey Devils in their Eastern Conference quarterfinals Tuesday, but they may have lost the services of gifted left winger Simon Gagne.
Gagne blocked Brian Rolston’s second-period shot and suffered what is believed to be a broken toe.
A decision will be made Wednesday on whether he can play Thursday in New Jersey. If not, Ville Leino figures to see his first action of the series.
“Simon’s a big player on our team, but somebody is going to have to step up if he can’t play,” Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said.
Gagne has no goals and two assists in the series, but has twice rattled shots off the post or crossbar. He has been one of the Flyers’ best offensive players, swarming the net but repeatedly getting turned aside by Martin Brodeur, who made the series’ best save when he robbed Gagne from the slot in Tuesday’s second period.
Brodeur was lying on his side when he threw up his glove and somehow made a glove save, preserving a 1-0 New Jersey lead with 15½ minutes left in the second.
Jeff Carter, who broke out of a scoring slump with a pair of goals, was awestruck by Brodeur’s save.
“It was something to see. I’ve never seen a save like that,” said Carter after scoring for the first time in six games since returning from a broken foot. “But we’ve been resilient all year. Been through the ups and downs. Bad breaks and good breaks, and good teams kind of keep on rolling. That’s what you have to do if you want to win games in the playoffs.”
Carter limped around the lcoker room after the game but said, "It's nothing." He will be re-examined on Wednesday.
Danny Briere, another player who had not scored in the series before Tuesday, beat Brodeur with a tracer from above the right circle to put the Flyers ahead for good, 2-1, with 2:33 remaining in the second.
Briere took a pass from defenseman Braydon Coburn and fired a shot that went over Brodeur’s glove for the 24th playoff goal of his career. The shot appeared to deflect off the stick of defenseman Paul Martin, who was a few feet in front of Briere
The line of Carter, Briere and Scott Hartnell combined for six points and 12 hits, helping to send the Devils into a three-games-to-one hole.
“There’s no pill for this,” Devils coach Jacques Lemaire said. “I think we have to be more consistent in our work. We lost discipline in the second half of the third period, which we started to take penalties. Before that, I thought we were fine most of the time. We’ve got to score more goals.”
Lemaire was frustrated by the Flyers’ 25 blocked shots _ 12 more than the Devils. Defenseman Chris Pronger, who had two assists and played a game-high 27:58, led the way with five blocks.
“You always see that go up in the playoffs, and the further you go into the playoffs, the more that number goes up,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said of the blocked shots. “They've got a shooting power play. It sets up high and has a bell of three or four guys, and they all can pound the puck. I thought our penalty killers did a great job of getting in the lanes.”
New Jersey was 1 for 8 on the power play, while the Flyers were 2 for 8. In the series, New Jersey is 4 for 24 (16.7 percent) on the power play, compared to the Flyers’ 6 for 23 (26.1 percent).
Breakaways. The Flyers had 33 hits _ 12 more than New Jersey. Dan Carcillo, who scored another goal, and Arron Asham each hit six hits for the Flyers……New Jersey won 59 percent of the faceoffs…..Brian Boucher made 30 saves, while Brodeur made 24….In even-strength situations, the Flyers outscored the Devils, 2-0. New Jersey has just four even-strength goals in the series _ two fewer than the Flyers.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The most surprising thing about the Flyers’ wildly entertaining 3-2 overtime victory over New Jersey Sunday wasn’t that Dan Carcillo scored the winning goal.
It was that the host Flyers _ the team that needed to overcome great odds just to sneak into the playoffs _ dominated long stretches of the game, especially in the third period and the overtime.
“I thought five-on-five, we did a lot of great things tonight,” center Mike Richards said.
He was right. The Flyers outscored the Devils, 2-0, in even-strength situations.
Remember, this is a New Jersey team that won the Atlantic Division and finished as the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed.
The Flyers needed to win a shoot-out in the season finale against the Rangers to get into the playoffs. They did just that, and if you have your hand raised that you thought Brian Boucher would outduel standout Henrik Lundqvist to win that shootout, well, you don’t have much company.
Not only did they win that shootout because Boucher stopped one more shot than Lundqvist and because young sniper Claude Giroux adroitly put the game-winner through the goalie’s legs, but they got the seventh seed.
That gave them a favorable matchup. After all, the Flyers won five of six from New Jersey in the regular season.
Still, no one could have expected the Flyers to shut down Ilya Kovalchuk (one-empty net goal in three games, no shots on Sunday) and to take a two-games-to-one lead without getting a goal from Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne or Briere.
On Sunday, the Flyers shut down Kovalchuk and Zach Parise.
“We tried to take away their time and space as much as possible a,” defenseman Chris Pronger said. “Our forwards did a great job of rerouting them back through the middle and forcing them to dump a lot of pucks that maybe they didn’t want to. Really, it’s trying to deny those guys the pucks and not allowing them access to the front of the net, where they score a lot of goals.”
The Flyers are leading the series because their defense, anchored by Pronger and the underrated Kimmo Timonen, has been superb, because Mike Richards and Claude Giroux have stepped up their games, because Brian Boucher has been steady and made the big saves when called upon.
They’re also leading because their role players _ guys like Darroll Powe (excellent on Sunday), Blair Betts, Ian Laperriere and Carcillo _ have made timely contributions. (“We feed off his energy,” Richards said of Carcillo. “He was all over the place tonight, making some big hits, making some big plays.”)
Expect New Jersey to play a more desperate game on Tuesday. If they lose and fall into a 3-1 hole, they are just about cooked. New Jersey coach Jacques Lemaire hinted he may juggle his lines to get Kovalchuk untracked.
Even if he does alter his lines, it may not matter _ not if the Timonen-Braydon Coburn pairing and the Pronger-Matt Carle unit play like they did on Sunday.
The winner of Tuesday’s game, it says here, will win take the series.
Boucher expects the Devils to block out Sunday’s disheartening loss.
“In the playoffs, you have to have short-term memory,” he said. “This game is over with, and now the focus is on Game 4. Those guys are professionals over there. They have probably the best goalie in the league (Martin Brodeur) and he’s been through it all. He’ll forget about it and it’ll be a new game in Game 4.”
Maybe. But the Devils, having lost seven of nine games against the Flyers this season, have to be filled with doubt. Big-time doubt.
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Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
NEWARK, N.J. _ Despite dropping a 5-3 decision to New Jersey in Game 2 Friday _ and missing a chance to take a firm grip of this intense, fascinating playoff series _ the Flyers aren’t in such a bad position.
In a lot of areas, they actually played better Friday than they did in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over the Devils.
The Flyers had much more attack time than in Game 1, got brilliant play from their third line, and played with a tenacity that is needed to win in the post-season.
Oh, and they received a very strong performance from goalie Brian Boucher. Yes, one of the goals was a softy, but Boucher could not be faulted for any of their other four, including an empty-netter (duh). And he made several huge saves that kept the Flyers tied until the waning minutes.
The Flyers need more production from Jeff Carter. The center deserves credit for returning to action after recovering from a broken foot, but he hasn’t scored in the first two games of the series _ he did have five shots in Game 2 _ and he was minus-three on Friday.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
NEWARK, N.J. _ Defenseman Ryan "Bernie" Parent will be in the Flyers' lineup Friday in Game 2 against the New Jersey Devils.
Coach Peter Laviolette wouldn't confirm it, but it appears Lukas Krajicek will not play Friday.
Parent was a healthy scratch in Game 1, which the Flyers won, 2-1.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
NEWARK, N.J. _ Maybe you CAN go back to the future.
Goalie Brian Boucher did on Wednesday night, outplaying the great Martin Brodeur, 2-1, as the Flyers jolted the New Jersey Devils in the teams’ playoff opener.
Boosh, as he is affectionately known, played like it was 1999-00 all over again. That was his rookie season and the year he looked like the second coming of Bernie Parent.
Remember?
Boucher had a 20-10-3 record, a 1.91 goals-against average and .918 save percentage that season.
As it turned out, he would never win more games, never have a full-season goals-against average or save percentage that was better.
His career took a nosedive and he became The Journeyman Goalie, with stops in Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, San Jose and numerous minor-league outposts.
But maybe, just maybe, the career backup is writing one of the most remarkable stories in Flyers history.
About 2½ weeks ago, Boucher was, in effect, fourth in the Flyers’ pecking order of goalies.
Two goalies in front of him _ Ray Emery and Michael Leighton _ were injured, and Boucher was struggling so mightily that Johan Backlund was given his first NHL assignment, getting a key start against host Pittsburgh on March 27.
If Backlund performed well in that game, there was a good chance he would have been the Flyers’ main goalie down the stretch.
As it turned out, Backlund re-aggravated a groin injury in that game, so the Flyers went back to Boucher.
By default.
The 33-year-old Rhode Island native took the opportunity and ran with it. He had a .931 save percentage in his final five regular-season games. He outdueled Rangers standout goalie Henrik Lundqvist as the Flyers won a 2-1 shoot-out Sunday that enabled them to get into the playoffs.
Wednesday night, he stood taller than Martin Vezina, er, Brodeur, and made everyone flash back to 2000.
Only a spoilsport would note that Brodeur and the Devils overcame a three games-to-one deficit and beat the Flyers in that Eastern Conference final.
But that would be missing the point. Boucher was brilliant in the 2000 playoffs _ a 2.03 GAA, a .917 save percentage _ and the Flyers figured they had their goalie for the next 10 years.
It didn’t work out that way. Looking back, Boucher said he put too much pressure on himself to duplicate that magical season. A few years later, he was an ex-Flyer. And, after the 2000 conference finals against New Jersey, he would never win another playoff game.
Until Wednesday night.
Like I said, is this a great story or what?
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
NEWARK, N.J. _ Flyers coach Peter Laviolette says his team needs to play with discipline and smarts _ listening, Scott Hartnell? _ and have its aggressive forecheck working when it faces the New Jersey Devils in an Eastern Conference quarterfinal that begins Wednesday.
The forecheck sets the tone. If it’s clicking, the Flyers are usually the aggressor and dictating the game’s pace. That will be pivotal.
Limiting odd-man rushes and keeping the Devils shooting from the perimeter were two of the Flyers’ traits during the regular season, when they won five of six games against New Jersey.
“It comes down to not what happened in the regular season, but who plays the best on that night,” Laviolette said after Tuesday’s practice in Voorhees. “If you do it four times, then you’ll probably move on.
“We need to play OUR game and not worry about the New Jersey Devils.”
Added Laviolette: “It’s more about our style, our attitude, our intensity, our speed. Those are the things that will determine the success.”
So will the play of the defensemen. Chris Pronger, whose intensity and physicality increases at this time of year, and steady Matt Carle form the top pairing. At Tuesday’s practice, Kimmo Timonen was paired with Lukas Krajicek, and Braydon Coburn was with Oskars Bartulis. That means Ryan Parent could be a healthy scratch Wednesday.
Laviolette is hopeful the Pronger and Timonen duos can shut down New Jersey’s talented top two lines _ as they did in the regular season, when the Flyers allowed just 2.17 goals per game.
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My pick: New Jersey in seven.
This looks like it will be a grinding series with a lot of 3-2 scores. I think New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk, who may have the league’s hardest shot, will be the difference. After being acquired from Atlanta, Kovalchuk managed one goal, total, in three games against the Flyers. But he seems to have gotten more comfortable with the Devils’ system lately. He will make a statement for those seeking him in free agency.
Give me your pick and a quick reason.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
When it came down to a shoot-out to determine which team would qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs _ and which would be eliminated _ Flyers chairman Ed Snider wasn’t exactly in a good frame of mind while watching from his Wachovia Center suite on Sunday.
“I was bitching about the shoot-out,” Snider admitted after the game. “How can the season come down to a shoot-out?”
In the five-year history of the shoot-out, the setup has not been very good to the Flyers.
Sunday, however, was a different chapter.
Danny Briere and Claude Giroux (game-winner) scored shoot-out goals, and the much-maligned Brian Boucher stopped two of three shots as the Flyers won their season finale, 2-1.
The victory sends the Flyers into the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against second-seeded New Jersey, a team they have beaten in five of six meetings this season.
The Flyers have 5-2, 3-2 (three times, once in OT) and 5-1 wins over New Jersey.
Boucher dropped a 4-1 decision in the Flyers’ only loss to the Devils. He also was the goalie in the 5-1 win on March 28.
Back to Sunday’s shoot-out….
There was good reason for Snider’s trepidation. The Flyers were 15-27 in shoot-outs since they were instituted.
In addition, Boucher was going against one of the NHL’s premier goalies, Henrik Lundqvist, so the Flyers figured to be at a severe disadvantage.
But Boucher, stunningly, outplayed Lundqvist, setting up an intriguing Flyers-Devils series that starts Wednesday in Newark.
"We obviously need a confident goaltender going into the playoffs, and he's certainly that," defenseman Chris Pronger said.
"We got in by the skin of our fingernails, but it's a clean slate when you're in the playoffs, general manager Paul Holmgren said.
Prior to the shoot-out, Lundqvist had made 46 saves _ and was the only reason the Flyers didn't win in a rout.
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Flyers received a huge break Saturday when Montreal dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to Toronto.
That opens the door for the Flyers to capture the seventh-seed in the Eastern Conference if they can defeat the visiting New York Rangers Sunday at 3 p.m.
With a win, the Flyers would finish with the same amount of points (88) as Montreal, but they would finish ahead of the Canadiens because of the tie-breaker (most wins).
