Flyers' goodbye to N.J. arena means good riddance as well

It's hard to say which will be more relevant for the Flyers tonight when they face the New Jersey Devils for the final time ever at the Continental Airlines Arena:

Is it the fact that the Devils are in a knock-down, drag-out fight with Pittsburgh for the Atlantic Division crown and the second playoff seed in the East, and that the Flyers can spoil things?

Or is it the fact that the Flyers won't have to see the swamplands of East Rutherford again?

Since the arena opened in 1982, the Flyers are 22-43-6-2 there (the third figure is for ties, the fourth for overtime losses). Since 1989-90, they are 8-30-5-2.

The Devils' new arena in Newark may be ready next fall. If it is not, general manager Lou Lamoriello said he would take the team to Hartford.

Flyers left winger Simon Gagne has vivid memories of the Devils and their arena.

"Whenever we played them in the playoffs, it was something special," Gagne said. "We had success the last time we played them."

But a lot of times, he said, the Flyers had a hard time winning.

"I'm not going to miss the building, locker room or stands," he said. "The stands just feel empty. Usually, we feel we have more fans than the Devils, and that is good for us. You see a lot of empty seats. The locker-room facility is pretty average."

One thing the Flyers can always count on as not being average is goalie Martin Brodeur. He needs just three wins to match Bernie Parent's league record of 47 in a season, set in 1973-74.

Martin Biron of the Flyers, a fellow butterfly-style goalie, said Brodeur was someone he had emulated.

Biron seems to have studied Brodeur closely. Biron got an invitation to Detroit in 1995, the summer he was drafted, to attend a game between the Devils and the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals.

"I remember watching, and he was incredible," Biron recalled. "He is a big guy. He is athletic. He didn't change his style, where a lot of goalies try to simplify things. He makes the same saves he used to.

"For a lot of guys, it's great to see you can add some ad-lib in your game and it doesn't have to be robotic."

Loose pucks. Denis Gauthier (wrist), Scottie Upshall (shoulder and pectoral muscle), and Mike Richards (shoulder) won't play tonight. Each is in significant pain, and Gauthier said he was not sure whether he would play the remaining five games after tonight. He took a dangerous hit from Carolina's Craig Adams and jammed his right wrist into the boards. Was it an illegal hit? "I think it was pretty obvious," Gauthier said. "I knew he was there, but at no time was I sideways to him or braced to take that hit. From the blue line in, I had my back turned to him." . . . Riley Cote fully expects to fight someone in tomorrow's game against the New York Rangers. There will likely be continued fallout from last week's Todd Fedoruk-Colton Orr fight.