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Phil Sheridan: Will pressure now gnaw on the Flyers?

BOSTON - This probably isn't what they mean when they say the hungrier team wins in the playoffs. Dan Carcillo was innocently going about his business - admittedly, his business requires him to maul opponents - when Boston's Marc Savard perhaps took his team's nickname too literally.

Claude Giroux slammed his stick in disgust after the Flyers lost Game 2 to the Bruins. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Claude Giroux slammed his stick in disgust after the Flyers lost Game 2 to the Bruins. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

BOSTON - This probably isn't what they mean when they say the hungrier team wins in the playoffs.

Dan Carcillo was innocently going about his business - admittedly, his business requires him to maul opponents - when Boston's Marc Savard perhaps took his team's nickname too literally.

"He bit me," Carcillo said. "The last time I was bit was in grade school. It's not a good feeling, and it was pretty cowardly. Men don't bite."

No, but Bruins do, and now the Flyers are behind in this series, two games to none. It is not an impossible situation, not yet, but the reality isn't exactly rosy. To win this series, the Flyers must win at least one game here. Half their chances are gone, thanks to two oddly similar game-winning goals by the Bruins.

Down 0-2, the pressure on the Flyers to win the next two at home becomes enormous. If they can get back to Boston even, they have a chance. If they lose one at the Wachovia Center, they're done.

Two things became very clear here Monday night. The Flyers are really beginning to feel the loss of three important forwards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, and Ian Laperriere. And even without them, they could have won either of the first two games.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy coming in here," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "Both games were tied in the third period. That's not good enough. We've got to win those games. We've got to find a way to get that next goal."

Game 1 went to overtime and was lost when Savard got his teeth - er, stick - into a puck that was spinning on the ice. Savard turned and fired and Brian Boucher was helpless to stop the shot.

Game 2 was like a virtual overtime game. The score was tied at 2 and you could see fatigue taking its toll on both teams, but especially the shorthanded Flyers. They got trapped in their zone late in the third period, just as they had in overtime Saturday. The puck came out from behind the net and was unsettled along the ice, same as Saturday.

This time, it was Milan Lucic who spun and fired a shot that Boucher didn't see in time to react.

"I didn't pick it up right away," Boucher said. "It was above my pad and below my blocker, in a tough spot for me to get. I wish I would have picked it up a little sooner."

Coming home gives the Flyers two positives to count on. Their fans are among the loudest and rowdiest in sports, and this team could use that boost of energy. Jumping out to an early lead instead of playing catch-up all game would make a huge difference.

The more tangible difference is that Peter Laviolette can settle on some lines and matchups, since he will get to respond to Claude Julien's personnel. That should help the Flyers avoid what happened in Game 2, when Laviolette's efforts to shuffle lines seemed to rob the team of continuity and chemistry at times.

"There's a lot of guys that are being double-shifted," Danny Briere said. "We're trying to find the right combinations and also trying to find the right matchups. We're on the road and they have the last change, so sometimes you try to mix it up to confuse them a little bit, I guess."

To make matters worse, the Flyers found themselves killing a couple of penalties in that third period. Instead of being aggressive in pursuit of the go-ahead goal (and their first lead of the series), they were forced to defend their zone and burn even more energy.

"There's no doubt that's where you feel the effects of those guys being out of the lineup," Laviolette said. "You'd like to spread it around a little bit more. You've got to kill those penalties. They happen, you've got to kill them. Sure, I wish we were playing five-on-five so we could roll the bench a little more."

Briere and Mike Richards scored the Flyers' goals. The Flyers are getting nothing from Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux so far in this series. Arron Asham was on the ice for just over six minutes. Guys like Jared Ross and Ville Leino and Andreas Nodl are dressing because of the injuries and can't be expected to play at the level of the men they're replacing.

And yet, both games here came down to a single wild shot. That tells you the Flyers are capable of winning this series. It also tells you they squandered two chances to win that one game here that would swing momentum to them.

"It's more frustrating because you're in there swinging two times in the opposition's building and you have opportunities to walk away with a win," Laviolette said. "You don't. You find yourself with two losses."

As they say, reality bites.