The Flyers: What went wrong

The Flyers were dominated at all positions as they were swept by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The forwards couldn't find the back of the net, the defensemen were frequently caught out of position, and the goalies struggled in most of the four games.

As a result, the Flyers were dispatched much more quickly than expected. Their season ended with a closer-than-it-looks 5-1 loss Friday in Boston.

The Bruins, fueled by motivation from last year's humiliating playoff collapse against the Flyers, were led by imposing 6-foot-9, 260-pound Zdeno Chara. Boston's defensive unit shut down the Flyers in three of the four games. In the one game in which the Bruins defense faltered, Tim Thomas made 52 saves to bail out his teammates and steal Game 2, 3-2, in overtime.

How dominating was Boston's defense? Consider:

The Flyers were the Eastern Conference's high-scoring team in the regular season (3.2 goals per game), but they managed just seven goals - 1.8 per game - in the series.

The Danny Briere line, which includes wingers Scott Hartnell and Ville Leino, combined for just one goal in the series.

Briere managed only one goal after scoring six in the previous series against Buffalo.

The Flyers' power play went 2 for 14 (14.3 percent) and looked feeble on most of its failed attempts.

Jeff Carter, who returned from a knee injury and played in just two games, Mike Richards, and Claude Giroux combined for one goal in the Boston sweep.

All season, the Flyers prided themselves on having three highly productive lines. It's what gave opponents severe matchup problems.

Yet in the series against Boston, none of the lines got untracked.

Boston, on the other hand, got scoring from all of its units, and the David Krejci line (with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton) combined for eight goals - one more than the entire Flyers team - and 19 points.

Besides a lack of production against a defense that was anchored by Chara (plus-10 in the series) and Dennis Seidenberg (a shocking plus-10), the Flyers blueliners were ineffective and sorely missed Chris Pronger's presence.

Pronger played poorly in Game 1 (minus-3) and obviously was laboring. He missed the last three games with a leg/back injury, and surgery is a possibility.

"Injuries happen," general manager Paul Holmgren said. "Our guys, as a group, didn't raise their game enough to beat Boston. . . . Would we have liked to have Chris? Yeah . . . but I know four of those guys have a lot of playoff experience, and I don't think as a group they played the way we needed them to play."

Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn were each minus-6 in the Boston series. Matt Carle, who was plus-30 in the regular season, had turnover problems and was minus-5, and Andrej Meszaros was minus-3.

Goalies Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky combined for a 4.32 goals-against average in the series, compared with Thomas' 1.65.

Slow starts also hindered the Flyers. In the 11 playoff games, they scored the first goal just four times. They were 1-6 when opponents scored first in the playoffs - and 0-3 against Boston.

"Ideally, you don't want to start from behind, but that was our own fault maybe for not coming out ready to play and maybe not playing the game the right way from the start," emerging winger James van Riemsdyk said.

Defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who scored the winning goal in Game 4, said the Bruins wore down the Flyers.

"We just tried to get it deep, work it down low, and wear them out - and that's what we did," he said.

The Bruins were hungrier, more physical, and more disciplined than the Flyers.

Their epic collapse against the Flyers last year - they dropped the final four games after having a 3-0 series lead - seemed to keep them extra focused.

"It's nice we're not going to have to answer any more questions about it and we can put it behind us," Lucic said after scoring a pair of goals in Friday's series clincher. "I think we learned a lot from last year, that experience, and I think it made us a more determined hockey club. I think you could see it in us."

And you could see it missing from their opponents.