Chris Pawling - Can someone please tell me how the No. 2 seed Philadelphia Flyers are trailing the seventh-seeded Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, in the NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals?Sure, the Flyers ended the regular season 8-8-7 in their final 23 games. Sure, the Sabres were one of the hottest teams in the league heading into the postseason, finishing the year 28-11-6 in their final 45 games.
But the fact of the matter is, Ryan Miller is becoming the savior for this Buffalo team that's allowed the Flyers into his crease time and time again and made save after save, not to mention post two 1-0 shutouts in Games 1 and 4.
"Ryan was good once again," the Flyers Danny Briere said after Friday's 4-3 overtime loss. "He made the difference tonight with the amount of chances we had. Late on the power play he made a good save on (James van Riemsdyk). That's what you're looking for in a goalie.
"I thought Leighton was great (after coming in for Brian Boucher, who allowed three first-period goals). He made a couple key saves before they scored. For us, we keep playing the same way, as I said. Obviously it's a tough loss, but the worst thing we can do is hang our heads right now. Look up, keep playing hard, and I still believe good things can happen."
The Flyers have outshot the Sabres 165-151 for the series. Leaving out the Flyers' 5-4 win in Game 3 in which the Sabres outshot the Flyers 37-25, Philadelphia holds a 140-114 edge.
"I said it earlier that every game has been a one-goal game," Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff said when asked who he thinks has the edge in today's Game 6. "They are a quick attack team and can take the momentum away from us for ten minutes and all of a sudden we can get them on their heels and get some momentum back. We know that they have some dangerous offensive players and if we make a mistake that they are able to capitalize.
"Who has the momentum? I like the fact that we get to come back and play in our building, but there is some pressure playing at home too."
One big issue for the Flyers has been and could continue to be special teams. The Flyers are a lowly 2-for-26 (7.7 percent) on the power play. Late in Friday's game, Jordan Leopold was sent to the box on a holding call and the Flyers spent all most all of the rest of regulation with a man advantage and failed to capitalize.
"It gave us some confidence," Miller said. "I think that anytime that you have to kill something that late in a game, especially given the score. We were getting our bodies in lanes. We were working, we were pushing. I think we can feel good about that kind of stuff. I think it did really help to get to the locker room after establishing something more positive."
"We can't just rely on our power play, but at the same time, they can be game-changers," defenseman Matt Carle told reporters at Saturday's practice. "Last night we had the opportunity there in the last two minutes to capitalize on that and we didn't. Now here we are down 3-2.
The bottom line here is that the Flyers are, in fact, the better team in this series. But to prove that, they'll need to break Miller's barriers and capitalize on every opportunity they can muster.
"I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the group in that room," Laviolette said. "At no point did I think we were going to lose the game (Friday). Yet, we did. We are going back to Buffalo and we needed to win this next game anyway so nothing changes for us. We have to go Buffalo and win, period."
NOTE: Buffalo's Jason Pominville, who has a goal and three assists in the series' first five games, is listed as day-to-day with an lower-body injury and won't play today. Ruff said it doesn't look good for Pominville for the rest of the series, either.
No comments:
Post a Comment