Danny Briere Line: Welcome to the Canadiens Series

For the first time since Game Two, the Danny Briere, Vinny Prospal, and Mike Knuble line found the back of the net.

Briere's goal couldn't have come at a better time.

With the clock ticking away in the third period in a tie game and all the momentum on Montreal's side, Briere showed why he's worth 52 million dollars. His power play goal gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead and the goal was his eighth of the playoffs, but only second of the series.

The Canadiens couldn't find the back of the cage for the first 52 minutes of the game, but once Tomas Plekanec scored, it took only 37 seconds for another Hab to tickle the twine. Saku Koivu redeemed himself for a previous penalty that led to a Flyers goal by beating Marty Biron to tie the game at two.

The Flyers crawled out to a two nothing lead as it took the R.J. Umberger seven minutes into the second period to score the first goal of the game and his sixth goal of the playoffs. Umberger hadn't scored goals in back to back games all year, but now he's done it in the playoffs.

In the third period, Scottie Hartnell notched the Flyers second goal after he followed the rebound of a Prospal shot that went out in front of net. Hartnell slapped into the right side of the net and the Flyers had their patented 2-0 lead.

Of course as we all know, no two goal lead is safe for the Flyers. They had already blown four two nil leads, losing three of those games. As mentioned above, a few minutes later Montreal had the game tied at two and Philadelphia scrambling to retake control.

More on the game later.

Flyers Try to Take Both Home Games Tonight

Philadelphia looks for a repeat of the Capitals series by winning both home games to take a 3-1 series lead.

Of course that will allow the Flyers to subsequently blow the next two games, put Flyers fans on the edge of their seats only to pull off a Game Seven shocker.

But let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

The 700 Level says Mike Knuble has been cleared to play, but also raises the question: where does he play and where do the Flyers move R.J. Umberger to? Umberger has been too good to knock him down to the fourth line so Knuble can move back with his linemates Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter. It will be interesting to see what Coach John Stevens does with the lines.

The Flyers' attack no matter what way its shaped must go after Carey Price. They shook his confidence in Game Three so what better way to see what he's made of than aggressively going after him.

The Flyers have kind of laid back in the first three games and let the Canaidens come at them. It's led to a ridiculous shot advantage for the Habs, but it's something that hasn't hurt the Flyers because of the stellar play of Marty Biron.

This is Price's first year in the NHL, and Price has played a lot down the stretch. His struggling could just be a matter of some fatigue. Unfortunately Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau doesn't really have the option of benching him to give a rest until either Game Five or Game Six. Those games are back to back so I wouldn't be surprised if the Habs play Jaroslav Halak in one game and Price in the other.

The Flyers also need to stay off the penalty kill. Legitimate penalties here and there most fans can live with. But Derian Hatcher putting the Flyers down a man for five minutes that's 100% unacceptable. Dumb penalties will cost the Flyers a game just like in the first round it was almost guaranteed Alexander Ovechkin was going to single handily win a game for the Capitals.

Side Note: I didn't realize how much Canada as a whole hates the Flyers.

The Pension Plan Puppets Blog which is a Maple Leafs Blog linked to my game story yesterday and the comments in response were so anti-Flyers. Here's a taste:

Chemmy wrote, "What sort of Leafs fans root for Philly over Montreal?"

The response he got from a writer for PPP wrote, "

We all should. You can't put aside over 80 years of rivalry and hatred just because the Flyers have recently been a pain in the ass. The greater evil is the Habs getting past Philly. After this round, we can cheer against Philly again. Although, realistically, we're all cheering on the meteor."

Chemmy later wrote, "The thing is, Montreal already has 24 cups. If they win another one who cares? If Philly wins the cup this year we'll all have to hear about how they went from 30th to 1st in one season, and not about how they're cheapshot goons who injured a lot of players (Patrice Bergeron anyone?). Sorry, I don't want Montreal to win the cup, but their team isn't hockey cancer like Philly.

The poster by the name of Leosc named his comment Flyers=Satan and said this, " I don't even allow Philadelphia cream cheese in this house. Phillies, hate them. 76ers, hate them. F**king Flyers, hate them to the nth power. Philadelphia and Philadelphians show their crack, even on a bell. Philadelphia Flyers have been a bunch of goons all their life, it doesn't matter who they were before they don that stinking sweater. They won the cup twice by injuring the opposition. Because of them the NHL had to impose the anti-bench clearing rule. Bobby what's-his-name is the worse one. Once the other teams stood up to them, they disappeared from the playoffs. Now its time for the Habs to take them out."

There's even more comments to read here.

Plus The 700 Level also had this story from a Philly.com writer asking if the Flyers are playing Canada's team.

And of course we cannot forget the Pig Man for desecrating Philadelphia's Rocky Statue.

This is absolute war. Send out the war kittens!


This post just lost all credibility because of that but frankly I don't care.

Flyers Escape with 3-2 Victory

The Flyers have kept fans on their seat by blowing several leads in the playoffs, and tonight almost wouldn't be any different.

Philadelphia's ability to squander leads during the last portion of the regular season and the playoffs almost cost the Flyers a chance at the playoffs and the first round series against the Capitals, but did cost Philly Game One against Montreal.

The Flyers scored the first goal, then got another short handed and before they could even begin to lose the lead R.J. Umberger scored a third before the second intermission.

The Flyers practically buried Montreal before they could blink.

A scoreless first period filled with hard hits and multiple wasted chances by the Habs to take an early advantage and take the boisterous Flyers crowd out of the game.

It was obvious that Montreal's inability to score put the pressure on Habs's goalie Carey Price to stand on his head and keep Montreal in the game.

The key time to this game was after the first Flyer goal. How was Price going to respond?

He didn't respond well. Price gave up a soft goal and then a rebound on another shot that led to a third Flyers goal.

At that point, the game was far from over. Derian Hatcher took another dumb penalty giving Montreal a five minute power play. Hatcher's penalty was a five minute boarding major in retaliation for a hit on R.J. Umberger. The Canadiens score twice on the major penalty making it a one goal game with ten minutes left to play.

The first three quarters of the final period belonged to the Canadiens. The Habs controlled the first 15 minutes notching 16 of the first 18 shots on goal in the period. The Flyers made it easy on the new Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak who replaced Price in the third period.

The first two periods were pretty clean, a few penalties and only a little extra curricular action after the whistle.

The third period - much different. After almost every whistle there was some kind of extra pushing and shoving. The Canadiens tried to push the Flyers around as long as the refs would tolerate it and it worked.

Another penalty against the Flyers with six minutes left put the pressure on the Flyers penalty kill once again. A Canadien goal could have been an absolute series changer, but Philly was able to kill off the Lasse Kukkonen interference penalty.

Instead, the Flyers killed it off and killed off the rest of the Canadien's charge.

The Flyers survived probably the most one sided period of the series and took a 2-1 series lead.

Notes:

• Who didn't enjoy the graphic for too many men on the ice at the end of the game when the technical crew froze the shot at the wrong time so that there would only be five Habs on the ice. Smooth Versus. Real Smooth.
• Mike Richards took a shot at Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak during the Kukkonen penalty. That was about the worst time to hit Halak in the head. The last thing the Flyers need is to have to kill off another penalty with under four minutes left.
• The Flyers won another game with no contributions from the Briere line. This is like the Capitals series except its the other way around, Ovechkin wasn't scoring in that series.

Flyers Head Home Looking to Gain Control

For the second straight series, the Flyers head home with the series tied at one. The Flyers hold home ice advantage for the rest of the series since the series is now a best of five and the Flyers have three home games left.

The Flyers have jumped out to 2-0 leads four times in playoffs thus far, including the first two games of this series, but are only .500 in those games.

The Flyers have had difficult holding leads as teams begin to get overly aggressive and put the pressure on Marty Biron. He's not been up to the task in several of the playoff games this year and has let the lead slip away.

Saturday night was much different. Montreal dominated the game, out shooting Philadelphia 36-23. Biron stopped all but two of those shots and withstood a first period flurry to keep Montreal off the board.

The Flyers have been able to send this series back to Philadelphia tied at one despite getting almost no contributions from the top line. In Game One, the Briere line was a non-factor; in Game Two, Briere did score a second period goal to make it 3-1.

What the Flyers need to today tonight to win:

• Stay back and let Montreal come at you. The Flyers have typically been keeping an extra man back off the rush to prevent Montreal's speed and depth from beating the Flyers. It's worked very well so far despite the shot differential between the two teams.
• Avoid the stupid penalties. The Hab's top ranked power play has been fairly silent so far due to the lack of chances they've had.
• The Briere line needs to score at least once and set up power play opportunities through getting extra pressure on Montreal. The Flyers need more than two power plays in a game in order to control the game.

Canadiens Comeback to Take Game One

I've mentioned several times during the playoffs, the Flyers have been playing incredibly unpredictable. As soon as you think Philadelphia is going to close out a game, the team blows it. When the odds are against them, the Flyers set themselves up to win again...

...but then that's what makes sports great.

Tonight of course was no different. The Flyers were playing the top seed Montreal, the game was the Flyers' third game in four days, and the game was in Montreal.

But it didn't appear to matter.

The Flyers stayed back in all game and started their rushes from their own zone. It neutralized the Canadiens rush and speed throughout the Habs' top three lines. Montreal won the face-off battle by a lot 41-27. This should have stalled the Flyers offense.

But it didn't.

The Flyers out shot Montreal and drew more legitimate power plays (see below for details). The Flyers got goals from two unlikely sources: R.J. Umberger and Jim Dowd in the first period.

But the lead didn't last.

Montreal came storming back in the second period. The Habs controlled the pace, out shooting the Flyers 13-9 and out scoring them 2-0. Andrei Kostitsyn scored his fourth playoff goal and with less than four minutes left in period, Alexei Kovalev scored short handed.

But the Flyers came back.

The third period belonged to the Flyers. A shot advantage of 13-9 led to the Flyers controlling most of the period. Joffrey Lupul scored just 19 seconds into the period on a power play that carried over from the end of the second period.

But it didn't matter.

A penalty on Mike Richards with just over a minute left gave Montreal a six on four when the Habs pulled their goalie. Fast forward to 29 seconds left and the puck is in the net thanks to Alexei Kovalev. The Habs had all the momentum going into the overtime period.

And this mattered.

First shift in overtime, Tom Kostopoulos scored for Montreal and it was over. Two goals in the last 1:17 meant Montreal escapes with a 1-0 series lead.

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The Flyers did several things very well. Philadelphia limited the amount of penalties they took big time. Dumb penalty after dumb penalty against Washington allowed the Caps to stay in several games they should have been out of early.

That just wasn't the case tonight. The Canadiens' only power play for the majority of the game came early in the second period.

The Flyers also managed to stay in this game without any contributions from Philly's top players. Daniel Briere in his return home to Quebec, Scott Hartnell, and Vinny Prospal didn't notch a single point.
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The Flyers had this game stolen from them. I didn't get to watch, only was able to listen to the radio coverage. I did get to see the highlights which showed the wrong calls.

The second Montreal goal cannot be a goal in any way. There's no justifying it. How could Kovalev scored? His stick came down on the top of the goal after he hit the puck. That is a TEXT BOOK high stick. I don't understand how that can possibly be anything different. You clearly see his stick come down after he hits the puck, it's not like it went upwards after he hit the puck and then down onto the goal. That shouldn't have been a goal.

The Mike Richards penalty that gave Montreal a power play with under a minute left was not a penalty. It was ruled kneeling. His knee never makes contact with the Canadiens' player. That was a clean hit. Philadelphia has legitimate gripes in this game.

Time to Get to Know the Canadiens

The Eastern Conference Semifinals begin tonight as the Flyers travel to Montreal (say it in a fake French accent...it's a good time).

It's a tough turn around for the Flyers since they played back to back nights on Monday and Tuesday. It's a little surprising that the NHL is making them play three games in four nights, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and play.

The Habs dominated the Flyers during the regular season. They outscored Philly 15-6 and won all four games. That reason alone makes me want to pick against the Flyers, but the series will be closer.

The Flyers are playing much better and after watching Montreal struggle a little bit against Boston, I do think they are beatable. The Flyguys should be able to take a few games, but if Philadelphia is going to win this series its going to be in at least six games, probably the full seven.

Montreal is just too strong across the board. They are fast and they can score. The Habs are widely considered one of the fastest teams in the NHL with three lines that can score. They are very reminiscent of the Buffalo and Ottawa teams the first two years after the lockout.

The Canadiens were second in the league in scoring at 3.09 per game. Defensively, the Habs were middle of the pack at surrendered 2.59 goals a game.

Carey Price has stepped up in goal after the Habs traded away the last goalie the Flyers faced. Montreal shipped off Cristobal Huet in late February for a second round pick in the 2009 draft.

This series will feature the two best powerplays from the regular season. The Canadiens cashed in on almost a quarter of their man up opportunities while the Flyers score on just over a fifth of their powerplays.

Penalties could be the major turning point of every game in this series. The team that can control the puck usually draws penalties. Which ever team can do this, will be able to turn games around with their powerplay.

Montreal doesn't kill penalties well; they are in the bottom of half of the league at 82%. The Flyers are just over a percent better at 83%, but that's good for 10th in the league.

Overall, Montreal is going to try to wear the Flyers down with their depth. The Flyers defensively don't have three lines that can match up well against the Canadiens. Philadelphia will probably come out Game One a little slow due to playing three games in four days.

CuseAdelphia Prediction: Canadiens 4 Flyers 2. Philadelphia just doesn't have the talent to match up well in this series. That's going to be evident in the very first game. Montreal rolls to a Game One victory.

The Flyers Need to Win to Save the City of Montreal

The Sport Hump ran this story about rioting in Montreal after the Canadiens won Game Seven of their first round playoff series. At least 16 cars were torched and fans broke into numerous businesses.

I saw the video on I think SportsCenter and it looked like it got really bad into Montreal.

Because of this, I call on the Flyers and serve the Canadian people by beating Montreal in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

You will save the city of Montreal and its suburbs by knocking the Habs out. You saw what happened after the first round of the playoffs. I cannot imagine what the city would look like if a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals was enstore for the Habs.

I'm thinking something like this:

Current Canadiens Patrice Brisebois, Steve Begin, Mathieu Carle, Mathieu Dandenault, Yann Danis, Maxim Lapierre, and Guillaume Latendresse are from the Province of Quebec. Save your homeland! Take a dive (like throw the game, not flop when a Flyer touches you)! Give the series to the Flyers. Do you want your homeland looking like war zone?


And now I call on current Flyers Marty Biron, Daniel Briere, and Simon Gagne too save your homeland by going on the greatest quest ever and defeat the Canadiens. Gagne lace them up, be like Willis Reed. Hobble out onto the ice dizzy and get the first shot on goal. You will fire up your teammates to save the Province of Quebec.


Briere: you turned down the Canadiens during the off-season to play for the Flyers. Show them it was your secret plan to come back to Montreal in the playoffs and save the city from itself by defeating Montreal in the playoffs.


Do not let a Canadiens victory destroy the land you love and call home.


Photo Credits: USA TODAY, History Channel