Thank You Joffrey

The Flyers live to play another day after defeating the Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

Joffrey Lupul knocked home a rebound into essentially an empty net on a power play in overtime for the game winner. The goal was Lupul's first of the playoffs and it couldn't have come at a better time.

The Flyers were trying to avoid becoming the 21st team out of 225 to blow a 3-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They avoided this fate well after let the Caps knot the series up at three.

The Flyers blew two straight chances to knock the Caps out of the playoffs, but very strong goal tending from Marty Biron kept the Flyers in the game. Biron recorded 39 saves in 41 chances including 16 saves in the third period alone.

Biron didn't have to be flashy, just good. He stopped everything that came at him including several point blank chances for Alexander Ovechkin in third period and overtime.

Biron made the saves, the second and third lines scored the goals. Unlikely names like Sami Kapanen, Joffrey Lupul, and Scottie Upshall came through with the goals. The usual names, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Vinny Prospal, and Jeff Carter couldn't find any part of the score sheet.

One of the most controversial goals in the entire playoffs gave the Flyers the lead in the second period 2-1. Sami Kapanen brought the puck into the Caps zone, twirled around on the right side of the net. Patrick Thoresen checked his man into goalie Cristobal Huet knocking all three players to the ice. Kapenen recognized the open net and flung a wrist shot at the empty net for the goal.

Alexander Ovechkin wouldn't be out done. He tied the game up at two later in the second period.

The third period feature the Caps really going after the Flyers. They outshot the Flyguys 16-5, but somehow couldn't get the puck by Biron.

The goal-less third period set up an up and down overtime as both teams got quality chances in the first several minutes. Tom Poti made a really stupid mistake and tripped up R.J. Umberger in a situation where Poti just didn't to commit a penalty to stop a play.

It lead to an aggressive powerplay as the Flyers started blasting away at Huet. It eventually lead to Kimmo Timonen shot. The rebound trickled off to the right of Huet, but he looked left thinking he deflected the rebound in that direction.

Lupul knocked the puck into an uncontested net and that was it. Game over. Flyers win.

Slapshots:

• Derian Hatcher committed a really stupid penalty in the first period that led to a Washington powerplay goal.
• Philadelphia blew another 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity that lasted the full two minutes. A four minute slash followed by another penalty led to two full minutes of five on three action for the Flyers.
• Cristobal Huet deserves a lot of credit for how well he played and how many great saves he made in this series.
• The Flyers will play the Canadians who also won their series in seven games.

Groundhog Day for the Flyers

I'm absolutely awful at Photoshop. Enjoy!

I alluded to the 2001 series a few days ago when the Flyers were up three games to one on the Devils but blew the series. Following game four, I said this, "The goal gave Philadelphia game four and a 3-1 advantage that's nearly impossible to overcome. Teams trailing 3-1 in a series are just 18 of 59 in game fives. It gets better for the Flyers; in 90 years of NHL playoffs, just 20 of 224 teams that fell behind 3-1 in a series went onto the next round. That's a winning percentage of 8.9%."

Washington at this point has all the momentum in the series and has home ice advantage for game seven. Plus the Flyers have to bounce back one day later from a really bad home loss (more on that in a minute). All the signs up towards Washington taking this game, but with how back and forth this series has been, I don't know if anyone can really predict what's going to happen.

The Flyers need to aggressively go after the Caps. Hit them until they can't skate. Get an early lead and don't let up. The Flyers have been great at blowing leads this year. Philly takes the lead and doesn't necessarily sit back, but lets the opposing team put the pressure on them. I don't know what school of hockey Coach John Stevens went to, but he's got to change his mentality when he's got a lead.

Tonight the Flyers have three keys: Contain Ovechkin, limit penalties, and fore check.

Onto last night now. I've been saying it all series. Alexander the Great makes every series almost a best of six series. He's going to single handily win the Caps a game. That game finally came last night. Tied at two, Ovechkin scored two goals to break the tie.

I didn't get to watch the game, Versus was carrying the Montreal-Boston game where I was. So I'm not going to comment on the game itself too much. I will say, after looking at the box score and the ridiculous number of shots, this game must have been really up and down. I don't think that plays into the Flyers' hands because of Ovechkin and really also Nicklas Backstrom's ability to score and create in the open ice.

CuseAdelphia Prediction: Game seven will go to the Capitals. They are going to do the improbable and comeback from 3-1. The Flyers too many opportunities to take this series in the first six games and it's going to comeback to haunt them. I think a late three period goal will decide this game.

Don't Get Eliminated MXC Style!!!!!!!

The Washington Capitals will try to follow the advice of the Spike TV show Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and not get eliminated tonight.

That's going to be a tough task since the game will be in Philadelphia in front of the rowdy Flyer crowd. Washington struggled in the first two games in Philly against the strong Flyer fore check.

The Flyers fore check has kept the puck off Alexander Oveckin's stick; he's scored just one goal all series. I've been saying since after game three, A.O. is going to explode, it's only a matter of time. I still think the Flyers are really playing a best of six series since Ovechkin should in a seven game series single handily win one game.

While Oveckin has struggled, Flyers star Daniel Briere has played some of his best hockey as a Flyer. He's got multiple points in three of the first five games and his nine points total lead are the most in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Briere is finally showing why he deserved the eight year-52 million dollar contract the Flyers gave him.

Briere and the rest of the Flyers will have to rebound from Game Five. Washington completely out played the Flyers for about the first 50 minutes of the game. Solid goal-tending from Marty Biron kept this game close and gave the Flyers a chance to tie in the last minute.

Washington controlled the flow of the game, forcing the Flyers into several stupid penalties. The puck stayed in the Flyers' defensive zone for essentially minutes on end. The Flyers went over 12 minutes during the end of the first period and start the second without a single shot on goal.

The biggest key to Game Six for the Flyers will be re-establishing the fore check. Philadelphia won games two through four by not allowing the Caps to move the puck up ice. If Philly can get back to that pressure, the Flyers will run away with this game again.

CuseAdelphia Prediction: Flyers 5 Capitals 3. I'm going to get specific with this prediction; Flyers jump out to 2-0 lead in the first period, Capitals comeback, draw the game within 4-3 in the third period. The Flyers then add an empty net goal to seal the deal and eliminate the Caps.

Washington Pulverizes Philadelphia

The Caps extend the series to a game six with a 3-2 win in Washington.

The score says this game was close, but Washington absolutely dominated the first two periods of this game and part of the third.

The Flyers couldn't do anything offensively or defensively. As soon as the Flyers moved the puck down ice, Caps defenders quickly forced the Flyers into bad shots and no second opportunities.

The Caps didn't forecheck too well, but it didn't matter because Washington routinely beat the Flyers to all the loose pucks for the first two periods.

The added pressure forced the Flyers into many penalties and resulted in two power play goals for the Caps. Three penalities in the first period kept the puck in the Flyers zone the entire period.

Washington put significant pressure on Philadelphia during the period and picked up three more power plays with the last resulting in the Caps third goal.

During the last half of the first period and opening minutes of the second period, the Flyers didn't record a single shot on net. During this streak, Washington scored twice, burying the Flyers in a 2-0 hole. Up to that point, it looked like Philadelphia had no chance to come back.

The terrible ice surface in Washington also hurt both teams ability to get consistent scoring opportunities. The ice got worse as the game went on, making it tougher and tougher for the Flyers to comeback.

If this series goes to a game seven and heads back to Washington, whoever jumps out to the early lead will have an even bigger advantage.

Capitals Rookie Nicklas Backstrom has looked as impressive and been more of a gamechanger than Alex Ovechkin during this series. Backstrom has great awareness of where all his teammates are on the ice. He's a great passer and very nifty skater.

Slapshots: Vinny Prospal and Derian Hatcher scored their third and first goals respectively. The Flyers outshot the Caps 21-6 in the third period. Marty Biron went to the bench with one minute left and the Flyers got their best opportunities to score all game with the extra man on the ice. Game six is in Philadelphia Monday night.

Thank You Mike Knuble

Mike Knuble says his goal in double overtime was, "by far the biggest one"of his 11 year NHL career.

The goal gave Philadelphia game four (I have to brag here, I nailed the final score of 4-3 in my preview) and a 3-1 advantage that's nearly impossible to overcome.

Teams trailing 3-1 in a series are just 18 of 59 in game fives. It gets better for the Flyers; in 90 years of NHL playoffs, just 20 of 224 teams that fell behind 3-1 in a series went onto the next round. That's a winning percentage of 8.9%.

Of course the Flyers have experience recently losing a playoff series after holding a 3-1 lead. Remember 2000?

Flyers were up three games to one against the Devils. That didn't stop New Jersey in the least bit. The Flyers went on to collapse in epic fashion, losing three straight games. This series also featured the Scott Stevens hit on Eric Lindros that left number 88 with another concussion. That game would be the last Lindros would ever play for the Flyers.

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Thursday night's game proved the Flyers can win when they don't play their best game.

The powerplay was awful, the penalty kill gave up two goals in the first period, and the Flyers struggled to keep constant pressure on Cristobal Huet until the third period.

Despite this the Flyers made several great plays to essentially get looks at an empty net. The Flyers second goal came on a great look from Jaroslav Modry. He passed up a pretty open slap shot from the point to make a smooth pass towards the net across the ice to Jeff Carter who had an empty net to shoot at.

The Flyers' third goal to the game came on a goal similar to Washington's Alex Semin's goal earlier in the game. Both goals came as a result of a great pass through the crease to a wide open teammate with an empty net to shoot at.

Daniel Briere scored his fifth goal of the series this way with the pass coming from Mike Richards.

I didn't get to watch the overtime periods last night (had a friend's concert and sorority function to attend), but I went through the game log. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the refs ate the whistles in the OT periods as there were no penalties called.

Since I didn't see the OT, maybe there weren't any actual penalties, but that's hard to believe. Players get desperate in overtime and tend to commit stupid penalties, many of which aren't called in OT.

Now I understand refs don't want to take over games in overtime, but sometimes calls do need to be made.

Enough digression, my early thoughts for game five are the Flyers aren't going to win this one. Alex Ovechkin is just too good and has been too much of a non-factor so far. He's going to break out eventually and I think game five will be that game. It's hard to believe that he can be shut down again and go five games with only one goal.

The game will be Saturday at one in Washington.

Initial CuseAdelphia prediction: 4-3 Washington. Both teams can score, so expect lots of it again.