SLR posted:

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Rocky.is.not.real.

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SLR posted:

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Now, I am just hoping the Flyers don't get swept, but mainly so I can keep my Flyers icon for another week.

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Aragorn327 posted:

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SLR posted:

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Now, I am just hoping the Flyers don't get swept, but mainly so I can keep my Flyers icon for another week.

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SLR posted:

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Pittsburg is just lucky that the Flyers were without two of their top defensemen for virtually the entire series. This would have been a different series if they had Timmonen and Coburn. I am not saying the Flyers would have definitely won, but it would have gone 6 or 7.

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SLR posted:

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Pittsburg is just lucky that the Flyers were without two of their top defensemen for virtually the entire series. This would have been a different series if they had Timmonen and Coburn.

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SLR posted:

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Darth McClain posted:

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And what about Rocky?

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Rocky.is.not.real.

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DurronFan posted:

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Stars survive to fight one more day

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ApolloSmileGirl posted:

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DurronFan posted:

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Stars survive to fight one more day

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Went to the game tonight, glad I got to be at the one game that they'll probably win.

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SLR posted:

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Pittsburg is just lucky that the Flyers were without two of their top defensemen for virtually the entire series. This would have been a different series if they had Timmonen and Coburn. I am not saying the Flyers would have definitely won, but it would have gone 6 or 7.

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Rich Hofmann on May 10th posted:

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Whatever it was, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was both familiar for the Flyers and unfamiliar - familiar in that they lost, just as they did in the first games of their previous two playoff series. Unfamiliar in that they lacked the speed, the verve, the rambunctious edge that has carried them to this point.

"We were talking about it," defenseman Derian Hatcher said after the 4-2 loss to the Penguins at Mellon Arena. "We were just sloppy. I think both teams were sloppy in the first period, to be honest with you. I don't know if it was the break or what. Both teams were just sloppy."

Mistakes in the first half of the game doomed the Flyers, but the whole evening just seemed off. The Flyers are best when they play on that physical edge, when the shoot the puck in and go get it, when they skate and push and push some more. They played some breathtaking stretches against both Washington in the first round and especially against Montreal in the second round. This just seemed so different, so much...less.

...


If you are the Flyers, it would be wise to take away this simple fact from an untidy game: that they can play a lot better and that they have played a lot better, from the goaltender on out; that while the loss of defenseman Kimmo Timonen stresses the Flyers significantly, and will continue to do so, most of their problems last night were not about that. They were just about other errors, some forced, some unforced, most correctible. At this point, Flyers coach John Stevens won't even entertain a questioner's notion that Timonen's absence was at the root of all that was evil last night. "Let's stop that right now," Stevens said. "Kimmo's not in our lineup and we have six guys who are capable of moving the puck. I thought we had the start we wanted. We had the shots on net, we had the lead, and then we just didn't manage the puck as a group. "When you turn pucks over and give up rushes to [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin, that's the game you can't play. And we did that."

...

Which doesn't mean that the Flyers don't miss Timonen, and that they won't continue to miss him as the series moves on. It's just that this game, this one game, was likely about other mishandled business. And, face this fact right now: If Biron doesn't return to form, immediately, this will be a short series, given the other realities.

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/18826614.html

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Phil Sheridan on May 14th posted:

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The Flyers asked the question 20,000 times on the 20,000 orange T-shirts they gave their fans last night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins answered it just once.

"Why not us?"

Because the Penguins are better.

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The Flyers made it to the NHL's final four by coming together as a team, by outworking and outhustling Washington and Montreal, by unforgettable performances from Marty Biron, Danny Briere, Mike Richards, Kimmo Timonen and R.J. Umberger. That hustling, resilient team has been missing in action for much of the three games against Pittsburgh. "We didn't get pucks deep and win those battles the way we did in the first two rounds," forward Scottie Upshall said. "Give them credit. They outplayed us. They're playing a complete game." The Penguins have been the team winning individual puck battles, getting to loose pucks faster and delivering the bigger hits - all things the Flyers had to do to have a chance against a team this highly skilled. It was going to be hard to beat the Penguins under the best of circumstances. These were not the best of circumstances. The sudden loss of Timonen and his defensive partner, Braydon Coburn, were major blows. But the reality is that the Flyers forwards have been a bigger problem in these three losses than the patchwork defensive corps.


URL too long.

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Phil Sheridan on May 15th posted:

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It makes a difference how the Flyers go out.
If their season ends tonight, or Sunday in Pittsburgh, or whenever, it matters how this team plays its final periods of playoff hockey. It matters because that last impression will linger in the minds of these players and their fans. There is a huge difference between feeling like a young team on the rise and feeling as if the Pittsburgh Penguins took their lunch money. So it's important that Danny Briere, who has been mauled into ineffectiveness, deliver his best effort of this series tonight. It's important that Marty Biron, who was so splendid in the first two rounds, get back into that zone again before the off-season is thrust upon the Flyers. It's important that Mike Richards, in a new pairing with Briere, continue to perform as if his life depends on winning every shift. It's important that Jeff Carter and Scottie Upshall and Joffrey Lupul and R.J. Umberger wash the bitter taste of the first three losses away by beating the Penguins' stifling trap for at least one night. It's important that the young defensemen, Ryan Parent and Randy Jones and Lasse Kukkonen, make a strong case for being part of the team's future.

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The moves he'd already made - acquiring Briere, Biron, Upshall, Lupul, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Scott Hartnell - produced the nucleus that came together in such a sudden and encouraging way over the last six weeks.

URL was too long and was causing scrolling.

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Rich Hofmann on May 15th posted:

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The Penguins are a team, in every sense.

The Flyers probably knew it all along - and now that they are down by 3-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, they are not likely to forget. However and whenever it ends, tonight or thereafter, the Flyers and the people who follow them and the people who have watched the Penguins in this series, and all spring, have been left with an enduring impression of skill and teamwork coming at them in black-clad waves.

And defense. The Penguins' defense really is the story of this series - team defense, persistent defense, real strength and sureness with the puck. We can talk about Malkin and Crosby, and they do have scary skill. We can talk about their speed and their explosiveness because it is all very real.

But defense is winning these games. Commitment to a system, an entire team-wide mind-set, is what the Penguins are using to crush the Flyers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/18964889.html

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Tim Panaccio on May 15th posted:

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"There are some things we can do from an execution approach," Stevens said. "There's no question we have to do a better job of getting pucks in, doing a better job of protecting the puck, and working the cycle. We've done it at times. We've created some chances.

"If you look at the chances, it's almost even. If you look at the puck-possession time, it's tilted in their favor. . . . It's up to us to play on their side of the red line."

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Changing three lines smacks of desperation. And it is.

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The Flyers won four straight against Montreal after trailing by one game to none. But this is Pittsburgh, not Montreal, and the Penguins' skill level is much higher.

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The Flyers have been thoroughly outplayed in the series. That's a tribute to the Penguins. At the same time, the Flyers' ability to pass the puck without injured defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn has been the biggest blow to their game plan.

"You can't feel sorry for yourselves," Stevens said. "We've said it all year. We can't look outside the locker room. There's nobody outside the locker room that is going to help us. There's nobody outside the locker room to blame. It's all of us inside the locker room that need to play better."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20080515_Stevens_shuffles_the_deck_in_search_of_a_turnaround.html

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DurronFan posted:

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It's true that the Pens have more depth and the Flyers. But don't underestimate Timonen's importance to the team. Flyer's coach Stevens called him the best player of the team (instead of Richards or Briere) and this was before he even got injured.

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