The Flyers took one on the chin in Saturday's loss to the Capitals at the Can You Hear Me Now Center, but there's no need for alarm. These are two evenly matched teams, and we saw this one going six games and no shorter. But tonight is the Flyers' final chance to put it away at home, where they've already won twice this series. True, they've shown they could win in DC as well, but most experts agree that taking a game 7 there will be a tall order.
Mike Knuble is out with a torn hammy (ouch), but if we've seen anything this season, it's that the Flyers can step up when they lose a man. All year long, when an injury has sidelined a forward, another skater has taken his game up a notch. The result was that seven Flyers finished the season with 20 or more goals. That's the kind of balance they need tonight.
Danny Briere has been on fire this series, and he needs to keep his
game at that level and cut a penalty or two per game. Playing a man
down for long stretches of Saturday's loss made it impossible to
establish any sort of tempo in the game, and although some penalties
were of the bullshit variety, there were plenty that were just lazy or
sloppy stick infractions. That can't happen tonight.
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Unfortunately, Mike Wise didn't pen another piece of bulletin board material for us, but the Flyers will have to play smart, physical hockey, just like the Caps did in game 5. It's been a great series so far, but it better come to an end tonight. Sorry to the folks who are out of the market; this game is only being broadcast locally.