Saturday, April 30, 2011
Posted: 7:39 p.m.
By Sarah BaickerCSNPhilly.com
Usually, when Danny Brieres line with Ville Leino and Scott Hartnell is making headlines, its because of the trios almost unrivaled offensive prowess.
In Game 1 of this Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Bruins, however, all three finished with negative plusminus ratings (minus-1 for Briere and Leino, minus-2 for Hartnell)and thats despite scoring the Flyers first goal of the game, a beauty of a tap-in off a rebound by Briere that tied the game at 1 midway through the first period.
But from a defensive standpoint, Brieres line was no match for the Bruins top line of Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic and David Krejci, and unfortunately for the Flyers, neither was much of the rest of their squad. In the Flyers ugly 7-3 Game 1 loss, the Krejci-Horton-Lucic trio contributed three goals and three assists.
And the Briere line was on the ice for the Boston top lines first two goals.
We let them get behind us, Briere said. An area theyre strong at is getting to the net. We got outworked in front of the net, and they were able to find a few rebounds and put it past our goalies.
As more than a few of the Flyersand their coachpointed out, the entire team was heavily outworked by practically all of the Bruins lines. Brian Boucher was pulled in the closing minutes of the second period, but responsibility for the loss most certainly does not belong in his hands.
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Of concern to the Flyers, though, is that other teams have managed to quell the Bruins best offensive talent. Even the Montreal Canadiens, notorious for being a relatively small, less physical group, kept the lines impact to a minimum last week.
Krejci, for instance, had only one goal and was minus-1 in Bostons seven-game opening series against the Canadiens. But Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia, the Bruins center contributed two goals, two assists and a team second-best four shots on the Flyers net. Horton had five shots that resulted in a goal and assist of his own.
That success is not a coincidence.
Montreal really paid a lot of attention to that line, Bruins coach Claude Julien said. They really had some hard matchups against that line, and certainly did a great job.This team that were playing right now is very similar to ours. Theyre big, theyre strong, theyre physical. And I think right now, this is a series of going head-to-head.
I think we scored good goals, Krejci said. ...We did the right things -- there was some traffic in front of the net. If you want to score in the playoffs, our line was struggling in the first round, we just have to keep paying the price, put our players in front of the net, and I think tonight it went our way.
Clearly, the Flyers struggled to match up with the Bruins firepower. Where the Canadiens managed to tie up the line, especially Krejci, the Flyers floundered. It almost looked as though the team was ill-prepared to face them, though Kimmo Timonen was quick to dispel that idea.
We knew the system, how they play, Timonen said. They shoot a lot of pucks and they go to the net. And we knew what they were going to try to do, and they did that. It wasnt anything special they did, they were so much better. It was all about us, and how we played, and we were brutal today.
Obviously the Bruins top line has good players. It wasnt anything about them. It was us. We didnt play a good game today.
The Flyers allowed all of the Bruins, but especially the teams top line, to skate deep into their zone largely unchallenged. Defensive breakdowns in front of both Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky, who replaced him, led to big rebounds and, eventually, multiple goals.
We werent playing really well, Mike Richards said. We let them skate. It didnt seem like we played as physical as we wanted to be, Im not sure why, but come next game, weve got to be more physical on their players and make it harder for them to score goals.
Whatever the reason for the Flyers struggles, the good news is, the team has proven its ability to be resilient and move forward from tough losses. Before they reconvene here at the Wells Fargo Center, that will once again have to be the case.
Theres a lesson to be learned from tonights game, Timonen said. It doesnt matter what happened a week ago or yesterday. It looked like we were still ready to enjoy the Buffalo series, and its over. Theres nothing we can do about that anymore. But now we can move on.
Today was probably the worst game we played for a long time. The good thing is, tomorrows tomorrow, were going to watch tape, and Mondays a new game.E-mail Sarah Baicker at sbaicker@comcastsportsnet.com
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