Flyers excited for playoff challenge of Pens

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Jaromir Jagr was all smiles about facing the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.The former Penguin, who won two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh, gets booed every time he touches the puck there.He craves the attention.Its great for everybody, for the fans and even for our team. Its a new challenge, Jagr said. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Ive always said that.The Penguins will have home ice, but thats not much concern to the Flyers, who own the NHLs best road record of 25-12-3.They are also 5-0 at CONSOL Energy Center since it opened last season.We got road ice advantage, Jagr laughed. You never know. Home ice advantage is for Game 7. Maybe its not going to be a Game 7.He said the Flyers record there gives them confidence they can win the series.On the other side, Jagr added, the playoffs start at 0-0. Lets face it, if we played a first-round series against the New York Rangers, we lost all six of them and I still think wed have a chance to win it. Sometimes you get lucky against one team, but the playoffs are different.Claude Giroux seemed pumped.I love it, Giroux said. I think the guys are going to be pretty excited and its going to be easy for us to get ready for those kind of games, and weve been pretty successful in their building so I think its important for us to go out their and be confident about that.Its going to be a tough series and its going to be a lot of funand thats what hockeys all about.Playoff historyThis will be the sixth playoff series between the two teams. The Flyers are 3-2 in the previous five.Pittsburgh has won the last two playoff seriesthe 2008 conference finals (4 games to 1) and the 2009 conference quarterfinals (4-2).The Flyers defeated the Penguins in the 2000 conference finals (4-2), the 1997 conference quarterfinals (4-1) and the 1989 Patrick Division Finals (4-3).JVRs castForward James van Riemsdyk will be examined on Friday to see if the cast on his left foot is ready for removal, general manager Paul Holmgren said.Once its off and JVR begins skating, he will likely need about 10 days to resume playing again.Ill know more soon, JVR texted CSNPhilly.com.JVR (11 goals, 24 points), who had a disappointing, albeit injury-marred season, suffered a broken bone in his left foot on March 1 against the Islanders.He will finish the season having missed the clubs final 19 games.Loose pucksSabres rookie defenseman T.J. Brennan, from Willingboro, N.J., played 10:17 against the Flyers.The Flyers swept the four games against Buffalo this year, giving them their fifth season sweep over the Sabres and first since 2008-09. ... Claude Giroux recorded his 93rd point of the season, matching Eric Lindros for the most by a Flyer since Lindros had 93 in the 1998-99 season. ... The Flyers are now 20-21-4 when the opponent scores first. Thats the most wins in that situation of any team in the league. ... The Flyers can set a new franchise record for road wins in a season when they go for their 26th on Saturday in Pittsburgh. Their current record of 25 was initially set last year.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.

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