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Can Sabres stop Forsberg?

There have been big momentum shifts in the Buffalo-Philadelphia series. Buffalo looked so good in the first two games, Philadelphia looked good in games three and four.

And what a big change for Peter Forsberg. In the first two games, he didn't play well at all but, back on home ice, he was absolutely dominant (back-to-back two-goal, one-assist performances), just like the Peter Forsberg of old who dominated the playoffs with the Colorado Avalanche.

How are the Buffalo Sabres going to stop him? [.continue.]

Bob McKenzie tries to figure out how Buffalo is going to stop Peter Forsberg. He doesn’t know how.

It will be interesting to see how Buffalo as well as the Flyers responds in game 5.
Each team has won their home games. Was it the fans? The matchups the home team gets that come with home ice?
Hard to say, looking at games 1 and 2, the Flyers played at 2 different levels. The fist game went well even with the loss. The second game they lost discipline and focus. Games 3 and 4 effort and play were about the same.

Can Forsberg have big games in Buffalo? For the Flyers to win the series he needs to.

Looking ahead to the next round, the next opponent for the Flyers or the Sabres look a little clearer after today.

With Ottawa eliminating Tampa Bay and New Jersey eliminating the Rangers, the next round opponent for the Flyers or Sabres will be either one of two teams.

If Carolina wins their series over Montreal, then the Flyers would face Ottawa. If Montreal would win over Carolina then the Flyers would face New Jersey.

Personally, I would rather the Flyers face Ottawa. So go Canes!

   

Flyers take Game 4 5-4 to tie series

The Flyers hold on to win game 4 by the score of 5-4. Sabrespeed failed Buffalo again.

Sabres score the first goal again as they have done all series with a great deflection by Thomas Vanek on the power play. Daniel Briere scored with a lot of help from Eric ‘Mr. fall down’ Desjardins giving the Sabres a 2-0 lead. Robert Esche stopped Briere on a breakaway only to have Desjardins fall, slide and push himself, Esche and the puck into the goal. Two minutes later Desjardins vindicates himself with scoring the Flyers first goal of the night making it a 2-1 Sabres lead. In the second period Peter Forsberg picked up his 3rd goal of the playoffs to tie the game at 2. Derek Roy was awarded a penalty shot for the Sabres, but he missed. In the third Petr Nedved picked up a power play goal giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Later Daniel Briere scored his second goal of the night on a 5 on 3 Sabres power play to against tie the game at 3. R.J. Umberger then scored a soft goal giving the Flyers back the lead at 4-3. Umberger’s goal was the first by a Flyers rookie in this postseason. Peter Forsberg scored his second of the night at 19:11of the third period, an empty netter. Sabre’s goalie Ryan Miller was caught heading off the ice for a potential extra man advantage. This gave the Flyers a 5-3 lead and with Rory Fitzpatrick taking a hooking penalty at 19:31 the Flyers on the power play, mentally started celebrating too soon. Sabre’s Mike Grier scored short handed at 19:41 pulling the Sabres within a goal with the score 5-4. The Flyers were able to survive the last 19 seconds winning a couple critical face offs and having the Sabres take another minor penalty.

R.J. Umberger after scoring his goal, "I've seen that hit enough. So you guys can stop showing that and show the goal over and over now."

Yeah that’s not going to happen.

While Peter Forsberg was the man for the Flyers offensively, Robert Esche deserves equal praise for his work in goal. The only goal I would fault Esche for is the Grier goal, but I suspect mentally his mind was elsewhere, like the majority of Flyers and fans at that point. He was clearly better than Miller last night. I have heard some rumblings from the Buffalo faithful that Martin Biron should get the start in game 5.

Although the Flyers did give up 2 power play goals out of 4 kills, they are playing a more disciplined game. They did not go after Sabres taking bad penalties as in previous games. Unlike one Paul Gaustad of the Sabres. I am not seeing any Flyers fans demanding suspension and such, just a few commenting on what he did was wrong. Like ripping off Umberger’s helmet and giving him a good face wash when it is well known his nose is broken. I could understand if Umberger was involved in some sort of scrum, but he wasn’t, just standing there. Then there is the Gaustad’s charging penalty on Gauthier. While I am sure many of Sabres fan enjoyed it and didn’t think it was a penalty, it most obviously was. It wasn’t really charging, more like checking from behind. And if Gauthier was a foot or two closer to the boards, it would have been a much more dangerous hit. This makes me wonder though, if he was closer to the boards, would have Gaustad been served a major and tossed from the game. I also wonder if Sabres fans would be calling for his suspension with as much energy as they called for Gauthier.

Healthy scratches again for the Flyers were Turner Stevenson, Donald Brashear Ryan Potulny and Ben Eager. Chris Therien, Kim Johnsson and Keith Primeau still injured for the Flyers. For Buffalo Teppo Numminen was out with his heart condition. Jochen Hecht left the game with an upper body injury in the second period after mixing it up a bit with Forsberg.

Peter Forsberg, Robert Esche and Daniel Briere were the three stars of the game.

The series is tied at 2 games a piece. So it’s a best of 3 now. For the ‘idiots’, I mean Flyers, they need to win at least one game in Buffalo to win the series. Also for a chance to see the Captain back on the ice this season.

   

Peter Forsberg old school

When Peter Forsberg went from good to Peter the Great.
1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. Penalty shot that won Sweden the gold.
Thanks to Emma for the clip.

   

Flyers win game 3 4-2

There will be no sweep in this series as the Flyers were able to beat the Sabres in game 3, 4-2. Special teams won the game for the Flyers. Brian Savage scored a short handed goal in the first period to tie up the game at 1. Peter Forsberg scored twice, with the second on the power play. Overall the Flyers were 1 for 5 on the power play, but more importantly killed off all 7 Sabres power plays. Simon Gagne added an empty netter to seal the game.
Scoring for the Sabres was Alex Kotalik in the first and Tim Connolly in the third.

Robert Esche who got more defensive support in this game stopped 26 of 28 shots. Ryan Miller stopped 23 of 26 shots. Each of them let in a soft goal, overall they played about the same.

R.J. Umberger returned to the lineup after the big hit he received in game one. Umberger had 8:16 in ice time, with one hit, one shot and was minus 1. With his return Ben Eager was a healthy scratch. Also scratched was Donald Brashear in favor of Branko Radivojevic.

As if just the win wasn’t enough there had to be more controversy surrounding Denis Gauthier. Late in the second period on the penalty kill Gauthier unintentionally speared J.P. Dumont in an area that I guess was still tender from sports hernia surgery some months ago. Plenty of Sabres fans are going nuts over this since there was no penalty called, it was intentional, he should be suspended, yada yada yada. Lets not speculate what someone’s intent was especially since the players involved say there was no intent to injure which is backed up by replay. If one wanted to speculate one could also speculate the reasoning of why Dumont supposedly under so much pain and distress was down on the ice for so long, had to be helped off the ice and had to be carried back to the dressing room by 4 individuals only to be perfectly fine to play 15 minutes later picking up 7 shifts in the third period. But I won’t go there, lets stick with what we know.

Sabres fans were also upset at the booing Dumont received while he was down on the ice. Does it show class? Nope, but as I said in the game 2 recap part of home ice advantage is have to mentally deal with what fans say/chant/scream, whatever. There was applauding as Dumont was helped off the ice, the Sabres fans must have overlooked that. One thing the fans did that I thought was a little embarrassing was not paying attention to who scored the empty net goal. If Forsberg would have scored it would mean a hatrick and the hats that come with that. But Gagne scored it and the hats came anyway, hats, shirts and even a bra according to one MSG commentator.

Teppo Numminen left the game in the second period with what is being called an upper body injury. No word yet if Sabres fans are going to blame Denis Gauthier for this injury too. Late word is that Numminen left the game with an irregular heart beat. He was diagnosed with a dilated aorta in 2004. I hope it works ok for him, the heart is one thing that you cant mess around with.

Areas that the Flyers need to improve on for game four include staying out of the penalty box, they are still taking too many undisciplined penalties. The Dimitrakos-Umberger-Carter (DUC line) needs to start contributing offensively again. They really became a scoring line in the last couple months of the season. If they could get going it would really help out the Forsberg line.

Stars for the game were Peter Forsberg, Maxim Afinogenov and Brian Savage.

Keith Primeau who was expecting to make his comeback in either game 3 or 4 has suffered a setback and most likely wont be available until the second round at the earliest.
Although his status changes from day to day so really it is hard to tell what his story is.

   

Flyers Sabres Game 3 Tonight

So Game 3 of the Sabres-Flyers series comes to Philly. The Flyers down 2-0 in the series hope to make it 2-1 tonight.
After the emotional outburst by both coaches after the last game they have seem to have settled down.

Ken Hitchcock – “I guess I need to apologize, to use a word like that on television or on radio or in print is not who I am. That's not what I'm about, so saying it was the wrong thing.”

Lindy Ruff - “I've got to focus on my team and how I want them to play and that's where it's all going to lie. I was emotional; he was emotional. I'm over it."

Robert Esche will be back in goal. R.J. Umberger will be returning to the lineup.
Denis Gauthier will also be in the lineup since he was not suspended.

One guy that won’t be in the lineup is Keith Primeau, well that’s what they are currently saying. Game 3 was the game I figured he would make his come back in. I do think he will play in later games. The way it sounds him playing in game 4 is a decent possibility.
Other injuried Flyers include Chris Therien and Kim Johnsson.

As Jon Sim and Mike Knuble had done earlier in the year, Freddy Meyer is keeping a players blog. Here is some of his entry from April 24.

Yesterday I woke up around 9:30 or 10:00, and Joni and I went down and had some breakfast. After that we just went back up to the room and hung out. I have my computer so I just messed around online for a little bit. ....

Ah, life of a professional hockey player.

R.J. Umberger is keeping A Rookie’s Diary over at Courier Post Online.

It was really hard for me to sit there and watch that game when I couldn't be out there, at least going through it with my teammates. I know what they're going through and it was tough to watch that. I felt I could have helped out. I obviously wouldn't have changed the game much, but you hate to see your team go through something like that. ....

   

Denis Gauthier Not Suspended

As a Flyer fan the Flyers play and TSN bailing on the game weren’t the only reasons to be pissed at game 2. Denis Gauthier was penalized for a check from behind on Thomas Vanek. A 5 minute major and a game misconduct, he got booted. I am not one usually one to speak the French, but that was a bullshit call. Was it worth a minor penalty, eh sure, but a major and a misconduct, no F-ing way. He checked with his right shoulder into the side and back of Vanek’s left shoulder. I looked at this hit several times on tivo and pausing the replay shown from the side it looks like they are standing next to each other with their shoulders touching. If Gautheir hit him square between the numbers I wouldn’t be complaining too much. What aggravated this more for me was the rant from Bob McKenzie during the second intermission.

A player like Denis Gauthier of the Philadelphia Flyers has a reputation in the National Hockey League. When a player like that hits someone hard, many like to jump to conclusions.

That being said, Gauthier's hit from behind on Toronto's Kyle Wellwood near the end of the regular season was a blatant cheap shot and it earned him a two-game suspension. He can say sorry all he wants but, obviously, Gauthier didn't learn his lesson, because on Monday night he did it again against Thomas Vanek of the Buffalo Sabres. It was a dangerous play that resulted in a five minute major.

So Bob, did you actually watch the hit? Or did someone tell you about the hit to give you something to talk about during the intermission, since the way you ranted was really embarrassing since the hit really wasn’t that bad. View both hits and tell me how at all were they similar.

I think Colin Campbell and the NHL should suspend Gauthier. This guy should forfeit the right to play in the postseason. This was a nothing game because the score was so out of hand, and Gauthier went way over the line. That's embarrassing and he should be suspended.

He should be suspended because of one hit, because of his reputation? So much for not jumping to any conclusions. This is one problem I have with the new NHL. Anyone with a reputation is getting punished. Boarding, instigating in the last 5 minutes of play is fine if you don’t have a reputation, but if you do then it will cost you.

The NHL should go to the minor hockey rule - if the referee says it's a hit from behind, it's an automatic two minutes and you're out of the game.

Hits from behind happen throughout the game, the only time they get called which is usually a boarding call is when a player is a couple feet away from the boards. Sure Bob, let’s make all hits from behind illegal. I can see it now, players skating backwards down the ice. If they aren’t skating backwards they are all facing the boards so no one can touch them.

The good news though with all this ranting is that Denis Gauthier was not suspended, because simply the hit was not and should not be a suspendable hit, nor should it have been a game misconduct.

   

NHL Center Ice no more TSN

It seems that I wasn’t the only one a bit unhappy with TSN bailing on game 2 of the series.
Here is an email a Sabres fan received back from the NHL about this issue.

Thank you for your email.
NHL Center Ice took the TSN feed of the Buffalo-Philadelphia game. Unfortunately, when the score of that game got out of hand, TSN decided to switch to Devils-Rangers. We were unaware and unable to switch feeds quickly. In the future, we will be taking feeds from the local RSNs instead of the national networks to avoid this problem.
Thanks,
NHL Center Ice
******************
http://www.nhl.com/nhlhq/centerice/index.html

This isn’t the fist time I have seen TSN change games this season. I am glad Center Ice has decided to go with more reliable feeds.

   

Sabres take game 2 8-2

The Flyers got thumped by the Sabres in game two of the playoff series 8-2. The Sabres scored 5 goals on 10 shots in the first period. This led to Robert Esche being pulled after the first and Antero Niittymaki playing the rest of the game. Although Robert Esche was for the most part stellar in game one stopping 55 of 58 shots, he couldn’t get it going in game 2. To be honest most of those goals you really can’t pin on Esche. Defensive break downs in front of him led to the scoring chances, whether it is Desjardins trying to pinch, Rathje not covering his man on the power play or Pitkanen being out of position leading to another odd man rush. It was not just them, the entire team play very poor defensively.

Hitchcock talks about playing good positional hockey which can offset the Sabres speed and I believe it can. However the pace the Flyers play at needs to pick up. When the Flyers have the puck they need to move it more quickly and when they don’t have the puck they need to pressure the puck along with the defense being more aware of the Sabres forwards. The Flyers don’t have to try to match the Sabres skating speed, but they do need to make decisions quicker and respond quicker to things happening on the ice. For some including Philly media who view the Flyers as the glass half empty, their predictions so far have unfortunately turned out to be true.

Scoring for the Flyers were Simon Gagne a minute into the 2nd period and Petr Nedved about 6 minutes into the third. The Flyers managed 22 shots on goal, 8 in the first, 4 in the second and 10 in the third.
For the Sabres Jea-Pierre Dumont and Jason Pominville both picked up hat tricks. Chris Drury and Ales Kotalik also scored.

Robert Esche game up 5 goals on 10 shots. Antero Niittymaki gave up 3 goals on 18 shots in the 2nd and 3rd period.

Chants of USA went up during the first period from Buffalo fans. For those that don’t know. Robert Esche was picked as one of the goalies for Team USA in this past Olympics over Ryan Miller. The picks were made early in the season at the time Miller was really an unknown at least on the NHL level outside of Buffalo. But as the season progressed Miller’s stats were stronger than Esche’s and probably the other two goalies picked. So Buffalo fans thought he should have been picked decided to make themselves known with the USA chant. I agree with the TSN commentators that the fans weren’t showing much class with the chant. However this is playoff hockey and anything fans can say/yell/chant that gets the other team off their game is fair game. It just shows the Sabres fans don’t forget. In other news Brett Hull has announced that he is coming out of retirement to play for the Flyers for the rest of this series. But seriously, this game wasn’t about goalies. If one could pickup and swap the two goalies, putting Miller in the Flyers net and Esche in the Sabres, the results would have been about the same.

Although Robert Esche only played a period he did get some Hextall type action in. While skating toward the bench for a Sabres penalty call Esche went after Derek Roy for going after Forsberg which to be honest was quite funny. I always enjoy a goalie mucking it up.

R.J. Umberger who was expected to play was scratched since he didn’t pass his baseline test. In the beginning of each season each player has basically head tests done to create their baseline. So when they get wacked in the head the trainers can run tests to see how the hit to the head has affected them. Umberger failed the memory portion of the test. He will be retested before the next game. Branko Radivojevic got the start replacing him. Ben Eager also got some playing with Donald Brashear a healthy scratch. Eager had 6 minutes of icetime picking up 2 roughing, 1 tripping and 2 10 minute misconduct penalties. Even with Eagers penalties I like his speed and offensive skills over Brashear.

Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock and Sabres coach Lindy Ruff got into a little war of worlds.

Lindy Ruff - "The more they acted like idiots, the more we wanted to play."
Ken Hitchcock – “That's Lindy's opinion. I've seen his teams do the same thing. He ought to not talk about that. . . . Tell Lindy to (expletive deleted) off. Mind his own (expletive deleted) business."

That’s good stuff, all the emotional stuff of playoff hockey. Although quotes today from both of them backing off their comments.

Hitchcock is taking the blame for the game. "Look, it's my responsibility to get the team ready, OK? This is on me. We were embarrassed for our fans and for the city of Philadelphia with the way we played. We've got to make amends when we go back home and get this series back even. We've got a lot of work to do."

As much as there was as a Flyer fan to complain about I also have to bitch about TSN and a lesser extent about NHL Center Ice. As I have mentioned before I have NHL Center Ice. This gives me access to all the games that are not nationally broadcasted games in the US. Center Ice picks a feed, how they decide which one, I don’t know. But last night’s game they went with TSN. Besides having to watch Canadian commercials this is really not a big deal, until last night. The Sabres were up 5-0 at the end of the first period. I am sure many fair weather fans, like Shawn decided just to turn it off. But a fan like myself although irritated at the Flyers for their play was still very interested in the game. Several minutes into the second period TSN decided that since the game was a blowout at that point they were going to cut to another game, which they did. TSN stopped showing the Flyers game and started showing the OLN feed, the Rangers vs Devils. As much as this pissed me off, this had to piss off Buffalo fans watching TSN even more. TSN did come back to the game late in the second period when the game started to get ‘chippy’ as they say, only to breakaway again during intermission. Thanks a lot TSN for showing less than half the game you were scheduled to broadcast. Center Ice apparently asleep at the wheel took them quite a while to switch to another feed, MSG with about 6 minutes remaining in the game. Thanks for the effort TSN!

Nedved scored 9 seconds after Gagne had a goal disallowed when a video review showed the net had been dislodged, which I really can’t talk about since the game wasn’t important enough for TSN to finish showing. Also missed Eagers first 10 minute misconduct and some of the ‘chippy’ play.

   

It’s Mullet Madness!

Just like an octopus being tossed at The Joe or tossing hats after a hat trick, there is another tried and true tradition in hockey: the mullet.

We're not talkin' fish here, people. We're talkin' hair. Big hair from the neck down.

It's the only cut that we know that has its own motto: "business in the front, party in the back." The only hairdo to earn a line in one of the best movies of all time, "Cool Hand Luke." You remember, don't you? When Dragline yelled out "mulletheads!"

We got to thinking. Who is the most famous mullethead? With all due respect to David Bowie, we say it's Barry Melrose. And what better time to salute the mullet than the playoffs, when all that's good and pure about hockey will shine through.

So, here is our First (and maybe only) Melrose Mullet Madness Gallery. Mr. Melrose gives his own commentary and insight as only he can. But don't get too excited, Barry's hair care secrets will not be revealed here.

As I expected Michal Handzus gets the nod for head of hair at #6.

   

It’s Mullet Madness!

Just like an octopus being tossed at The Joe or tossing hats after a hat trick, there is another tried and true tradition in hockey: the mullet.

We're not talkin' fish here, people. We're talkin' hair. Big hair from the neck down.

It's the only cut that we know that has its own motto: "business in the front, party in the back." The only hairdo to earn a line in one of the best movies of all time, "Cool Hand Luke." You remember, don't you? When Dragline yelled out "mulletheads!"

We got to thinking. Who is the most famous mullethead? With all due respect to David Bowie, we say it's Barry Melrose. And what better time to salute the mullet than the playoffs, when all that's good and pure about hockey will shine through.

So, here is our First (and maybe only) Melrose Mullet Madness Gallery. Mr. Melrose gives his own commentary and insight as only he can. But don't get too excited, Barry's hair care secrets will not be revealed here.

As I expected Michal Handzus gets the nod for head of hair at #6.

   

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