Will Game 3 Give Flyers The Lift Needed At Home?

The Eastern Conference Semi-Final Series of the 6th Seed Boston Bruins against the 7th Seed Philadelphia Flyers continues tonight at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia for a Game 3 matchup.

This game is a must win for the Flyers as they are going into home ice down 2-0 in a best of 7 series and they do not want to go down 3-0 as this is a number that is virtually insurmountable.

Do the Flyers have a shot?  Absolutely.  Both games played in this series were close ones and these teams are more evenly matched than one would think.  During the regular season, all games where close with the exception of the 5-1 Philly loss and on home ice.  Philadelphia won the first 2 meetings of the season and Boston won the last 2.

With Home Ice advantage, comes the last to change the lines and that will provide better match ups with veteran coach Laviolette's squad.  The Bruins will need to win the face offs and make the quick changes needed to counter and so far, in this series, they were edged by the Flyers' 53% Faceoff Win percentage in Game 1 but were clearly outmatched on the face off in Game 2 when Boston won 59%.  

Critical faceoffs have proven to be the difference makers in this series as there were 2 goals that were won by the Bruins in the Flyer's zone that quickly resulted in goals.  The Flyer have done this as well.  Will home ice make a difference?  Hard to say.  Boston only won 1 of 2 road games in the playoffs but it did put the Sabres in a 3-1 hole.  The Flyers need to win Games 3 and 4 to have a good shot at taking this series the distance.  If they split the series, they only have a shot.

Physical play is the Flyers' meat and potatoes of their game as they have the size and speed to outlast most teams in the league.  Injury has plagued the Flyers late in the season and they are without defenseman Ian Laperriere who is their PK specialist.  the Physical play in Hartnell, Carcillo, Pronger, and Asham creates plays and causes their opponents frustration.  Boston also have physical players in Chara, Lucic, Boychuk and Begin.  Not only can they match the Flyers' in the physical tempo, but 3 of these players of the Boston Bruins have scored in the series.  The Flyers also look to feed off the Flyer Nation to gather some emotion.  But some of the players, in particular Carcillo, will have to control that emotion as his antics on the ice have the officiating watching him closely.  If his emotions get the better of him, he could be the Flyers' undoing.  If he tends to go after Savard after the alleged biting of his finger, he could end up in the box as most likely, the officiators have been told to keep this from getting out of control. The same goes for players like Boston's Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic.  Both if which can go at the drop of a hat.

Offensive power  has the Bruins on top (obviously seeing that they are up 2-0 in the series).  The Flyers have some offensive weapons in the always dangerous Mike Richards with 12 pts in the playoffs and 4 points in Games 1 and 2.  Danny Briere has 9 points in the playoffs and also tallied 4 points in this series.  Both are very strong on the puck and can create plays.  Injury had diluted the offense of the Flyers and Carter and Gagne are currently out of the lineups and will not make it into this series.  Boston's injuries were large and lengthy but they have recovered most of their key players with the exception of Defensemen Mark Stuart and Dennis Seidenburg and most recently, Marcro Sturm who was injured on a freak hit that he was delivering and one wrong move proved to have torn his ACL and MCL.  And this on his first shift of the playoffs.  Overall, the edge would have to go in Boston's favor as they have the Defensive depth and maintained a virtually healthy Offensive corp.  This could be a difference maker.  Time will tell in the next 2-5 games.

The Goalies between the pipes are evenly matched in my opinion.  The difference maker in this match up is that the Bruins do have the bigger bodies to crowd Boucher's net and most of their goals in the playoffs were off screens and puck control on the rebounds.  The Flyers need to do the same as they have not been able to crowd Rask when the Bruins collapse on their net to prevent the Flyers from creating traffic.

And here we are just hours away form what will prove to be an exciting Game 3.

Stay tuned on my recap and analysis of the game afterwards.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean"