Game 62, Preview and Game Thread: Philadelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres
by Travis Hughes on Mar 5, 2010 6:33 PM EST
in 09-10 Game Threads
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PrintPhiladelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres, Mar 5, 2010 7:30 PM EST
#6 Philadelphia Flyers (33-26-3, 69 pts) at #5 Florida Panthers (33-20-9, 75 pts)
HSBC Arena - 7:30 PM ET - Buffalo, NY
TV: The Comcast Network HD, MSG Buffalo HD
Radio: 610 WIP, XM 204
This is the open game thread.
Get Buffalo reaction at Die By The Blade
You want important hockey? You've got it tonight. With a win, the Flyers will be within four points of fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Keep that in mind.
You want a sense of how seriously the Flyers are taking this big game? Look no further than the lineup card, specifically the second line. Danny Briere, Jeff Carter and Ville Leino, baby.
All kidding aside, of course, tonight is a big time game for the Flyers. A win would not only bring us closer to the Sabres, but if the Leafs can somehow squeak a win out in Ottawa, the orange and black could be just eight points behind the Senators before the end of the night... with three games in hand.
Michael Leighton gets the start after a pretty terrible game against Florida on Wednesday. Well, that's not totally fair. He was quite good in the first period but his stuff definitely got away from him rather quickly as the game progressed. Some may say that Brian Boucher should get to see action in a second straight game since not having the chance to play in so long, but the argument can also be made that you want Leighton to get back in net quickly after having a poor outing.
Whatever your opinion, Leighton is in. His opposition? The offensively mediocre Buffalo Sabres, who are 16th in the league in goals per game with 2.68. (The Flyers allow 2.69 goals per game, so expect .685 of the puck to cross the line after Buffalo scores two, tonight.) Obviously, though, Raffi Torres is the cure to all of their offensive issues. They are certainly a defense first team, starting with Ryan Miller and a defense led by... Henrik Tallinder? Craig Rivet? Tyler Myers?
It doesn't matter who actually leads their defense -- it's good. The blueline and Mr. Miller in goal are the reasons the Sabres are such a solid team this season, but they're a team that you can control the pace against. They also give up 31.7 shots per game, so it basically just comes down to the Flyers being able to put a few of those behind Miller. You know, with the usual stuff: traffic in front, smart shot selection, a little bit of creativity and hard work.
It's a big game. Get it done, Flyers.
After the jump, starting lineups, questions to answer, and our in-game discussion.
Flyers Line Combinations
Gagne - Richards - Carcillo
Leino- Carter - Briere
Hartnell - Giroux - JVR
Asham - Betts - Laperriere
Pronger - Carle
Timonen - Krajicek
Parent - Coburn
Leino jumps up to the second line, Hartnell to the 3rd, Asham to the 4th. Bartulis still out.
Buffalo Line Combinations
Vanek - Connolly - Stafford
Torres - Roy - Pominville
Hecht - Kennedy - Grier
Mair - Ellis - Kaleta
Myers- Tallinder
Rivet - Sekera
Montador - Lydman
Starting Goaltenders
Questions To Answer
- Can the Flyers control the offensive tempo of the game?
- Will Michael Leighton bounce back after Wednesday's loss?
- How does Ville Leino look with an increased role?
- Can the Flyers as a whole not make the same careless mistakes that they made in Florida?
Tonight's game is on The Comcast Network. Damn Sixers. Listen on 610 WIP, and chat it up here in our game thread. LET'S GO FLYERS!
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Let's dull the butter knives tonight, Baby!
I would really like to see Jeff Carter-Danny Briere-Ville Leino, but getting Leino a legit shot to see if he has some offensive talent on a winger starved team is a good start. This is an important game to see how we play against over 500 teams, not that the under 500’s has gone as particularly planned. Let’s Go Flyers!
Where are you that you don’t have TCN? Is that strictly for Comcast Philly subscribers? Is it going to be blacked out on free Center Ice tonight?
Verizon customers don’t get TCN. Only Comcast subscribers in the Philly area.
Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog. Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Travis Hughes on Mar 5, 2010 7:18 PM EST up reply actions
And yeah, it should still be on CI if you’re not in Philly or Buffalo
Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog. Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Travis Hughes on Mar 5, 2010 7:18 PM EST up reply actions
I’d rather be the 6th seed and play Ottawa/Buffalo than be the 5th seed and play Pittsburgh/New Jersey.
Fixed the lines with the real ones for tonight. A few changes.
Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog. Makin' it look mean since 1967.
My guess is they think Asham fits with Betts and Lappy better, and they wanna keep Carcillo up top.
Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog. Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Travis Hughes on Mar 5, 2010 7:32 PM EST up reply actions
whoops ^^^
disregard that
Eat what the monkey eats, then eat the monkey. -U.S. Navy survival guidance
Anyone else getting some horrid lag… on TV? Vid feed is choppy as hell on CSN.
by BroadStreetBully on Mar 5, 2010 7:53 PM EST reply actions
Odd thing is the sixers game and the commercials are coming in fine. just the game video is choppy. Audio is fine.
by BroadStreetBully on Mar 5, 2010 7:56 PM EST up reply actions
So how are they skating….the feed at adthe is a bit choppy..real hard to tell. are they skating spunky or clunky
There’s 3 more feeds over at nhlbroadcast.blogspot.com, did you try those?
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 8:10 PM EST up reply actions
wow. the rare 0 penalties, 0 goals.
Eat what the monkey eats, then eat the monkey. -U.S. Navy survival guidance
What I miss I just walked in? Still 0-0?
"NO HONOR"
"We will steal the show, jolly Rogers go, we are wolves of the sea."
Does anyone know where to find past Coates Corner? Specifically the last games one on the 80 undefeated streak?
I can’t hear the announcers right now over everything going on here…. Did they mention that goal tied Gagne w/ Reggie Leach for 11th place on the Flyers all time point list?
I honestly wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read on Monday morning that he was only 4 points shy, but once I read that I attempted to keep track.
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 8:40 PM EST up reply actions
See above. I just read a whole list on Monday of how close people were to milestones, thats the only reason
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 8:40 PM EST up reply actions
is it the way of hockey in general or is it just us falling asleep after a goal….it seems like the word is out that we’re on our heels after a goal and we great bumrushed…I didn’t see the goals… I was cleaning my cache and tmp folder out, so couldn’t what the feed, but them seemed to happen right after one another
sg-1 (stargate-1) SyFy show that was a movie staring james spader and kurt russel. It was the longest running sci-fi show….I didn’t watch when it aired ‘96-’05 (somewhere in that time) but all the episodes are on hulu…so with only maybe 3 minutes of ads it practically commerial free …so you find yourself watching 5 in a row like a junky. one of the character’s name is Carter
I bet you Pronger is playing hurt. He’s lost several steps, starting with the Olympics and continuing now. He doesn’t look quite right.
Hopefully I am wrong.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Yes I did. I emailed Travis and he very kindly sent the request through to the powers that be. Thank goodness, I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose my name. Probably that I wouldn’t say much and just look through all the comments.
"NZFlyerfan"
Yea I want to be just M. I will take that up with our fearless leader. Thanks Oh and how do you get the NZFlyerfan on top?
I think its just a signature that you can change through your profile. Just clicky your name at the top of the page and you’ll be able to find it for sure
"NZFlyerfan"
That was supposed to be “knock that in behind Leighton”
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:19 PM EST up reply actions
That definitely doesn’t roll off the tongue as cleanly as Carter or Pronger….
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:36 PM EST up reply actions
Its the beer talking I swear. I’ve been wanting to play the Hartnell drinking game for ages and now that I can he plays decent
"NZFlyerfan"
Not many Saturday afternoon games for you, right?
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:46 PM EST up reply actions
Man how does that happen
6 minutes left and one of the dumbest plays ever made
pick your odds – chance opposing team scores right after flyers score
or
walking thru parts of Cambodia where Pol Pot’s landmines haven’t been removed yet without losing a limb
It’s taken them about 2-3 minutes to get it back after we score, so if we can get another one in oh, 90 seconds or so we might be safe
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:50 PM EST up reply actions
Bullcrap
you dont call penalties all game then you call that???
Leighton clearly thrives on people doubting him. If he knew Todd the Fox was warming to him, that’d be an automatic goal against.
You didn’t change your mind back to ‘doubt’ fast enough
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:59 PM EST up reply actions
Argh, I hate when they declare the “save of the game” and the “player of the game” before the game is over, or even close to over….
I would normally agree. Miller’s saves were awesome though and that isn’t likely to be beaten
"NZFlyerfan"
It happens all the time, it just drives me nuts in general
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 9:57 PM EST up reply actions
I’m trying to figure out whose man he was, but I didn’t get a good look at the wide shot and I don’t have a DVR to rewind it
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 10:01 PM EST up reply actions
Hartnell squared up on him when he initially brought it into the zone, but one of the D-men should have taken him.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
But then didn’t Hartnell go toward the guy at the point to try to block the shot? I really need to start DVRing the games, I know…
by DragonGirl0583 on Mar 5, 2010 10:15 PM EST up reply actions
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