Philadelphia – This game featured one of the most exciting first periods of hockey this season. It was 3-3 at the end but a lot happened and we’ll start with the Flyers positives.

1) Danny Briere got on the board even if the puck hit his skate and he smiling after the game and he looked as if a weight had been lifted off his back since he always wants to do well against his old team.
2) The Flyers had setup a double slot in front of Ryan Miller. Jeff Carter and Mike Richards did their best to try and make sure his vision was obstructed.
3) The fake pass/shot by Ville Leino was something he did last year in the playoffs and he got his first goal as a result and put the Flyers up 5-2 (they eventually won 5-4) and to me that was the most important goal of the game.
4) JVR got a nice goal and he was a force on the ice. He looks like he is coming into his own right now.
Sabres
1) Thomas Vanek scored twice and when he was near the net he was wreaking havoc.
2) Tim Connolly had an assist and a very strong shot on the power play. Buffalo was 2-8 on that which was better than the Flyers.
3) Defenseman Tyler Myers logged a pretty solid 23:23.

Negatives
Flyers –
1) The Flyers pushed the button the goaltending and now Brian Boucher (stopped 20 of 21 shots) is the guy. It hasn’t been officially announced but I am presuming this. Now the bigger question is will Michael Leighton take over as the backup? Only time will tell with that one.
2) Chris Pronger looks like he will miss a few more games and the Flyers are certainly rallying the troops without him but at some point will they really need him late in the series. They need him on the power play (it was 1-10).
3) Jeff Carter and Mike Richards totaled four shots on goal and zero points. They have to start scoring for this team.
Sabres
1) The Sabres perfect defensive system from Game 1 seemed to be missing in Game 2.
2) Ryan Miller’s glove hand seemed to be a bit slower in this game and he let a few get by that he could have stopped.
3) When the Sabres started to get overly aggressive it seemed to really wake the Flyers up and they elevated their game as a result.

Notes: Sergei Bobrovsky was removed after giving up 3 goals on just seven shots. I thought that last goal by Buffalo’s Andrej Sekera wasn’t his fault since there was a 3-on-1 and he was playing the shooter, what else could he do there? With all of that said he had let in a soft goal before that to Thomas Vanek. My sense is he won’t be back this series since he wasn’t very sharp against the Islanders late in the season.

Looking ahead: This will be a long series, and both teams will dig in and start over on Monday. My sense is they will play the next game a little closer to the vest.

Quote of the Day:
Briere got knocked down in the face-off circle by Paul Gaustad early in the game. Did that fire up his team?

“In the ref’s defense, it was a very chippy game. It was a tough one to ref. They were put in a tough position, but certainly right off the bat I thought he was crowding the faceoff. I tried to get on the inside, but he just took me and pushed me to the ground. After that I think everybody was fired up even more, with the penalties we had called on us. At the end of the night it all evens out it seems. Like I said, in their defense it was a tough game.”

Check out a full game recap here:
http://centericephilly.com/?p=1193

* photo courtesy of Andrew King