Is Philadelphia finished?
By Doug Upstone
The Flyers gave a much better overall accounting of themselves in Game 2 and dominated the last 20 minutes, but they dont hand out Stanley Cups for trying, you have to win four games to take home this trophy which is large dilemma in Philadelphia.
The Flyers outshot Chicago 15-4 in the last period and against 80 percent of the teams in the NHL they would have won the last stanza 3-0 or more, however not every team has a goalie like Antti Niemi between the pipes, who made a handful of incredible saves to keep Philly shooters out of the net but once.
Philadelphia has remorse for not playing with the same passion the entire contest.
"I thought we were way too conservative in the first two periods," Philadelphia forward Danny Briere said. "We didn't give them much, I understand that. But it's not really our type of hockey. We didn't forecheck. We didn't create much offensively. We didn't spend much time in their zone." This left the Flyers 6-18 against good passing teams averaging five or more assists per game this season.
What was particularly painful was letting down at the exact wrong moment. Ben Eager, a former Flyer, is a high energy enforcer who was moved from fourth line duty to the first line by coach Joel Quenneville with Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien, just seconds after Marian Hossa had broken scoreless tie.
Philadelphia had done exceptional work in keeping the Blackhawks top unit down and Quenneville wanted an individual to mix it up, especially after he had flatten a couple of Philly players earlier the game.
What could not have expected was Eager unleashing a blast just 28 seconds after Chicago had taken initial lead, that beat goalie Michael Leighton to the glove side. It was awesome, said Adam Burish, with whom Eager usually plays with on the fourth unit. It was a beauty. It was almost like a practice drill; he comes flying down that wing and snaps one and hes got a heavy shot when he lets it go.
However, Chicago wouldnt be 44-21 off a home win had it not been for netminder Niemi. The 26-year rookie has exceptional flexibility and he needed it throughout the third period with the Philly barrage. We call him the octopus because he's got arms and legs going everywhere," Chicago forward Adam Burish said. "He was special tonight. Niemi was unbelievable in that third period. Some of the pucks, I don't know how he saw them."
Philadelphia might be dire straits (teams that sweep the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals are 31-2), however they are in familiar territory (think Boston series) and have leaders like Chris Pronger upon returning home where they are 22-7 the second half of the season.
"Yeah, I think we need to play with more desperation than we did, like the third period," Pronger said. "We need to play with that passion, energy, drive, determination, like we did in the third through the whole game. It needs to be 60 minutes."
The Flyers are 7-1 in the tournament at the Wachovia Center and 9-1 in last 10 since April 4. BetUS.com has Philadelphia as -130 money line play with total lowered to Ov5.5.
With the unbalanced schedule in place, this will be just Chicagos 10th visit to the City of Brotherly Love in 14 years and they have one win in the time span. The Blackhawks are 20-5 after playing exactly two consecutive home games this season and 8-1 UNDER in road tilts with six-game or more win streak.
The Flyers have lived dangerously almost all season, with their margin for error thinner than a skate blade and are 6-14 revenging consecutive losses to opponent as a favorite. The Flyers are 8-1 UNDER off a road failure by one goal this season.
The first game in Philly has an 8:00 Eastern start on NBC, with Chicago having won seven straight on the playoff road.