Sabres Vs. Flyers, Game 7: Philly Chases Ryan Miller, Cruises To Round Two With 5-2 Win

“I think he helped us settle down,” Danny Briere said after Game 7. “It was also something that we started talking about after Game 5. We realized that we were forcing too many plays instead of controlling the puck and taking the shots.”

“I think early in the series you start pressing. You miss four, five, six, seven, it keeps building and you start pressing, then the crowd gets on us and you start taking bad shots. After Game 5 we started talking about just controlling the play a little more. Chris was coming back and obviously that’s what he does so well. He’s good at holding on to the puck and making the right play, the right decision, so he definitely helped us settle down in Games 6 and 7.”

In terms of offensive control and attack, the Philadelphia Flyers were better than the Buffalo Sabres in just about every game of their first round NHL playoff series. Until Game 7, though, that wasn’t necessarily apparent.

But as soon as the puck dropped in the final game of this series, the Flyers took complete control. They kept the puck in the Buffalo end, threw shots at the Sabres net at will and limited Buffalo’s chances at even cracking the blue line. Both James van Riemsdyk and Braydon Coburn each outshot the Sabres in the first period, and the Flyers as a team outshot Buffalo 16-2 in the opening frame.

It certainly feels like Philadelphia has the momentum and the confidence heading into the game, especially with all the injury concerns, but that certainly doesn’t mean the Sabres will be going down easily. They’ll be ready. It’s Game 7.

Tonight’s game can be seen on Versus in the United States and TSN in Canada at 7:30 p.m. ET. For more on the game, check in with our blogs: Broad Street Hockey for Flyers coverage, Die By The Blade on the Sabres. You can find full SBNation.com coverage here.