Philadelphia Flyers Vs. New Jersey Devils, NHL Playoffs 2012: Complete Series Coverage

As the saying goes, every dog has its day.

“Really proud of our group,” said New Jersey head coach Peter DeBoer in his postgame press conference. “Proud of how we stuck to the game plan. Proud of how we turned the other cheek. Proud of how hard we competed against a very hardworking and competitive team.”

The Flyers never really did get on track after a strong start. New Jersey continued to do the things they had done all series: pressure the puck carrier while keeping Philly’s only options to the perimeter when it came to scoring and moving the puck up ice. The Flyers were never really, truly able to establish strong time in the Devils’ zone outside of a few stretches in the first period, and even when they were only down a goal, it never seemed like they had much of a chance.

As you’d expect, New Jersey fell into a defensive shell after taking the two-goal lead, and the orange-clad fans didn’t hesitate to begin heading to the exits with five minutes remaining in the game.

Rinaldo often walks on the edge, but this hit was of the clean variety. It wasn’t a charge, and he kept his skates on the ice while hitting Volchenkov directly in the chest.

The Devils’ big, physical defenseman left the game with an injury, but he did return about six minutes of game time later, so it doesn’t appear to be anything too serious.

We have full coverage of Game 5 between the Flyers and Devils in our StoryStream. For more on the Devils, check in with In Lou We Trust, and for more on the Flyers, check in with Broad Street Hockey.

Even if they didn’t deserve it.

The night went much like Game 2 of the series. With a chance to take a 2-0 lead, Philadelphia was vastly outplayed last Tuesday. That night, the Devils outshot the Flyers by a 35-20 margin, and they also led in missed shots, 12-5. Throw in the fact that Philly skaters blocked 23 shots while Jersey players only needed to block 12, and the lopsided 70-37 margin between the shots attempted by each club is very indicative of which team had possession of the puck for the majority of the game and which end of the ice the action was taking place.

It didn’t take Therien long to apologize, via three separate tweets:

They’ve been hard on the forecheck, pinning the Flyers defense in deep and keeping the puck away from them. It’s given the Flyers fits when they try to break out of their own end, and they haven’t been able to establish any type of offensive rhythm as a result. That’s been true for much of the series, it was true again on Sunday night, and if it’s true in Game 5, the Devils will be off to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Puck is gone. Primary point of contact is the head. Zubrus seemed to be alright afterward, but we’ll have to see if any injury comes out of this. It’s an illegal hit, and if this were the regular season, it’d probably be a suspendable hit. As we’ve learned in these playoffs, though, the NHL is reluctant to toss out star players in these situations, and the two-minute minor penalty for head contact might be the only discipline resulting from the play.

The teams took turns dominating territorial play and pinning their opponents deep in their own end, but Philadelphia made several costly mental mistakes that led to poorly executed defensive zone coverage, including on the game-winning goal.

In addition to the game-winning goal, Flyers’ defensive zone coverage gaffes combined to cost them the game:

Philly had two power play opportunities in the overtime period. On the first, the Flyers passed the puck around the perimeter for what seemed like the entire duration of the man advantage. On the second, New Jersey’s phenomenal penalty kill thwarted every chance the Flyers had at setting up a scoring opportunity.

That was likely the difference in the game. New Jersey has held court thus far on home ice and they’ll try to take a commanding 3-1 series lead on Sunday at Prudential Center.

But as the third period began, Bryzgalov’s teammates failed to step up in front of him. It was only a matter of time before the relentless Devils forecheck paid off, and that’s exactly what it did just 3:08 into the final period.

How did Larsson get all that open space?

But something changed on the way to an 0-2 series deficit for New Jersey, as it cranked up its effort and began to dominate territorial play.

It was the team that has historically been unspectacular offensively that just would not be denied in the end, even without Kovalchuk to lead the way back. The Devils kept chipping away, and it was only a matter of time before they broke through Bryzgalov’s wall in front of the Philly cage.

The Devils crushed the Flyers, 4-1, in Game 2 at Wells Fargo Center. As the clock wound down with the game decided in the third period, the two teams got into a bit of a scrum, as is typical when emotions boil over late in a professional hockey contest where the outcome has already been decided.

Yeah, about Clarkson though. What exactly was he doing in that scrum? We’ll need to examine the video tape on this one.

“The Flyers opened as -150 chalk but it was bet down this morning,” said Mike Pickett of OddsShark.com. “Now it’s heading in the other direction again, and it could climb considerably before puck drop.”

The Flyers won 4-3 in OT in Game 1 and got stronger as the game wore on. New Jersey needs all the firepower it can muster, and this is not good news for its hopes in the series.

Kovalchuk did not look good in Game 1 against Philadelphia. He played an abnormally low 21:20 of total ice time in the game, and more surprising was the zero shots on goal he registered in that time. He was virtually invisible on the ice.

We have full coverage of Game 2 between the Flyers and Devils in our StoryStream. For more on the Flyers, check in with Broad Street Hockey, and for more on the Devils, check in with In Lou We Trust.

In his fifth spring in Philadelphia, the man that set the franchise mark with 30 points during the club’s 2010 run to the Stanley Cup Finals is proving he has no intentions of a short-lived playoffs this year.

“He’s been doing it his whole career,” said Giroux after the game. “He is clutch. He is the guy we count on, and his line was unbelievable tonight. Him, James (van Riemsdyk) and Jake (Voracek) did great. They are fast. They can skate. It was pretty cool to watch them play.”

Peter Laviolette is many things.

The only remaining question: Which Peter Laviolette fist pump is superior?

Game 2 will be played on Tuesday evening at Wells Fargo Center.

We have full coverage of Flyers vs. Devils Game 1 in our StoryStream. For more from the New Jersey perspective, check in with In Lou We Trust. For more from the Philadelphia perspective, check in with Broad Street Hockey.

Didn’t faze either of them. Professional men. Also, professional trolling from Mr. Hartnell.

The Flyers held a slight edge during the season, 3-2-1, with a pair of 3-0 Philadelphia shutouts bookending the six-game set.

OFFENSE

The Flyers and Devils kick off their series on Sunday afternoon from Philadelphia, and the Flyers have to feel lucky to have home-ice advantage in the second round as a No. 5 seed in their conference. Here’s the full series schedule:

For more on the Devils, check in with In Lou We Trust. For more on the Flyers, check in with Broad Street Hockey.