The Flyers will look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead when they face the Buffalo Sabres in game four of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series tonight at HSBC Arena.
The Sabres stole home ice advantage with a game one win, but the Flyers have bounced back to win two straight to grab the advantage back. A win tonight would put the Flyers in a position to close out the series Friday in Philadelphia. Should that happen, it would be the first time in 9 series between the Flyers and Sabres that the team who won game one did not win the series. The Flyers 18-3 all-time when leading a series two games to one. They've also never lost a series to the Sabres which they led at any point.
It does not appear as though Chris Pronger will be ready to go for game four. Andreas Nodl is also likely out, which means that Nikolay Zherdev, who scored the game winner in game three, will be in the lineup.
The series, which has been very chippy between the teams from the start, got a little extra juice when Sabres goalie Ryan Miller took a shot at his former teammate Daniel Briere. Miller says that Briere has been doing a lot of trash talking to him on the ice.
"Yeah, because it’s all fluff coming from him after the amount of years we’ve known each other. You can’t automatically hit a light switch and be a hard ass to me. It’s not going to do anything. I respect his talent and I respect what he wants I try to do out there, and if you try to get the better of each other, and when he gets the better you know it’s the headline. Even though he gets however many chances, if one goes in, it’s a headline."
Briere, who now has five goals and four assists in seven games in Buffalo since becoming a Flyer, denied Miller's accusation and refused to be drawn into a war of words.
"Wow," Briere texted CSNPhilly.com. "He’s definitely getting wrong info. First, I haven’t said a word to him on the ice and off the ice, I’ve only had good things to say about him because of the respect I have for him. So, I’m not gonna play that game with him."
Briere did however heap some praise on his current teammate and goaltender, Brian Boucher.
"We talked about Ryan Miller stealing a game for them in the first one and that was Boucher for us [in game 3]. Especially in the first period we had a lot of bad turnovers but Brian was able to keep us in the game."
Boucher stopped 35 of 37 shots in the Flyers' game three win.