The Flyers will look to stave off elimination and avoid an upset at the hands of the seventh seeded Sabres in Buffalo this afternoon. The big question is of course, who will be in goal? Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has yet to name a starter and the local beat writers don't seem to have any indication.
Broad Street Hockey ran a poll and Flyers fans voted for Brian Boucher with Sergei Bobrovsky coming second. Michael Leighton got plenty of votes as well, although he was narrowly edged out by "it doesn't matter who starts." The spread of opinions and general resignation of the fans has to fall squarely on the shoulders of Peter Laviolette, who has mishandled his goaltending situation to an almost spectacular degree in this series. This week, Geoff Detweiler wrote a pretty dead on piece about Lavy and his handling of the goalies. It's not glowing...
The other major question is whether Chris Pronger might be ready to this afternoon, but the other players seem to feel he won't. The Flyers will also be without Jeff Carter for another game. It should be interesting to see whether Laviolette opts to dress a player that might actually contribute to the team or whether he'll dress that goon Zac Rinaldo again. As you might guess, Geoff wasn't a fan of that move either.
The Sabres aren't without injuries issue of their own, they'll be without veteran forward Jason Pominville, who is second on the team in points this postseason. He was injured when his ankle was clipped by James van Reimsdyk's skate in game five.
The Flyers will look to get off to a better star than they did last time out, when Brian Boucher gave up three quick goals, the first two of which were almost inexplicably soft. They did fight back to tie the game, but ended up losing in overtime. Danny Briere reminded us that the team has fought back before and has been in a worse position than they currently find themselves.
"I don't know, I felt good about our game," said Briere. "We deserved to win that once again. The chances were lopsided. Bad start spotting them a three- goal lead. It was just a rough start, something we need to improve on. We can't hang our heads. We were in a worse position than that last year, so if there is a group of guys who can do it, I believe in this group of guys here."
"I can look around the room at my teammates that were there and have proven they can rise when the desperation is needed," said Briere.