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Photos and quotes via the Flyers

Lindy Ruff: 

Our chance was in Game 6 and we had it.  We didn’t take advantage of some of the situations that could have put the team away like they put us away tonight. 

 

This game was over before it started. But let’s take a little journey through the contest, anyway. 

The Flyers dominated the first period, outshooting the Sabres 16-2. 16-2. Had they started no goalie and just opted for the extra man, it’s entirely possible they still may have escaped the first period with a lead. As it was, their first 15 shots weren’t enough to beat Ms. Miller. Enter Danny Briere.

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How’s this for coaching beauty? Lavs put both Briere and Giroux on the ice to win the draw. Giroux cheated on the play and was kicked out of the faceoff- I’m fairly confident that when there’s another center on the ice, the Flyers cheat on purpose… because it almost seemed planned.

Pronger:

“Yeah, I think he wanted to have two right handed faceoff guys out there.  You know, G cheats on the draw a little bit and gets thrown out, then Danny B. goes in, wins the draw, and we were able to score a goal.  It’s little subtle things like that, that the coach has to read.  You get hunches or whatever the case may be, or you go with the percentages.  You know, two right handed centermen trying to win a draw on that side; usually it works.”

 

It worked. 

Briere hopped in, requested that Paul Gaustad remove his stick from the dot, and then won the draw back to Coburn.

Result?

Give the videos a few seconds to load.

Danny_briere_ryan_miller

Heh. 1-0.

Ohh rub me with those magic hands.

Early in the second period? Same story.

Briere beat Gaustad on the draw. And this:

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Briere snagged Richards’ shot between the legs of the defenseman, corralled the puck and buried it into the back of the net.

There are those hands again. Mmm.

This should really come as no surprise, he used them to his advantage in both Games 5 and 6, seen here:

and here:

If Roy Halladay’s hands are big and safe, Briere’s are thick and soft… like a chewy chocolate chip cookie. 4C hands. Iced tea! Where were we?

Next, on the powerplay, it was James van Riemsdyk getting all handsy with Miller.

This is getting ugly. But Miller thought it was mostly luck. Denial!

“I don’t know, they came strong and I think we were a little hesitant. I thought we were working through it and they were lucky to get out of the first period with a lead. We almost got away with that first period and if we did it would have been a different game.

Yeah, I thought we were going to get away with that first period and it was a tough bounce. You know, we played a pretty good second period and they got two good bounces; one just sat there perfect for Danny (Briere), it didn’t get through and sat there on his tape. (James) Van Riemsdyk tips in (Claude) Giroux’s; I don’t know who they gave it to but it went back across. They got pucks to the net and they got the bounces and unfortunately we couldn’t get anything going until the second and didn’t cash in until the third.”

 

Mike Richards disagreed:

“Luck is a big thing.  I just heard Danny [Briere] say he is getting some lucky bounces.  He has those open shots.  It’s not always lucky that he is in the right spot at the right time.  Different players have that knack to find the quiet area and goal scorers do.  We have a team that plays well when we are under pressure.  When we need to have a big game, the bigger the game the bigger the players that we have: Danny [Briere], Kimmo [Timonen], [Chris Pronger], and Claude [Giroux] step up and it’s nice to see that we have confidence when we play in big games.”   

 

FLASHBACK:::: Ryan Miller thinks the Flyers are mass murderers.

Yes we are, Ryan.

That’s Ville Leino sniping Ms. Miller. Mass murdered.

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Heh.

Miller would not return.

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Later in the third period, the Sabres managed a couple of tallies, Car Bomb scored, and the Flyers went on to win, 5-2.

Thanks for coming out, Buffalo. Shake the hand.

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No news on who the Flyers will play next. It will either be the Bruins (if they win tonight), Lightning, or Penguins. I vote Penguins, as they are the only one of those teams the Flyers have a winning record against this year. No game time, but I’m told that if it’s the Bruins or Penguins, the game will most likely be 3 P.M. on Saturday at The Well.