NHL Playoffs

Don’t get caught up in the why. Concern yourself with what is. Because, really, you don’t know the cause behind the Flyers totally troubling second-round out to the Devils. You never trolled the locker room. You never sat in on the Peter Laviolette pump-ups...

And you can’t kill the guy for playing Mr. Brightside. Especially not if he’s Mr. Playoffs. Still, maybe Danny Briere shouldn’t have been feeding the team a through-a-rosy-lens look at how this series was going to shake out and why, taking a patient and encouraging and understanding tone … “I think the power plays cost us the game tonight, all around...

Claude Giroux knew the Flyers had to be better in Game 3 after a sluggish performance in Game 2 resulted in a 4-1 loss versus New Jersey. It didn't happen, not he knows he needs to be the guy to step up if the Flyers want to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. ...

The Flyers looked spent. Gassed. Beat. Physically, emotionally, in every sense and stretch of the term. Dudes was drained. To that end, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semis showcased the same, irksome discrepancy in team energy and top-to-bottom efficacy that did the one before...

If for no reason than because it eliminates from their possible second round pool not only the two toughest teams overall, but the two steepest match-ups for the Flyers, specifically.

In that splendidly spectacular 8-4 rout of the Penguins. Score two for the home side. Said Roenick, to Mike Gill on Monday, when asked if the Flyers are in the Penguins' heads after Sunday's winner, that bumped their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series edge to three games to none: "Absolutely...

We now know it will be the Flyers and the Penguins in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The two teams will face-off in a meaningless game on Saturday, but will one of these teams try to prove a point after the last time they met resulted in fights, words exchanged and bad blood...