Philadelphia (7-4-1) at Buffalo (9-2-1)
- Game info: 7:30 pm EST Fri Nov 6, 2009
- TV: TCN, MSG
Ryan Miller(notes) has lifted the Buffalo Sabres to one of the best starts in the NHL, but he could get a tough test from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Sabres try to slow down Philadelphia’s high-powered attack Friday night in Buffalo after being unable to do so while getting swept in last season’s series.
Miller has anchored the league’s best defense, which is allowing 2.0 goals per game, and the veteran netminder’s 1.69 goals-against average is nearly a goal better than his career mark.
That’s a major reason why Buffalo (9-2-1) has one of the best records in the league after missing the playoffs each of the last two seasons.
Miller earned his second shutout of the season with 24 saves in a 3-0 win over the New York Islanders on Wednesday night, bouncing back after getting pulled from Saturday’s 5-0 road loss to the Islanders in Buffalo’s previous game.
“We played a real sound game coming off that loss,” Miller said. “We did a very sound job pushing the puck up the ice, and we didn’t give up anything that was too dangerous. We want to be a team that’s in control.”
Miller will likely start a seventh straight game as backup Patrick Lalime(notes) deals with a groin injury.
The goalies each took two losses during Philadelphia’s four-game sweep of the Sabres in 2008-09, with the Flyers totaling 20 goals as Mike Richards(notes) racked up four goals and six assists.
The Flyers went 5 for 14 (35.7 percent) on the power play against Buffalo, and they have been outstanding in that area this season, converting 28.1 percent of the time (16 for 57).
Richards and Jeff Carter(notes) each had two goals and an assist in the Flyers’ 6-2 win over Tampa Bay on Monday, the second straight game Philadelphia scored six goals even though Danny Briere(notes) (groin) and Simon Gagne(notes) (abdomen, hip) remain out.
Rookies James van Riemsdyk(notes) and David Laliberte(notes) have been among the players stepping up. Laliberte made his NHL debut Saturday and has two goals and an assist in his first two games, while van Riemsdyk - the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft - has 13 points in 10 games.
“Gagne and Briere are always welcome in your lineup because they’re going to score all year long consistently,” Flyers coach John Stevens said, “but it’s great to see Laliberte and van Riemsdyk and these guys take advantage of the extra ice time and use it as an opportunity.”
Philadelphia (7-4-1) has scored at least four goals six times this season, but only once in four road contests. The team has played just two road games - losing both - since opening the season with victories at Carolina and New Jersey.
The Sabres, meanwhile, are 5-1-1 at home, averaging 9.0 more shots than their opponents. Buffalo has managed at least one power-play goal in each of its home games, but the Flyers have one of the league’s best penalty kills, with opponents converting 13.5 percent of the time.
That success can be partly attributed to Ray Emery(notes), who is 4-1-0 with a 1.98 GAA in his last five starts. Emery was out of the NHL last season but struggled against Buffalo while with Ottawa in 2007-08, going 1-2-0 with a 4.02 GAA.
Team Comparison
| Team | G | W | L | OTL | Pts | Standings | GF | GA | Road/Home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 21 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 3rd, Atlantic | 73 | 59 | 4-5-0 Road |
| Buffalo | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | 2nd, Northeast | 54 | 50 | 7-3-2 Home |
Blog Coverage from SB Nation
Broad Street Hockey
Die By The BladeInjuries
Mike Rathje D, Simon Gagne LW, Arron Asham RW, Blair Betts C, Darroll Powe C
Mike Grier RW
Notes
The Flyers were outshot, 15-5, in the first period but held the edge over the final two sessions, combining for a 21-13 advantage over the Penguins. ... G Martin Biron made 28 saves en route to his second career playoff shutout. ... RW Mike Knuble registered a game-high seven shots on goal. ... C Mike Richards continued to struggle on faceoffs, losing 16 of his 24 draws. The captain, who is just 46-for-109 on faceoffs, had his best showing of the series in Game Four, when he went 12-12 in the circles. ... C Jeff Carter also has been disappointing on draws, losing 60 of his 106 opportunities in the series.
Apr 23, 10:52 pm EDT
The Sabres finished the season with 250 goals for and 234 against, ending up as one of two teams that failed to reach the postseason despite having more goals than allowed. The other team was Minnesota. ... LW Thomas Vanek scored twice against Boston to reach 40 goals in a season for the second time in the last three years. ... D Teppo Numminen completed his 20th and potentially last season with an assist in his final game. The 40-year-old, who had heart surgery in late 2007, is unsigned.
Apr 11, 8:38 pm EDT
46 Comments
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you completely missed the point. both the rangers and devils had more points than the sabres, so as you admitted, it is partly about the fact that it's a weak division. And it's early in the season. So the sabres were ahead of the Flyers by a measly 2 points. And now they're even. but my point was about the resiliency of this team - what makes it a really great team. one year after its basement season it was within a few games of the stanley cup, and that's without the addition of dream team quality players. The Pens couldn't do that with 1 superstar goalie, AND 1 superstar forward. They couldn't even get back to the playoffs without 2 superstar forwards AND a superstar goalie - who was most of the difference vs. the Flyers. THAT is what makes the Flyers a great team, and why the Penguins are primadonna chumps. Just like the Lemieux/Jagr era. You had to have so much disappointment before you get the chance to shine, whereas the Flyers have been playing solid hockey for years. And don't try to tell me that the Pens "kicked the ever living piss out of the Flyers" whatever that means. Without the phantom holding call late in game 2 that gave the Pens an equalizer goal and sent it to OT, the series is tied 1-1 going back to Philly, and the outcome would have been totally different. Sure the Pens have talent after sucking for so long, I'm not denying that, but I'm not about to take your know nothing horsesh1t either. The Flyers and the Flyers fans are better than a bunch of yinzer p@ssies like you and your ilk. Now @#$%off.
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Then again, your not a Flyers fan, your not a Sabres fan, oh wait, you are just one of those "dusch-bags" that posts on every other teams message boards, and you only find them on the Pens boards when they win. I look forward to your "insightful" comments on when the Penguins lose, like they did the other night, 5-2.
Yeah, sure, Pens beat the Flyers the last two years. Then again, if you were not a huge bandwagon jumper, you would realize there was hockey before 2007 and there was a hockey team in Pittsburgh (I can understand that you might not have known that since no one went to the games and they were almost relocated and no one went to the games) that was the worst in the league, and how the Flyers crushed the Penguins from 1997-2007. I guess two good years helps cover the scars from all the beatings you took the ten years prior.
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Dutch, the Athletics left Philly in 1955, since then we have 1 NFL title, 2 Stanley Cups, 2 World Series Championships and 3 NBA titles. Other than those 8 times you are correct
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Why exactly do Flyers fans need to shut up? Wow, you beat us in the playoffs, good for you. I fail to see how that has anything to do with the previous issue of the Penguins franchise tanking it for 5 years so they could rebuild a team with top 5 picks.
But really, I guess you're right. We should be proud to watch our team tank for 6 years so we can find the right mix of marketable stars that the League wants to win so they can give us the same opportunity they did to you guys. You've opened my eyes to what a champion really looks like.
Get over yourself. If you knew you were real champions you wouldn't care so much about what people on a message board have to say about your team.
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Its fun when you first get into hockey isn't it? I remember when I started watching and playing hockey. I wish I could experience finding out about hockey the first time like you just did two years ago when the pens finally got a decent team. Here is a fun fact. Pittsburgh also has a baseball team. I know that it's hard to stick by your team when they are doing terrible but you should try it. It will show you are a true fan, not just some band wagon douche which you clearly are.
You are the reason why fans of almost every other team hate the pens and their fans. Excluding the 5k - 10k people who still supported the pens during their 6 year failure streak, all pens fans are just a bunch of arse holes. (This includes you)
It just shows how much of a tool you are when you have to troll on a story not involving your team just to talk @#$%. So, can you please GTFO and go back to the hole you crawled out of.
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Silly Flyers fans, at this point is it even worth mentioning Pitts sucking balls and picking up top picks? They kicked the ever living piss out of the Flyers two years in a row en route to a Stanley Cup... it's time to for Flyers fans to STFU.
kilauea50, are you retarded? That Buffalo team is where they are in the standings because of their points, not some "crappy division" conspiracy. True, because they lead the division they are placed in the top 3, however, even if they weren't leading the division they would still be just ahead of your Flyers. So, if the Flyers are "a really great team" and the Sabres are ahead in points, then......? Fill in the blank, d-bags.
Now to the biggest d-bag, giocatore28, who is somehow trying to insult a Pens team that will propably rape his Flyers for a third year in a row in the playoffs:
If you did your research, you would have discovered I am not a Sabres fan. Then again, I wouldn't expect anyone from Filthadelphia to have the brain power for such an easy task. I am laughing at your attempt to get me riled up with comments about another city's sports misfortunes... when has that ever worked? Never.
Currently, my hockey team is higher than yours in the standings, and we have more Stanley Cups, Super Bowls, and World Series titles than your pathetic murder-a-day filthy city. DEAL WITH IT, skank.
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Also, I realize you're just trying to troll me, but Philadelphia won a championship in 2008, so I'm intimately familiar with what the term "champions" means, thank you.
As far as losing in the past couple years, I hardly see where I was crying about it. They didn't play well and deserved to lose, that's hockey. I was just pointing out that the Pens were undeserving of what was subsequently handed to them, and that the argument that Deal With It was making about was ludicrous.
So who do you pull for Dutch? Do you have a team, or are you just ready to jump on whichever bandwagon is farthest ahead at the moment because you're not grown up enough to take losing like a man?
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You are a moron. So quick to forget that Pittsburgh had 4 seasons in a row where they missed the playoffs and got rewarded with picks - once with the worst overall record, and twice with the second worst. Prior to that 1 disaster season for the Flyers, we went to the playoffs for 11 straight years, and bounced back the next year to within a few games of the Stanley Cup while missing our best defenseman for most of the series. The only standing in our way was the Penguins. That year, no one thought we would get by Washington (on the road) or top seeded Montreal (also on the road) either. For their string of awful seasons, the Penguins only drafted Marc-Andre Fleury 1st (who has been playing outstanding in goal during the playoffs and is a big part of why the Flyers didn't advance beyond Pittsburgh), Evgeni Malkin 2nd and Cindy Crosby 1st in successive years. Name me the superstar that the Flyers got rewarded with for our one blemish year? The Flyers have played fewer games than many teams above them in the standings. The only reason the Sabres are as high as they are is because they're the top team in a crappy division. So yeah, I'd count our team as a really great team. And the Flyers didn't play in the World Series, that was the Phillies. A lot of us are fans of both, but please don't mix it up. Phillies fans post on baseball boards, Flyers fans on hockey boards. So before you spout your drivel, do some homework.
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"Post #11, since when is Philly "a really great team"? If the Flyers were so much better than the Sabres, wouldn't they be higher in the standings? And since when is a team that finished dead last in the league and got rewarded with top picks, a great team? I mean, everyone is calling the Toronto Maple Leafs "This year's Philadelphia Flyers" after your hilarious 2006-2007 season. Don't think for a second all of us in North America are going to let you guys forget about that..."
Ok, first of all, if you're going to try and make a point about calling one team better than the other, consider that both teams have only played 13 games to this point, and are separated by 2 points in the standings. Hardly an insurmountable lead, or any real indication of whether one team is better than another.
Secondly, I don't know who you root for, but if you want to criticize the finishing dead last and gaining top picks thing, all you have to consider is the team that won last season's Bettman cup championship. I agree that they're not a great team (because they didn't earn it, deserve it, and because it was handed to them by the league), but I know there's a lot of guys out there who wouldn't agree with me on that.
Anyhow, feel free to not let us forget the worst year we've ever had (three years ago, oh, the pain, especially when we've made the playoffs twice since then). I guess if we were going to suck for a year we did it right and got a top pick, rather than languishing at the bottom of the standings year after year and never getting any better a-la Atlanta, LA, NYI, TB, Phoenix, Toronto, etc...
Dealt with.
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McFluery has a 2.36 GAA, Emery has a 2.39 GAA this season. Hummmm?
And then you have to forgive poor old bitter "deal with it", who watched his team get spanked last night. LOL, is that all you have for a comeback, how we had ONE bad year, and then managed to make the conference finals the next.
Don't think for a second none of us in North America have not forgotten the Buffalo Sabres have not even made the playoffs since that ONE horrible season for the Flyers back in 2006-2007. When is a team that could even make the playoffs for the last two years, a good team? Maybe you ought to consider doing what your friend "Dusch" team did. Suck for several years, pick up multiple first picks.
Yep, then again, you all have lots of experiences in Buffalo winning championship games yourself. WIDE RIGHT! WIDE RIGHT! LOL.
LOL, pathetic Sabre "fan".
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In the meantime, lets get some perspective here, folks. It is way too early to start talking about teams that may or may not make the playoffs, much less win the Cup. It's the start of November, not mid-to-late March. Injuries are going to start piling up, some unknown players are going to have career years while some star players will go in the tank. There's a long way to go. Check back at the end of the first week in April.
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LOLwat?
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Post #7, your parents hate you so much.
Post #11, since when is Philly "a really great team"? If the Flyers were so much better than the Sabres, wouldn't they be higher in the standings? And since when is a team that finished dead last in the league and got rewarded with top picks, a great team? I mean, everyone is calling the Toronto Maple Leafs "This year's Philadelphia Flyers" after your hilarious 2006-2007 season. Don't think for a second all of us in North America are going to let you guys forget about that...
Post #17, I dunno if this is the Flyers "year". I honestly don't see Philly getting past teams like Pittsburgh and Washington.
Sounds to me like Flyers fans needed SOMETHING to talk about after the World Series....
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