For the first 5 games of the series each game was won by the home team. The Sabres had none of that in game 6 as they beat the Flyers 7-1.
The Flyers started the game playing pretty decent, at least positionally but they were not hitting. The lack of physical play made no sense to me. Here you are facing elimination in own building, how do you not get up for that? No hitting, no physical play. So it appears the Flyers packed it in for the game and the season very very early.
As in the other 5 games the Sabres scored first with Mike Grier picking up a goal around the 11 minute mark. Ales Kotalik and Derek Roy also scored in the first period making it a 3-0 Sabres lead after one. In the second Jason Pominville and Maxim Afinogenov scored giving the Sabres a 5-0 lead. Late in the period the Flyers finally get on the scoreboard with Branko Radivojevic picking up his first goal of the playoffs making it 5-1. Less than a minute later the Sabres push the lead back out to 5 goals with a goal by Chris Drury. In the third Chris Drury scored his second goal of the game shorthanded which was the final with the Sabres on top 7-1.
Robert Esche was pulled in the second period after giving up 5 goals on 17 shots. Antero Niittymaki played the rest of the game giving up 2 goals on 11 shots. Typical storyline a couple soft goals by Esche the rest defensive breakdowns by the guys in front of him.
There are news stories around today about how Robert Esche got a standing ovation when he was pulled in the second period. As a fan there at the rink, to me it didn’t seem like an ovation for Esche, but rather a standing ovation for Niittymaki being put in the game. It is no secret that a large section of Flyer fans prefer Niittymaki over Esche. So the articles are a little confusing to me. I do have to say that goaltending did not lose the series for the Flyers. The guys in front of him were more to blame.
Niko Dimitrakos was scratched and replaced by Ben Eager.
Ken Hitcock – “I feel there is no easy ice right now. You have to fight for space on the ice and go into hard areas offensively and defensively, and compete at a high level if you expect to get scoring chances. That’s why Ben is in there. He is a competitive player who creates space for other people. He is very strong on the puck. He is good at creating energy for us. He has decent skills.”
Eager was -3 with 7:32 minutes of ice time. Personally I don’t see how you take a guy that was called up from your AHL team, play him 25 games from November to January send him back down only to stick him in game 2 and 6 of the playoffs and expect him to contribute at all. I have always thought he should have stayed up with the Flyers the entire year.
Simon Gagne was also -3. Peter Forsberg and Mike Knuble were each -4.
Stars for the game were Chris Drury, Mike Grier and Derek Roy.
It has to be said that the better team won the series. While the Flyers do have the bigger stars, the Sabres played better as a team. Better both offensively and defensively and healthier which also was a big factor.
Some Flyers stats for the series.
Peter Forsberg had 4 goals, Simon Gagne 3 and Peter Neved 2. 5 other Flyers had 1.
Peter Forsberg had 4 assists, Eric Desjardins and Mike Knuble 3, 3 other Flyers had 2 and 4 other Flyers had 1.
Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne were at +2, on the bottom Denis Gauthier, Mike Richards and Freddy Meyer were -5.
Simon Gagne had 26 shots, Mike Knuble had 17, Peter Forsberg and Sami Kapanen had 12. Kapanen had no goals.
Robert Esche won 2 and lost 4, faced 176 shots gave up 22 goals with 154 saves, 4.20 GAA, .875 save %.
Antero Niittymaki played in 2 games, faced 29 shots gave up 5 goals with 24 saves, 4.11 GAA, .828 save %.
For Buffalow Ryan Miller won 4 and lost 2, faced 159 shots gave up 13 goals with 146 saves, 2.02 GAA, .918 save%.
Obviously with the Flyers losing in the first round the way they did will raise a lot of questions about what they should do next. There will be plenty of time this summer for that discussion.