The only thing Peter Laviolette hates more than losing is getting outworked. So after seeing his team open the Stanley Cup playoffs by tripping all over itself in a scoreless first period Wednesday night, the Flyers’ coach tore into his players with a first intermission tongue lashing that carried the force of a tsunami. “We deserved it,” Flyers veteran center Blair Betts said. “If he didn’t come out and say it one of us would have. We were lucky to come out of that first period scoreless.” For whatever reason, the Flyers have made a habit of wading into games, but they woke up quickly with a pair of second-period goals from Chris Pronger and Mike Richards and earned a tough 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Flyers’ forwards were remarkably disciplined in the opener, staying out of the penalty box the entire night. That didn’t stop defenseman Kimmo Timonen from taking two penalties and defenseman Braydon Coburn and Oskars Bartulis from taking one each in the opener. The Flyers’ penalty killers did an excellent job against the Devils’ 11th ranked power play, killing off five Devils power plays while their own power play went 1-for-3 on the man-advantage

Read more: Flyers Files