Home Cooking for Philadelphia, Is It Enough?

It should be rather straight-forward to pick a side and stick with it in this series now, as you either subscribe to the notion that the Philadelphia Flyers are either not quite out of it with the series going back to Philly tonight or that the Chicago Blackhawks are just going to do away with the Flyers quickly and mercifully. Myself, personally, I'm not going to sell the Flyers short, as I really haven't in the first two games of the series (much to my chagrin) and hope that they have some sort of magic left from their series against the Bruins to make a remarkable comeback.

The biggest trouble for the Flyers tonight is that the Blackhawks are an excellent road team in these playoffs and there is a good chance that they will be ready to play away from the Madhouse again tonight.  Loud buildings shouldn't scare the Blackhawks now, especially playing well through GM Place in Vancouver and the HP Pavilion in San Jose, both high rated visiting buildings.  The coaching staff of the Blackhawks has a knack of being able to make their player fall in line, keeping it simple and playing great road games.  Jonathan Toews leads all scorers in the NHL playoffs for points on the road, accumulating 6 goals and 11 assists in only 8 games.  With that sort of production, it could be a big impact game on the pool tonight from the Blackhawks side.

The Flyers are now going home, looking to build on some good things that they had on the road in Chicago already in this series.  The Flyers were able to skate with the Blackhawks in the first two games of the series and they only lost by one goal in both games, so they are definitely hoping that the home crowd and cooking.  If the Flyers can keep up a certain level of physical play and forechecking on the back end of the Blackhawks, they may be able to force a few more turnovers in the offensive zone, then they will need to crash the net and make things exceptionally difficult for Antti Niemi.  The Flyers defense will also need to take better care of Michael Leighton in their own net, as his play has shown some cracks against a well-placed Chicago attack.  At home in the playoffs, the Flyers have been led by Daniel Briere, who has 5 goals and 4 assists in 8 games at the Wachovia Center. 

Team	Scott G.	Myles D.	Neil B.	Russ D.	Leo M.	Derek B.	Kalenab G.	Stuart G.
Points	250	-7	-9	-16	-16	-16	-17	-18
Patrick Sharp	x	x		x		x
Dustin Byfuglien	x
Brian Campbell	x
Patrick Kane		x	x		x	x	x	x
Jonathan Toews		x	x				x	x
Marian Hossa			x	x	x			x
Duncan Keith				x		x	x
Brent Seabrook					x
Scott Hartnell	x	x
Claude Giroux	x	x				x		x
Kimmo Timonen	x				x		x
James Van Riemsdyk					x
Chris Pronger		x			x
Daniel Briere				x
Braydon Coburn				x

Well, in order for this pool to get any closer, Game Three will likely have to be a repeat of Game One... an absolute barn-burner.  I've got to know that Myles is hoping for a huge night from the two best Blackhawks on the team, scoring-wise.  If either Kane or Toews can somehow assist on the other's hat-trick tonight, then we have ourselves a brand new ball game, likely with only one game to go.  Scott G. has to be hoping for a low-scoring affair, likely with a Flyers win (since he is a Flyers fan and all) and an even bigger night from Kimmo Timonen.