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head coach: Roger Neilson

roster: C - Chris Gratton, Dan LaCroix, Eric Lindros, Joel Otto, Peter White. LW - John LeClair, Rod Brind'Amour, Colin Forbes, Dan Kordic, Shjon Podein. RW - Alexandre Daigle, John Druce, Trent Klatt, Mike Sillinger, Dainius Zubrus. D - Paul Coffey, Eric Desjardins, Chris Joseph, Dan McGillis, Luke Richardson, Kjell Samuelsson, Petr Svoboda, Chris Therien, Dave Babych. G - Ron Hextall, Sean Burke.

injuries: Daniel Lacroix, c (eye, day-to-day); David Babych, d (foot, out indefinitely).

transactions: None.

standings:

Eastern Conference - Atlantic Division   
Team           GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
z-New Jersey   82  48  23  11   107  225  166  
x-Philadelphia 82  42  29  11    95  242  193
x-Washington   82  40  30  12    92  219  202  
NY Islanders   82  30  41  11    71  212  225  
NY Rangers     82  25  39  18    68  197  231  
Florida        82  24  43  15    63  203  256 
Tampa Bay      82  17  55  10    44  151  269  

x - Clinched playoff spot
z - Clinched conference

game results:

/08 at Tampa Bay   W 6-1
4/09 at Florida     L 3-2
4/11 Washington     W 4-3
4/13 at Buffalo     L 2-1
4/16 at Florida     W 7-3
4/18 NY Rangers     L 2-1
4/19 at Boston      L 2-1

team news:

by Eric Meyer, Philadelphia Correspondent

THE SECOND SEASON BEGINS
Just a few days ago, the Flyers were sitting pretty, holding on to the third seed in the Eastern Conference. It looked as if they might play Washington, Montreal, maybe Boston, or possibly Buffalo. Well, Washington got hot and played themselves into the fourth slot. Montreal lost some big games down the stretch, including their final game of the season against Buffalo. They landed into the seventh slot. That left the final day of the regular season to decide whom the Flyers would meet up with, Boston or Buffalo.

The Flyers took the flight up to Boston, knowing that to end up rematching with the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, not only did the orange and black have to break out of a season-long 0-2-1 slump against the B's, but also that they would need a Sabres win that night over Ottawa. Otherwise, a Boston win or a Buffalo loss would clinch a Flyers-Sabres matchup in the first round.

Turns out the Buffalo-Ottawa was proved meaningless.

Mired in a 3-3-0 slump over their last six games, the Flyers were simply outmanned and outmuscled by the Boston Bruins, falling 2-1 to the team that has simply had the Flyers' number all season.

Steve Heinze got the B's on the board in the first period. Cutting down the middle, Heinze took a pass from Jason Allison in the slot and wasted no time in firing a shot past goaltender Sean Burke to give the Bruins an early 1-0 lead.

That lead would hold into the third period and get padded at the 1:47 mark when Sergei Samsonov, following a Dimitri Khristich shot, hopped on a loose puck and fired the rebound by Burke, giving the B's a 2-0 cushion.

The Flyers would get some life near the midway point of the third period. Working on the power play, Chris Gratton skated down the left side of the ice and saw a wide-open five-hole between the legs of Bruins' netminder Byron Dafoe. Gratton let loose with a slapper, just barely trickling the puck through the goaltender's legs and cutting the Boston lead in half, 2-1.

Boston, in their Devil-like trap, managed to shut down the Flyers in the final 11-plus minutes of the game, holding on to a 2-1 victory and reserving a first round date for the Flyers with the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.

IF IT'S BUFFALO YOU WANT...IT'S BUFFALO YOU GET!
So now come the Sabres. Let's call it the matchup of goalie extraordinaire against, uh, Sean Burke (well at least for game one). Yes, the Flyers did win the season series 2-1-1. And yes, on paper this might be a better matchup for the Flyers than if they had to play Boston in the first round. But, can any of us say that Buffalo was the team we wanted all along?

	Keys to the Series:
		1. Sean Burke - It's obvious, the man with a reputation for stealing a game for his team every now and then, has to a little bit better than "every now and then". The man who has compiled an impressive mark down the stretch for the Flyers has to step up. 2. Limit Buffalo Shots - In front of Sean Burke, during his last three starts, the Flyers have yielded an average of 35 shots per game. Now, by no means are the Sabres an offensive juggernaut, but if the Flyers' defense gives up an average of 35 shots a game, well...as Jerry Seinfeld might say, "Could be trouble." 3. Take Advantage of the Man-Advantage (especially on home ice) - In their four games against the Sabres this season, the Flyers were a combined 3 for 25 on the power play. That's 12% and that isn't very good. The Sabres, on the other hand, were 18th in the NHL in penalty killing, stopping opponents just 84.3% of the time. Away from the Marine Midland Arena, the Sabres were even worse, ranking 26th on the penalty-kill, stopping only 80.5% of opposing power plays.

Yikes!

Well, the good news is that Eric Lindros is back. The bad news is that since Lindros returned to the lineup for the last four games of the season, the team is 1-3-0. Yet let's not forget the recent playoff history between these two teams. Last season, the Flyers, with Lindros in the lineup, did away with the Sabres in five games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. In 1995, the Flyers needed those same five games to defeat the Sabres, that time in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Some more good news lies with the apparent resurgence of right wing Dainius Zubrus, who has earned a spot on the top line along side Lindros and John LeClair. In his last seven games, Zubrus has but one goal and one assist, but his increased tenacity and solid play has nonetheless gained the favor of coach Roger Neilson, and hence, has given Zubrus a spot on the top line.

HOW ABOUT SOME MORE BAD NEWS...
I had to address it: the goaltending. Facing an escalating controversy over who would be Roger Neilsen's starting goaltender for the first round of the playoffs, the Flyers' coach quickly ended the speculation on Monday, going with the consensus pick, Sean Burke, as his Game One starter.

Burke, who finished with a 7-3-0 mark since March 22, has had some goal scoring help behind him. During that span, the Flyers scored 35 goals. On the flip side, we have Ron Hextall who has lost six straight games since March 21. During those losses, the Flyers scored just 11 goals.

Kinda makes the decision a little bit easier.

Want a bit more bad news? How about the glaring fact that the Flyers are going to face the NHL's hottest second half team (Buffalo) with the NHL's best regular season goaltender (Dominik Hasek).

IN OTHER NEWS...
It appears that the Flyers career, and quite possibly the NHL career, of Brantt Myhres may be over.

Myhres, who was sent down to the Phantoms on March 5, is no longer in the organization. According to general manager Bobby Clarke, Myhres had been sent home recently because of alcohol dependency.

Myhres, an NHL thug by most standards, had been in the NHL's Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program since the beginning of the season. He leaves the Flyers with 169 penalty minutes in his 23 games with the team.

IN YET OTHER NEWS...
Congrats go out to John LeClair, who for the third season in the row notched at least 50 goals as a Philadelphia Flyer. With his goal in the Flyers' 2-1 loss to the Sabres, LeClair became the first American-born player to accomplish the 50-or-more goals in three consecutive seasons feat.

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