I had my suspicions about this one all through the four straight games the Flyers lost to the Bruins, three of which they looked completely outclassed. It seemed like the Flyers had absolutely nothing left for Boston after the seven-game grind against the Sabres, while the Bruins didn't have nearly the same trouble summoning energy after their seven-game first-rounder against Montreal.
Turns out I was on to something.
In this CSNPhilly.com story, several Flyers speaking on locker cleanout day admitted the series against the Sabres took a lot out of them both mentally and physically.
“I think that the Buffalo series may have taken more out of us than a normal seven-game series,” said Flyers defenseman Sean O’Donnell. “They are physically and emotionally exhausting, there was a lot of ups and downs there. We came back a lot, I think looking back on that seven-game series, it seemed more like a nine- or 10-game series.”
There are plenty of other issues percolating around the Flyers in the wake of their quick second-round exit.
---Defenseman Chris Pronger will have back surgery on Thursday while several other players went under the knife on Wednesday. The most noteworthy was captain Mike Richards, who had a torn ligament in his wrist that clearly rendered him ineffective in both rounds.
---Speaking of Richards, CSNPhilly's Tim Panaccio, the longtime Flyers beat writer, put together this story where coach Peter Laviolette admitted he's still working on his relationship with Richards. The Flyers' captain is a pretty churlish sort most of the time with the media and, based on his Twitter account, he wasn't happy with the story. Panaccio had this response.
---Flyers owner Ed Snider agrees with everyone who watched the team in the playoffs: They need to find a No. 1 goalie, whether it's Sergei Bobrovsky or an outsider, and stick with him.
Said Snider: "... Either one of the goalies we have has to step up in training camp, or we have to make improvements to make sure it happens. But we are NEVER going to go through the goalie issues we’ve gone through in the last couple of years again."
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
tagged
Philadelphia Flyers | Sabres
