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Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

(2) Flyers vs. (7) Sabres

Flyers Leading Regular Season Scorer: Claude Giroux (right), 76 points (25 goals, 51 assists).

Sabres Leading Postseason Scorer: Thomas Vanek, 73 points (32 goals, 41 assists).

Flyers Regular Season Statistics

Sabres Regular Season Statistics

Flyers with Stanley Cup bling: Nick Boynton, Sean O'Donnell, Chris Pronger, Kris Versteeg..

Sabres with Stanley Cup bling: Rob Niedermayer.

Something worthwhile about the Sabres: The Sabres went 16-4-4 in their finals 24 games.

Something useless about the Flyers that is vaguely connected to the Penguins: Former Penguins forward Rick MacLeish is the Flyers' all-time leadering postseason game-winning goals with 10.

Something useless about the Sabres that is vaguely connected to the Penguins: Former Penguins forward Jaromir Jagr is the career leader in regular season goals against the Sabres with 41.

Former Penguins on the Flyers: Daniel Carcillo, LW (Carcillo is a former Penguins prospect but never actually played for the NHL club.); Kevin McCarthy, assistant coach; Joe Mullen, assistant coach; Simon Nolet, scout.

Former Penguins on the Sabres: Patrick Lalime, G; Jordan Leopold, D.

Who needs to be the difference for the Flyers: Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Matt Carle, etc. With Chris Pronger dealing with an injury and the Flyers' goaltending duo of Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher being suspect, the Flyers remaining healthy blue liners must step it up and make life easier for their goaltenders.

Who needs to be the difference for the Sabres: Thomas Vanek (above), Brad Boyes, Jason Pominville, etc. Conversely, with Pronger potentially sidlined, the Sabres' skilled forwards need to take advantage of the situation and put pressure on Boborovsky and/or Boucher.

Best Flyers YouTube Video We Could Find: Philadelphia's Ron Hextall scoring the first goal by a goaltender in a playoff game during an 8-5 win against the Capitals in Game 5 of a Patrick Division semifinal series in 1989.

Best Sabres YouTube Video We Could Find: Former Sabres forward Matthew Barnaby faking an injury and attacking former Flyers goaltender Garth Snow in the 1995-96 season:

EN Prediction: These two teams are heading in opposite directions. The Sabres got hot and entered the postseason on a pretty torrid streak. The Flyers essentially backed into the Atlantic Division title. The Flyers have a huge advantage in terms of size and physical play. But that's cancelled out by the fact that the Sabres have  world-class goaltender in Ryan Miller. Given the Flyers' issues in net, we see the Sabres being able to screpe out a series win. Sabres 4-3.

(Photos: Giroux-Jim McIsaac/Getty Images; Vanek-Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Comments (1)

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written by TommySnark, April 12, 2011 - 06:18 PM

Wow, that's a pretty bold pick, Seth - I hope you're right.

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