Series Breakdown: Flyers vs. Devils
By Bill Clement
Special to ESPN.com
The Devils and Flyers are set to face off in the Eastern Conference finals. Check out which team has the edge, and then see what I think the outcome will be.
Matching up 5-on-5
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The big issue for the Flyers is the health of Keith Primeau. They will probably have to move rookie Simon Gagne to center if Primeau cannot play. The difficulty for Gagne is if he centers the second line, 5-on-5 he will probably end up matched up against the Bobby Holik line or the Jason Arnott line. The center in the Flyers' system, as in most systems, has to come back deep in his own end and play defensive hockey down low, which will be tough for Gagne. Any way you look at it, the Flyers don't match up well down the middle. The 5-on-5 matchup of interest will be Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski most likely matched up against the Recchi-LeClair-Langkow line. The problem for the Devils is that Rafalski plays the right side and Stevens the left. It would be better for them if it were reversed, so Stevens would be on the LeClair side and Rafalski, with his quickness, on the Recchi side. It will be interesting to see what the Devils do about that possible dilemma. Here's a big disadvantage for the Flyers: They are an absolute dump-and-chase team. Martin Brodeur moves the puck better than any goalie in the NHL. His puckhandling could greatly diffuse the Flyers' forechecking.
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Special teams
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The Flyers' top-ranked power play has gone against penalty killing that by most standards was inferior. Now, they go up against not only the No. 1 penalty-killing unit, but also one that has the top shorthanded threat in John Madden. His presence might keep Recchi up front instead of on the blue line. The Flyers have had most of their power-play success with Recchi on the point. But any time you have a sniper like Madden who knows there is a forward playing the point on the power play, he's going to be ready to jump any chance he gets and challenge the forward's defensive abilities. Special teams will be an interesting subplot, and it could determine the outcome of the series because the Flyers don't match up well with the Devils at even strength. If the Flyers can't get their power play going, they can't win the series. When you have a No. 1 against a No. 1, something has to give. For now I call it a draw, but it probably won't be by the time the series is over.
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EVEN
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Goaltending
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Looking at the first two rounds, this matchup could be a push. But based on the fact Brian Boucher is an unknown going into rounds three and four, and that Martin Brodeur is as close as there is to a sure thing, you have to give the Devils the edge. Everybody gave the advantage to Buffalo's Dominik Hasek in the Flyers' first-round series, and everybody called it a push in the second round with Pittsburgh's Ron Tugnutt, but Boucher proved to be the better of the two. Boucher doesn't care what the critics say; he believes he can win the series. But based on history and on paper, Brodeur is the favorite.
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Intangibles
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BREAKDOWN
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EDGE
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The Devils have dominated the Flyers over the last three seasons, going 11-2-2. The Flyers need success early to dispel that trend. Against a team as strong as the Devils are right now, it's doubtful the Flyers could afford to lose the first game, or two games, and come back the way they did against Pittsburgh. And without Primeau, it would be an incredible uphill climb. If Primeau is ready for Game 1 and can play well, the Flyers are far better off.
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PREDICTION
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Devils in seven. The difference will be special teams; I really like the Devils' penalty killing. The Flyers are coming up against competition that is probably twice as good as anything they have faced so far. The Flyers defeated the seventh and eighth seeds to get to the finals, while the Devils defeated the sixth and the third seeds. The Devils are the most complete team in the East. They went through a down time when Robbie Ftorek was fired, but Larry Robinson got them straightened out. The Devils stopped an incredibly good offensive team in Toronto and are as close to being a defensive machine as they were in 1995 when they won the Cup.
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Bill Clement, a former NHL player with Philadelphia, serves as an NHL analyst for ESPN and ABC.
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Ken Daneyko sees it being an intense, emotional series.
