Devils finish off Flyers in Five!

The New Jersey Devils continued to take care of business quietly and efficiently last night as the Devils polished off the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 in the fifth and final game of their series.
The victory sends the Devils to the Eastern Conference finals against either the New York Rangers or Washington Capitals,who will play game six of their series tonight,which the Rangers lead three games to two.
Bryce Salvador,David Clarkson and Ilya Kovalchuk scored the New Jersey goals in the victory.
Now the Devils can kick back,watch the other series and rest up a bit!

Hell Raisers

1)  The Flyers scored the first goal in each of the four Devils wins,which shows that fast starts do not always win games.
I agree that more often than not,the team that scores first will win,but the series shows that is not always the golden rule....

2) The play that most are talking about is the second and eventual game winner by David Clarkson,who did not shoot the puck by Ilya Brzygalov as return his own clear off the stick.
To put it better,it was a rebound without Clarkson doing anything and a poor play by the Flyer cager....

3) Plenty of credit to the unsung heroes on the blueline in the series-Mark Fayne,Andy Greene and Bryce Salvador were very steady,Anton Volchenkov picked up his game from the Florida series,Marek Zidlicky's offensive game has been very effective and Adam Larsson has had his moments as well....

4) Zidlicky missed the third period after a borderline hit by Wayne Simmonds.
No word yet on either the injury or any potential missed time...

5) Two more cheap hit by Zac Rinaldo,who played because of the suspension of Claude Giroux for a cheap hit.
Rinaldo's hit on Dainius Zubrus might earn him a suspension into next year.
The fact that the Flyers continue to play guys like this through the years goes a long way towards their lack of titles...

6) I ordinarily like the Devils to take little guff from teams like this,but in this series they played it perfectly.
The Flyers pushed,shoved and blathered from the mouth and the Devils just skated away.
Philly picked up the dumb penalties for silliness (like James Van Riemsdyk's grab of Patrik Elias,which created the dagger to the heart on Ilya Kovalchuk's goal) and lost their composure when their tactics did not work.
Pittsburgh played Philadelphia's game,the Devils refused to...

7) The win means the Devils will be sending their 2013 third rounder to Minnesota to finish the Marek Zidlicky trade.
The pick was conditional and would only be sent if the Devils made it to the Eastern Finals-Done Deal...

8) Moving on to the next round,I really do not have a preference between the Rangers and the Capitals.
Both have their pros and cons.
Washington has an explosive scorer,New York a terrific goalie.
Washington has a ton of local frontrunners that do not even watch until the first round of the playoffs are over,New York has a group of fans that rank behind only Philadelphia as the league's most classless.
The Rangers are the most hated rival to most Devils fans,the Capitals bring the joy of facing more people that I know.
It really is a wash,but I will say this-I am rooting for Washington tonight.
Why? Extra wear and tear on the series winner,if they have to play a seventh game....

Back later or tonight with a special signing front on the Giants teams in Hagerstown and Harrisburg....

Photo Credit:AP Photo