Expect the Flyers to come out firing in the first home game of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night.
Down 2-0 in the series, they'll try to build off of their third-period success from Game 2 in Chicago.
The Flyers outshot the Hawks 15-4 in that third period, but Chicago’s rookie netminder, Antti Niemi held strong despite being peppered with shots late in the game.
"The skating, the physical play, the intensity, the passion, it needs to be there for 60 minutes," Chris Pronger said after Game 2.
"We were doing a lot of good things near the end of the game there, gettin' shots, gettin' pucks deep...that's gotta be there as a consistent 60 minutes," team captain Mike Richards says about Game 3.
The Flyers will need to solve the Niemi problem if they have any chance of making another comeback.
Don't forget that both games were decided by only one goal.One positive for the Flyers is the fact that they’ve managed to keep Chicago’s most talented goal-scorers off the score sheet – both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have yet to register a single point in the series.
This can be either a good thing or a bad thing – good in that the Flyers’ D is doing a solid job of keeping the young guns in check, and bad in that Chicago’s top scorers aren’t scoring, but they’re still winning.
Another storyline for Game 3 is Chicago’s road record – they’ve won seven road games in a row.
But the Flyers have the best home record in the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs at 7-1 and with the hometown crowd, the Wachovia Center will be rockin’ Wednesday night.
“It's a position where we're playing good [on the road], but it's a different rink from what I hear. It's going to be pretty hostile,” Blackhawks’ star Patrick Kane says on NHL.com.
We’re sure Kane will realize just how hostile Philly can be as soon as he touches the puck in Philly.
