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Briere: Bryzgalov was “the only one who showed up tonight”

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When the Philadelphia Flyers went up 1-0 early in Game 2 against the New Jersey Devils, it seemed like it was going to be one of those games again. Not necessarily a win, but at least one of those high-flying Flyers efforts that have made them stand out as a wide-open team in a playoffs brimming with defense-first (second and last) squads. Instead, they folded after that 1-0 lead, expecting Ilya Bryzgalov to do it all and thus suffered a predictable 4-1 loss.

Danny Briere has been a hero for most of the playoffs basically since his first postseason game with Philly, but he didn’t have a great Game 2. He seems like a pretty accurate judge of the team’s effort, then, as he told Sam Carchidi.

"[We had] no desperation,” Briere said. “It’s frustrating. Bryz is really the only one who showed up tonight.”

Perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but it was a pretty pitiful team effort after the Flyers went up 1-0. The power play went without a goal for the first time in the playoffs (0-for-5) while Claude Giroux (zero points) was awfully quite and Briere (-3 rating) was brutal on defense.

Bryzgalov kept the team in the game even after New Jersey generated a 12-2 shot advantage in the second period, but eventually the floodgates opened in a four-goal (empty-netter included) third period.

For a team that seemingly generated most - if not all - of its five playoff wins despite Bryzgalov’s play, it’s strange that they lost despite one of his best performances in months. However their goalie performs on a nightly basis, Philly needs to turn things around against its division rivals or the Flyers will face another second round exit.