Bruins, not Flyers, talk of rust

BOSTON - The Eastern Conference semifinals between the Flyers and Boston Bruins begin Saturday afternoon, but the mind games have already started.

Boston coach Claude Julien indirectly fired the first salvo, saying the nine days the Bruins had off before their loss to Carolina in last year's conference semifinals "allowed ourselves to slip out of the playoff mode."

The implication, of course, was that the Flyers - who on Saturday will be playing their first game in nine days - would suffer a similar fate.

"Well, we'll do the best we can to shake the rust off," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said with a sly smile before he and his team boarded a flight to Boston on Friday afternoon.

Laviolette didn't want to get baited into a war of words with Julien. But the Flyers' coach doesn't think this layoff will produce the same lackluster results that followed the Olympic break.

Back then, the Flyers were scattered throughout North America and had 16 days between games.

"All I can tell you is I liked the way we practiced [this week] - the competiveness and the jump," Laviolette said. "It's different from the Olympic break. Guys were here working hard. There's eight teams left going for the Stanley Cup, so there's a lot of excitement."

The Flyers, coming off an impressive series win of four games to one over New Jersey, are eager to start the next round.

"We've been waiting it seems like forever, but I think the guys are really excited to have an opponent and go play some games," Laviolette said. "You can only practice so much and for so long. But I will say that, through it all, we got a lot of work done."

When they arrived in Boston Friday, sunny skies and temperatures near 70 degrees greeted the Flyers. That's far different from their previous visit here, when there was snow and freezing temperatures as they practiced for the Winter Classic at Fenway Park about four months ago.

Now the action has moved indoors, and the stakes are much higher - a trip to the conference finals.

The team that wins the special teams' wars will probably advance.

"Penalty-killing, for me, starts with the goaltending," Laviolette said.

And that's part of the reason the Bruins, who were 19 for 19 killing penalties against Buffalo, and the Flyers (28 for 32 against New Jersey) were so successful in Round 1.

Brian Boucher and Boston's Tuukka Rask were superb in the first round.

So were the teams' penalty-killing units.

The Flyers were shorthanded 32 times - more than six a game - against the Devils. They need to reduce their penalties against a Boston team that was 6 for 22 (27.3 percent) with the extra skater against Buffalo.

Minus the injured Ian Laperriere, the team's most fearless shot-blocker, the Flyers will turn to Darroll Powe to provide a lot more penalty-killing minutes in this series.

Special teams take on added significance at this time of the year.

"If you look at the teams that got bounced, Washington I think was 1 for 33 [on the power play].  Nashville was 0 for 26 [actually, 1 for 27] or whatever they were," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "So they're very important, obviously."

The Flyers' power play was crisp against the Devils, connecting on 8 of 29 chances (27.6 percent).

Breakaways. Simon Gagne's broken toe is still healing and, after an MRI Friday, he was not cleared to start skating. He will continue to do his off-ice conditioning work, and the Flyers hope he can play later in the series. . . . Goalie Michael Leighton, sidelined with an ankle sprain, practiced and said he was making strides.