Hawks not too worried if Flyers go after Niemi
PHILADELPHIA - On Tuesday, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette took the verbal approach in his assault on Antti Niemi, questioning when the Blackhawks' rookie goaltender was going to crack under the pressure.
But Wednesday morning he hinted the next phase would be physical, and that would begin in Game 3 tonight.
"I'm a big believer in traffic,'' Laviolette said. "I thought we could have done a better job of getting to that area.
"It always makes life a little more difficult for a goaltender. Tonight we're going to look to get to those areas when we can.''
It sounds like Laviolette is looking to get into Niemi's head, something he has been trying since the Hawks goalie held off a furious Flyers charge in Game 2.
"To score goals in the playoffs, it's no secret you've got to get to the net,'' said Hawks forward Patrick Sharp. "You have to get pucks and bodies there and disrupt the goaltender as much as you can.
"We're not surprised by those comments. I guess we're going to try to do the same thing to their goalie.''
As for affecting Niemi mentally, it's a wasted effort because Niemi's disposition rarely changes.
"He's pretty calm, cool and collected and he doesn't let much bother him, at least nothing we can see,'' said defenseman Brent Seabrook. "He's pretty quiet in the room. He does his own thing and makes big saves.
"He's been huge for us all year, and teams have tried to get at him and get traffic and bump him a little bit.
"I don't think he lets that stuff get to him. He just continues to play his game, which has been great for us.''
Philadelphia has been talking about needing to elevate the puck more with Niemi tending to go down, but San Jose talked about it a lot, too, for all the good it did the Sharks.
"We didn't do a very good job picking our spots last game,'' Laviolette said. "I really feel like we have to do a better job picking spots and fine-tuning our shots a little.''
If the Flyers are to get back in this series and make something happen against Niemi, at some point they'll need something from Jeff Carter, who's a minus-3 with 1 point in 2 games.
"You have to remember that before he came back from a broken foot, he skated about three days and was out with another broken foot,'' said Laviolette. "Nothing like having two broken feet going into the Stanley Cup Finals.
"I think when you talk about those guys who can score 40 goals, they need to get their ice back and their timing back.
"So practices, the time off between the third round and the Finals, I think really helped him.
"Their line was out for a lot of those chances in the third period (in Game 2). (Mike) Richards, Carter and (Simon) Gagne. Carter figured in a lot of them.
"Typically that tells me when a player starts to figure into chances like that, it's only a matter of time before they explode.''
Antti Niemi might have something to say about that.
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