1 Backend blues — It’s May and the Flyers defense is a big reason they are now in a three-games-to-none hole. The offseason addition of Chris Pronger was billed as the final piece of the puzzle and the 35-year-old has exceeded expectations. But no one expected Ryan Parent and Braydon Coburn to regress like they did. With no help at the AHL level, the Flyers will spend their offseason trying to bolster the defense. What’s even more alarming is that stalwarts Pronger and Kimmo Timonen turn 36 during the 2010-11 regular season. You can only have your senior citizens logging major minutes and covering up the exposures for so long.
2 Satanic message — You thought after the damage that he did in Boston’s 3-2 win on Monday night the Flyers would figure out how to keep an eye on Miroslav Satan. Nope. He tallied another one in Game 3, giving him three goals and five points vs. the Flyers this spring. He has eight goals and 19 points in 21 postseason games against the Flyers.
3 Silly for Ville — Despite having just two points in the postseason, little-used Ville Leino seems to be a scoring threat every time he touches the puck. The rap on him in Detroit was that he tried to be too fancy and gave up the puck before he could finish. What separates him from Danny Briere, who has nine points and is still a minus-2? When No. 48 touches the puck you never know which net the puck will end up in. david unkle
