New Jersey Devils aim to oust Philadelphia Flyers -NHL Playoffs Game 5 Preview
Not having top scorer, Claude Giroux, could be the advantage New Jersey Devils need to push Philadelphia Flyers out of the postseason race for good come Game 5 of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Playoff Semi-Final series.
Everything at the moment is seeming to work in favour of New Jersey as Dainius Zubrus emerged as a top notch player for the team with his amazing performance in Game 4 along with being the player who was hit by Giroux, resulting in his one-game suspension.
Philadelphia tried to defend Giroux in every way possible in front of the league’s chief disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan but since it was a hit targeted to the head, the senior vice president for player safety was in no way going to go easy on the player.
"When you look at this shift in its entirety, including the violent chop of the stick coupled with the lateness of the hit, we feel this reckless picking of the head rises to the level of supplemental discipline," Shanahan said.
Without a doubt, New Jersey has an ample opportunity to end it all in Game 5 and move on early to the Eastern Conference Finals where they will be meeting either the Washington Capitals or New York Rangers.
Moving on early would give them some much needed rest and a chance to focus on developing a strategy for facing either one of the teams according to Devils’ head coach, Peter DeBoer.
"We want to end this as soon as we can," DeBoer said. "We know they're going to play their best game. I'm confident we're going to bring our best game. They're a dangerous team at any point in the series, and this one is always the toughest to win. I like
how we're playing so we have to continue to do what we've been doing."
Seeing how New Jersey has just outright dominated the Flyers with four goals in each of the previous three contests, Devils should not be having a hard time when Game 5 kicks off on Tuesday, May 8, 2012, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia at 7:30
PM ET.
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