Heading into last night's game in Boston, I did not think the Flyers had brought their A-game at any point in the series yet three of the four games played to date had been one-goal affairs. Last night, the Flyers played about as well as they are capable of playing with so many key players banged up, and pretty much dismantled a Boston team that never seemed to have much energy even before the Flyers forged a lead.

The Flyers kept their feet moving all night -- I loved the way they established their forecheck last night and the way they backchecked. This was the type of two-way play they exhibited against New Jersey in the first round.

Based on his play in Game 4, it was not a surprise to see Scott Hartnell finally end his scoring drought last night. He was knocking on the door several times in the previous game by getting himself to the net and winning physical battles down low in the zone. That's how he has to play to be effective. He carried that over to last night and got rewarded.

I have never been prouder of Simon Gagne than I have been watching his gritty efforts the last two games. Simon has typically come back slowly from injuries and he is still clearly far less than 100 percent, but he has given the time an incalculable lift in the last two games. Apart from his three goals, which have obviously been huge, his defensive play has been a steadying factor for the team.

With Jeff Carter out and so many other key players hurting --you can now add Claude Giroux to that last after the hit he took last night that kept him out of the rest of the game -- the Flyers needed help from secondary sources. Ville Leino has answered the call in the last two games, displaying the skill that made him an intriguing dark horse acquisition.

The Flyers are now halfway to making history. They still have no margin for error, and will have to duplicate their performance of last night against a Boston team that will likely put in a much better effort than they did last night. Last night, Boston got frustrated easily and contributed to its own downfall with a slew of undisciplined penalties. I don't expect that to happen again.

It was hard to judge how Michael Leighton performed last night after Brian Boucher went down. The Bruins didn't test him too much, but there looked to be a little rust (understandably so) that he still had to work out. Getting some game action under his belt can only help, and the biggest thing, of course, is that he and Boucher combined for the shutout last night.

One area where the Flyers still got dominated last night was the faceoff circle. It was a non-factor in the outcome last night but can become a factor again if the Flyers suffer coverage breakdowns upon losing a draw. Without Carter to take right circle draws and Patrice Bergeron doing so well on faceoffs, it's just something the Flyers are probably going to have to compensate for the remainder of the series.

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