Flyers leading scorer Daniel Briere ripped through Washington in the first round of the playoffs with six goals, 11 points in seven games.

Since then, he has two goals and an assist in six games, all coming in Philadelphia's five-game series win against Montreal.

He had no points, one shot and a plus-minus rating of minus-2 in the Flyers' 4-2 loss to the Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final Friday night. It was the third game in his past five that Briere had one shot.

That last statistic doesn't bother him.

"You don't want to shoot the puck just to shoot the puck," he said. "I'm the type of player that I'm going to shoot the puck when I have a good chance to score.

"We haven't had as many chances, so that's what you have to look at. But it has nothing to do with the shots. You know, if I get in the slot and I have a good chance to shoot it, I'll shoot it. But I won't take useless shots from the outside just to pad my stats or make them look good."

Everybody has an opinion

The Flyers found some bulletin-board material in Ron Cook's column in the Post-Gazette yesterday. He predicted the Penguins will sweep and joked they wouldn't need four games.

"You read the clippings in the papers about the team beating us in three games this series," winger Scottie Upshall said. "There's no question we've got what it takes to come in here and get a win [today].

"We're not panicking. You lay it on the line every day."

Coach John Stevens shrugged it off.

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion," he said. "I'm sure there's a lot of optimism here [in Pittsburgh]. Why wouldn't there be? They're 9-1 in the playoffs and they're rolling along pretty good.

"So it's up to us to create the adversity for them."

Stevens said he is paying more attention to Maggie the Monkey, who spins a wheel to make series predictions on TSN, a Canadian sports cable network.

"I was more upset that the monkey didn't pick us," he said. "He was 1-1, the monkey on TSN. He picked us in Round 1, and we won. And he didn't pick us in Round 2. So, we were hoping he would pick us in Round 3 so the pattern would continue."

Ice is fine; boards not so fine

Although there have been concerns about the ice's condition this time of year at aging Mellon Arena, goaltender Martin Biron said they weren't as bad in Game 1 as the Flyers saw in Washington in the first round of the playoffs.

The Penguins' home venue, though, presents other problems.

"It's an older rink. The bounces are a little different," Biron said.

"The boards are bouncing a little different.

"I got my stick caught in a crack in the boards [Friday] playing the puck one time. These are little things that are going to happen that you have to be careful about."

Penguins goaltender Ty Conklin knows exactly what Biron means. In a Feb. 10 game against the Flyers, Conklin got his stick blade stuck in a seam in the boards behind his net, and it helped Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell score.

A little rest for Hatcher

Defenseman Derian Hatcher was given the day off from practice "to give him the rest that he needs," Stevens said.

Hatcher returned April 15 after missing a month with a fractured leg.