PHILADELPHIA -- After playing four seasons in Buffalo, there's not much Sabres coach Lindy Ruff can do or say that's going to surprise Danny Briere.
So when he heard Ruff on Thursday had accused the Flyers of "whining" following Game 4, the Philadelphia forward just smiled.
"I've heard the other side of him, too, when I was in Buffalo, at times complaining we weren't getting the calls," Briere said following Friday's morning skate here at the Wells Fargo Center. "I've seen both sides of him on those calls. Doesn't surprise me at all."
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette also heard Ruff's comments, and rather than answer back, he was able to find some humor in them.
"One of the coaches did a little spoof of it in the coaches' office," Laviolette said. "He took out the word 'whining' and he put in 'winning.' It was pretty funny. We don't get involved in too much of that … but it was funny, we had a good time with it."
Rather than respond to Ruff's comments, other members of the Flyers praised the team's discipline in skating away from the post-whistle pushing and shoving that is so prevalent this time of year.
"I think we've done a really good job," Briere said. "We were warned early in the series that the refs were going to look at scrums and whoever starts scrums would get penalized. I think it was true for the first few games, I think it got away last game a little bit. We've done a good job of just leaving the scene. … I think we've shown a lot of discipline in that department. We have to keep doing the same things, play hard between the whistles. If they want to start a scrum and push us after, we can't do anything about it."
The Daily Pronger -- Chris Pronger's status for this series has been the hottest topic around Philadelphia, with his surgically repaired right hand under the magnifying glass.
Pronger went through the morning skate, but stayed on the ice alone shooting pucks for about 20 minutes. He took slap shots and wrist shots, but one on particular attempt appeared to grimace when he fanned on a shot.
The Flyers continue to list Pronger as day-to-day and a game-time decision. Laviolette has a policy of not discussing lineups, but he did say liked what he saw of Pronger during the practice.
"Watching him today out there I thought he looked good," Laviolette said.
Solving Miller -- It may seem simple enough, but when the Flyers have scored in this series, they've won. And when they haven't, they've lost. So is Game 5 as simple for the Flyers as get one past Sabres goalie Ryan Miller and the game will be theirs?
"We knew Ryan was a good goalie and he was probably going to win some games for them," Briere said. "He was excellent in two of them and those are the two games they won, so we have to find a way to get a puck past him if we want to win. I've been saying since the beginning of the series there's no secret about him -- you have to go hard to the net and try to find the loose pucks."
Scott Hartnell said the key is not getting frustrated just because the chances haven't always gone in.
"Last game each line had two or three opportunities right around the net," he said. "It was either not getting pucks there, or the puck wasn't finding our blade or getting 100 percent wood on it. It's a little frustrating that way, but sometimes you go through games like that where you're not getting the bounces. Hopefully here tonight, at home, we'll get some bounces and get a win."
Even with the possibility of Jeff Carter missing the game due to a lower-body injury suffered in Game 4, his team hasn't forgotten what it takes to score.
"Our group is a confident group," Laviolette said. "We've scored all year. After Ryan did it to us earlier we found a way to score. He's a good goaltender. We have lot of confidence in our group and the ability to score goals and we believe we're going to score goals."
Contact Adam Kimelman at akimelman@nhl.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK
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