Our only goalscorer?!?!?!?

Last night, the Flyers couldn’t do anything more than muster up 1 goal, despite having plenty of chances. 2-1 losers to a team with no stars, and a goalie making his first ever NHL start. This game reinforced the point that the Flyers don’t have any real goal scorers.  They hit posts, missed empty nets, and found every way possible to not score.  There is no excuse for what happened tonight.  They just came off a 1-0 shutout to the worst team in the league. Instead of coming out fired up and ripping apart a young goalie, they make him look like Hasek used to look. Tons of shots (39), and no positive results.

After falling behind 1-0 late in the first, it only took them 16 seconds to answer, by Carcillo of all people. I got a feeling that they were ready to explode. Instead, their offense was a pathetic embarrassment.  This is a team with no real identity, and nobody to lead them. And now we have a date with the Devils coming up on Monday and Wednesday . It’s going to take a lot more motivation and effort to beat that team.

Bill Simmons, ESPN

I am a pretty avid reader of Bill Simmons, the ESPN Sports Guy. I don’t agree with a lot of the stuff he says, and I hate his Boston homerism.  Still, he’s a very funny guy, and usually a good read. From time to time, he posts a mailbag column, and answers questions or responds to comments from his readers.  Usually, the last question/comment is something awkward/ridiculous and Simmons’ reply is simply, “Yup, these are my readers.” The final question/comment from his 2/5/10 post, however, is in my opinion awesome. I completely support this reader, and completely understand his logic.

Q: A couple of weeks ago at a frat party, I began to get with a pretty cute girl. As the night wore on, and the drinks started flowing, she took me back to her apartment. When I entered her room, the first thing I saw was a giant Sidney Crosby poster. Without saying another word to her, I left. My buddies have never stopped making fun of me since, but I still insist that it was the proudest moment of my life as a die-hard Flyers fan. Can you please give me some consolidation, or should I have just swallowed my pride? In my defense, I would not qualify her as “hot.”
–Dave Z., Philly

SG: Yup, these are my readers.

Devilchuk



So the team I hate most gets Kovalchuk for practically nothing.  Rookie Niclas Bergfors, average defenseman Johnny Oduya, prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round pick in this year’s draft is all it took to land one of the top players in hockey as he enters his prime.  All I want to know is, what did Atlanta want from the Flyers that we could not have parted with.  Jeff Carter straight up is a better deal, and I wold have thrown in a 1st or 2nd rounder just for the hell of it too.  This is terrible, and if there was any balance of power in the Atlantic Division, well it’s almost completely gone now.  I don’t care if Pitt. is the defending champs and if they’re right behind NJ.  They have no shot, and Flyers definitely have no shot. I can already see how every game will play out. Four people on defense, in addition to Brodeur, and Kovalchuk averaging 3 goals a game.  Not to mention the Brodeur is the best ever and is the only person whose best year is EVERY YEAR!

I hate the state of New Jersey simply because of what the Devils have done to the Flyers over the years.  They’ve practically owned them in the regular season, and even more so in the playoffs.  This is even worse than when they got Mogilny. He scored 40+ for them, and he was in his 30’s. Kovalchuk is in his 8th season and is only 26 years old. He still has at least 5 scary good years before he begins to tail off.

The East has been put on notice: New Jersey is the team to beat, so good luck.

Ugh, this completely ruins my night. We play them on Monday and Wednesday, and we’ll learn a lot from that home and home. Til then…fuck it. This sucks.

Two posts, and nothing more...

This was a game that wasn’t supposed to be even. This was a game the Flyers were supposed to win handily. This was a game where the Flyers offense should have lit it up. Instead, former Flyer prospect Ryan Potulny scores with 17 seconds left to break a 0-0 tie. The chances were there, but nobody managed to solve a rookie goalie that most people outside of Albert had ever heard of. Two days after a dominant win over Calgary, the Flyers lacked the flow and momentum necessary to put away a terrible opponent. Prior to this game, Edmonton’s only win in 2010 had been against the 2nd worst team in hockey, Carolina.

I don’t care that this is just one game, and I don’t care that it didn’t really hurt us in the standings.  This is one of the lowest points this season.  The Flyers have games in hand and an outside chance of getting some decent playoff seeding, and yet they blow these kind of opportunities.  The Flyers lack a player who can just take over and score, and this game just shows how much a guy like Kovalchuk could help us. I thnik Paul Holmgren is kidding himself if he thinks this line-up just needs to add defensive depth to be good enough to win the Cup. On paper, the talent is there. But they don’t play like it consistently enough. A big shakeup is needed, and soon.

1-0? We pretty much won.

I don’t get to see a lot of Calgary games, so I didn’t know how bad their situation really was.  The Flyers didn’t dominate, but they didn’t have to in their 3-0 win last night.  All they had to do was score, and the game was pretty much over. The first period was a lot of back and forth play in the neutral zone.  Neither team really managed to get a sustained attack after entering the offensive zone. The second period saw a little bit more consistent attack from the Flyers, and they finally scored.  Briere passed to Gagne, but the puck flipped up into the air.  He calmly bunted it to Richards, and the captain smacked it home. The way that the Flames were playing, that small margin seemed pretty safe already. Still, Giroux tacked on a pretty backhander on a short breakaway, and Richards iced it on a powerplay, both in the third period. Calgary showed very little life, despite the efforts of Robyn Regehr.  He threw the body a few times, but it had little effect on his teams energy.  The Flyers even tried to help by giving Iginla the puck in the offensive zone a few times. Still nothing.

It seems pretty ridiculous that a team featuring Iginla, Jokinen, Langkow, and Bouwmeester can’t score. Of course, this was the first game without Phaneuf, but even his presence didn’t help a lackluster offense. Is it really the loss of Cammalleri from last season that has rendered this team impotent? They have enough talent to at least run a good powerplay, and even that sucks for them.  They’re one of the lowest ranked units, and I could see why yesterday.  They lack movement, and their passing is way off. Hard to blame the coach, because he was the same guy that had this club scoring in bunches last year. I like Iginla, and since this is a team whose success doesn’t hurt the Flyers, I hope that they can turn things around. And for the record, the Phaneu deal was stupid. Only if he badly wanted out should the deal have been made.  And if he did want out, shortly after signing a new deal, then there’s something wrong internally with this club. Otherwise, he’s too good of a player to just trade.

Weekend Recap

Flyers 3:4 Thrashers:  The Flyers used to own Atlanta, crushing them for years. All of a sudden, they’ve been beaten twice in a row.  This was one was pretty embarressing, as the Thrashers scored 3 in the third to overcome a 3-1 deficit.  As good as the Flyers have looked lately, it’s these kind of lapses that make me question whether they really can by a Cup contender. This loss temporarily allowed ATL to leapfrog a few teams, including Philly, into 6th place.

Flyers 2:1 Islanders: This was a bit easier.  The Isles are another franchise that the Flyers have dominated for the past few seasons, and the trend continued. After getting a 2-0 lead in the first, the Flyers cruised to victory. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t exciting, but its time to get some points. The team needs to show some maturity, and not look ahead to the Olympic Break.  They need to gather as many points as possible, to get some solid playoff footing, and maybe get a chance at home ice in the first round. They’re way, way too far back to win the division, but 2nd place is doable.

Thanks for reading.

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