Flyers Wake Up, Spank Lightning

4th liners adding to the O!

Finally, a solid 40 minute effort from the Orange and Black. What’s that you say? A hockey game is 60 minutes? Well, that does not matter when you use the Flyers latest strategy: play a solid first period to take a 2-0 lead. Power nap during the second period and allow the opponent to tie it 2-2.  Use your pent up energy in the third period to regain the two goal cushion and stuff any empty netter to seal the deal.  Mike Richards and Blair Betts each got a pair of goals, and Simon Gagne added icing to the cake.

the Flyers Second Period Strategy

Lightning definitely had a chance in this game, but seemed to be missing their scoring touch.  When they were on the powerplay, they moved the puck at will around the perimeter.  Victor Hedman, Vinny Lecavalier, and Steven Stamkos all fired shots from either the point, or the outside hash marks.  Almost every powerplay that Tampa had, each of these guys got a good whack at the puck.  Luckily, none of them were deposited into the net.

Because the Flyers top two goalies, Ray Emery and Brian Boucher, are both out with injuries, their starter was Michael Leighton.  I cannot say he impressed me at all.  I know the bottom line is that he stopped pucks, but I don’t like his positioning.  He seems to over commit just a bit when going side-to-side, does a horrible job deflecting rebounds to the corner, and drops to his knees way too early.  The three things that piss me off the most about goalies are: 1) Goes down early; 2) rebounds into the middle; 3) poor stick handlers that continuously play the puck. He’s got 2 of those 3 bad qualities, in addition to fundamental positioning flaws. The Flyers next two games are against Carolina and the Islanders, so some good team defense and solid offensive pressure should cover up this glaring weakness.  Marian Gaborik and the Rangers are up after that though, so either Leighton steps up his game, or I hope somebody else is in net.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays!

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