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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