Game Wrap: MIN @ PHI 5-4 OTL

So as I was contemplating my return to the site and what I would write about, I stumbled upon a pair of tickets and decided to use tonight’s game as my return. I’d like to thank Paul for allowing me to come back after I bailed, I hit some hard times and just didn’t want to write. Hopefully he is also okay with me writing a wrap after his.  Now I’m back and extremely excited for the season.

Now on to the subject at hand, tonight’s game. I arrived an hour and a half early thanks to my ride who wanted to miss all the traffic, but in the long run I think it helped me. After a good hour of talking with my brother and a few other fans, the teams came out for warm-ups. Ray Emery and his extremely cool orange pads lead the team out of the tunnel, which led to a large cheer from the few fans that were early enough. After some stretches and player shots and cycles, Emery skated to the net for some practice shots. In my opinion, Emery looked as strong as anyone could expect him to be. Do to Boosh’s injury, Johan Backlund was the back-up for the game. I was initially excited because he was my pick to win the back-up position but I would later be proven extremely wrong.

Now I treated this game like it was the last Flyers game I would see. So after another amazing performance of the Star Spangled Banner by Lauren Hart, it was time for the face-off. The first line for the game was a combo of Scott Hartnell on the left wing, Danny Briere on the right wing, Jeff Carter playing center, and a defense pair of Chris Pronger and Matt Carle. First off let me say this about Matt Carle; All that I have said about him in the past could honestly be thrown out of the window if he plays the season like he did tonight. He was strong on the puck and very responsible in his own end, very impressive alongside Pronger. I was looking forward to seeing JVR play but honestly I barely noticed him. Pyorala had another goal with another strong game and Giroux was as good as he’s been. What made this game feel like the regular season was the terrible calls by the officials. Not really a surprise to me but some of those calls were absolutely terrible.

Ray Emery had the start as planned and played well through a period and a half. 1 goal allowed on 11 shots isn’t exactly great but those numbers absolutely do not reflect on his performance. He was fast, responsive, and responded well to the puck. His rebound control was great also and he was incredibly athletic for the preseason in my opinion. Remember earlier I told you about how I would be proven wrong about Backlund? Yeah well here it comes. For whatever reason and I don’t care if it was legitimate, John Stevens decided to put Backlund in for Emery with 8:23 to play in the second period. If you haven’t caught the drift of Backlund’s play, it was horrible at best. Backlund allowed 4 goals on 14 shots and just seemed like he wasn’t mentally in the game. He let the go ahead goal in at 15:20 of the third period, but the boys rallied back just a minute and thirty-six seconds later to tie it. Then came the shootout. One goal Flyers, one goal Wild. Same in the second round. Then both goalies made a stop in the third round to send the shootout to sudden death. Jeff Carter fails to score and by no surprise Backlund gives up the winner to Antti Miettinen.

As soon as Miettinen let the shot go and grabbed my brother and started to leave. But, overall, I guess I would give the guys an A- for effort. It was a strong effort on most fronts but as I said before Backlund and JVR disappointed me. Thanks again for reading guys and this will be the start of more writings on my part. Thanks again to Paul also and let’s all get ready for the new NHL season to begin!