Flyers Home Opener – I Don’t Wanna Say I Told You So
But I’m pretty sure I told you so. 😉
19,567 of the most intimidating fans in hockey, flocked to the Wachovia Center tonight to welcome home their 2-0-0 Philadelphia Flyers. Actually, I should say 19,566 and I. This was my first Flyers home opener and during the pre-game warm-up, all I could say to Gutter and Rifle (FMB friends) was, “This thing needs to start already!”
The first period was a fine demonstration of goaltending by Ray Emery and Washington’s number two net minder, Semyon Varlamov. With Washington having the edge in shots, 14-11.
The second period turned into a game of, “Anything you can do, I can do better,” better Flyers Captain, Mike Richards and 08-09 MVP Alexander Ovechkin. Richards opened up the scoring early in the frame on the power play with a wrist shot on the doorstep, coming from a long pass from defenseman, Matt Carle, to make it 1-0. Just over a minute later, Ovechkin capitalized (not a meant play on words there) on a turnover in the Flyers zone, beating Emery to knot the score at 1. Less than two minutes later (do you see a theme starting), Kimmo Timonen would get his first goal of the year on a wrister from the point, giving the lead back to the Flyers. Not to be outdone, Ovechkin would turn another turnover into a goal 3 minutes later. Alexander Semin scored his 3rd of the year at 12:26 to give the Capitals their first lead at 3-2. This lead would last all of one minute, twenty-three seconds when Richards would notch his 2nd power play goal of the game, tying the score again at 3 a piece. Before we could even stop clapping, Richards would complete the hat trick 18 seconds later on another tape to tape pass by Matt Carle to give the Flyers a 4-3 lead going into the locker room and that would be the end of Varlamov’s night after giving up 4 goals on 25 shots.
The third began the same way the first had. Strong goaltending by Emery and Jose Theodore. But all good things can’t last forever. Semin would score his second of the night to tie the game yet again and just over a minute later, Brendan Morrison would give the Caps a 5-4 lead with just over half a period remaining. When Boyd Gordon got called for holding with a little under 6 minutes left in the game, a new breath of life entered the Wachovia Center and as the power play was winding down, Scott Hartnell rammed home a rebound to make it 5-5. A late phantom hooking call on Kimmo Timonen would give the Capitals a power play with less than a minute left to play.
And yes, I call it a phantom hooking call because it is what it is. Anyone who saw the game, Flyers fan or Capitals fan knows that that was a bad call.
The Capitals couldn’t take advantage and the game would go into overtime.
Bonus hockey! Yay right? Overtime against the Capitals? Three words. Do. Not. Want.
The Caps start with just over a minute of power play time but only record one shot on net. Another successful kill by the Flyers PK unit! Back and forth, up and down they would go until, with 1:08 left in OT, Daniel Briere would lift a rebound over Theodore’s glove, just under the crossbar, to give the Flyers a 6-5 win in overtime.
And the Flyers faithful rejoiced!
The Flyers are 3-0-0 to start the season for the first time since 98-99.
So here are my highlights and lowlights.
Highlights:
1. Mike Richards – Mike scored his first hat trick in over two and a half years, he’s the first Flyer to do so in a home opener and he tied the Flyer record for most goals in a period. You stepped it up tonight, Mike and all the Flyers fans in attendance thank you for it.
2. Daniel Briere – Danny scored the game winner on his 32nd birthday. I will admit, he did look off for a large portion of this game (most of it). But he was Johnny On The Spot when that rebound came to him just outside the crease. Happy Birthday Danny Boy!
3. Matt Carle – I’ll tell you later. 😉
Lowlights:
1. Ray Emery – I don’t want to come down on the guy. I mean, you can’t be golden in every start. However, playing in Philly, you almost have to be. 5 goals on 37 shots isn’t going to do much good for his save percentage or his goals against average.
2. Blair Betts – Blair played a great game today so he didn’t make it here because of his play. He’s here because late in the game he took a nasty check and has a dislocated shoulder. The Flyers will be without him for at least a month.
3. James vanRiemsdyk – JVR had some good moments in this game. Again, not here because of his play. He got his bell rung pretty good and his status is uncertain at this point. He’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow.
There you have it. All the news that’s fit to report. The Flyers have off on Wednesday and will play the 08-09 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins when they come to town on Thursday.
Now, this is what I’m going to say. When Matt Carle came to the Flyers, I don’t think anyone was too excited about the news.
Well, anyone other than me that is. I’d been following Carle since the draft because I thought he was on of a group of players who showed real promise in the future. He wasn’t going to come along quick like Malkin, Kessel or J. Staal did. They were all in the same draft class as Carle. I knew that Carle was one of those players that would have to be molded. That would have to be taught to play the system of whatever team he played for. He got the chance in San Jose. His numbers really weren’t that bad. 16 goals (12 on the power play), 37 assists and -1 in 151 games. After going to Tampa Bay, he barely got a chance to get his feet wet in a new system, playing just 12 games before being traded to the Flyers. Granted, the rest of the season wasn’t spectacular, but it’s not going to be while you’re adapting to a new system. Not to mention being paired with someone like Randy Jones, but that’s something else entirely.
During the pre-season, the game I went to especially, I remember thinking, “I like the Pronger/Carle pairing. I hope they keep it that way.” Well, they have. In 3 games this season, Carle has a goal and 5, that’s right, I said 5 assists. He had 4 assists tonight, all in the 2nd period. Get this, he’s leading the team in scoring! A defenseman! That’s right.
So, to all my friends who said I was crazy and laughed at me when I said that Matt Carle was not only a good pick up, but a smart one at that, I have only one thing to say.
Bleh! :p 😉
Until next time, keep your chin up, your eyes on the puck and you can never go wrong with high to the stick side.
Thanks for reading,
Paul Pickett
Facebook: Paul Ca Pickett
Twitter: PaulakaBFTW