Flyers Stupify Lightning Fans
Tampa Bay has some of the dumbest fans I have ever seen!
Before I expand on that…
Timonen will get the credit in the end for the game winner, deservedly. But there’s a lot of praise to dish out to a few other guys, after the Flyers finally solved the Lightning last night. Props to Mike Richards for tying the shootout during our final attempt after Tampa had taken a lead in round 2. The Captain came through in the clutch, giving us life when we were left for dead. Can you imagine how pissed we’d be if the team had blown a 3-1 lead, lost, and finished the season 0-4 against the Bolts? Thankfully, that thought did not become reality. Bigger props go to Brian Boucher for his performance all night, especially in the shootout. Lecavalier: Access denied! St. Louis: Access denied! Stamkos: Access denied! What about the job that the team defense did on Stamkos all night long. The CSN guys couldn’t find one serious scoring chance to show because he was bottled up all night.
How about JVR with the Gordie Howe hat trick? I’m not sure he was definitely going for the the fight, but he fared pretty well. Is it just me, or was the hit Randy Jones threw on Giroux right before the fight a bit dirty. Seemed to me like he stuck his knee out, not his hip. But none of the homers in the booth said much about it, and the Flyers didn’t seem to target Jones after that, so maybe it’s just me. Darrol Powe did a nice job converting on the super rare, shorthanded penalty shot. Although the hooking call that gave him the chance was a bit week, I’ll take it.
Overall, the defense did a fairly decent job keeping Tampa out of our zone. We had a good transition game, which needed some adjustment to play against Tampa (see angry rant below). However, after taking a 3-1 lead, we gave it away much too easily. All season long we’ve talked about the depth of our defense. We’ve talked about not needing a top notch goalie because we can trust all three pairings. And for the most part, that’s been true. These lapses happen once in a while. But they come rarely enough that we shouldn’t be too worried.
Now, about those dumbass Tampa “fans” and their booing last night. That really set me off. Their team sits back in a boring ass 1-3-1 neutral zone trap. Sitting there, waiting, doing nothing. Not putting any pressure on the Flyers. The same bullshit they pulled on us last time, which we weren’t ready for. So this time, the Flyers sat back in their zone, picked a lane to attack, and then moved the puck at our own pace. Nice and slow, nice and safe. And they have the audacity to boo us for taking our time? No, we’re not going to rush across our blue line just so your team can use their system to beat us. You should be mad at your own team for forcing us to play like that. Your team is slowing the game down, making it boring, not us. You want to get mad, blame your coach. Don’t boo the Flyers because we don’t want to give your guys the damn puck. There’s a reason traditional hockey fans feel that warm weather cities don’t deserve teams, because the fans don’t understand or care about the sport. And you, Tampa fans, helped feed that fire.
By the way, before we give Lavy credit for coming up with this plan, let’s point out that he’s not the first one this season that played this way. After we lost to Tampa at the start of this month, their next game came against the Caps. And it’s Bruce Boudreau, the same guy I made fun of for seemingly being a clueless potty mouth, that came up with the strategy (or one of his assistants).
Check out Bolts by the Bay for the latest on Tampa.
Thanks for reading!
You can follow me on Twitter by visiting www.Twitter.com/BroadStreetBuzz
Check out our great NHL site, Too Many Men on the Site
Fansided is also on Facebook: Fansided Fan Page