Going into yesterdays game, Ilya Bryzgalov had given up 4 or more goals 11 times this season. 11 TIMES! The Flyers were 3-8 in those games. Well, yesterday he gave up five and the Flyers dropped another one of those games to fall to 3-9 on the season when he gives up 4 or more.
3-9!
Let that sit for a little bit.
Now, I "humaanngous beeg" part of me wants to blame Ilya. But then in the back of my mind all I can hear is "Why you heff to be mad?!"
Ok, enough of the funny business.
Matt Carle, you are officially on notice. You were a -4 yesterday. That simply will not do. In recent games I have quickly been losing my patience with Carle. Its a shame, hes a guy you really want to like too. Not for nothing, but Zac Rinaldo was a +1 and Andreas Lilja was a +2.
Claude Giroux, what was that? Undoubtedly these two games against Ottawa were a fluke but you were -3 yesterday and you were pretty much non existent Saturday night.
But that's not what is digging at me.
Recently on my facebook page I asked the question:
"What are your thoughts on our defense blowing 2-goal leads in 3 of their past 4 games? What would you do to change it?"
I saw a response from a guy named Eric that rang clear to me.
"Either you want it bad enough, or you collect your millions and say its just one game."
Touche, Eric.
In the third period yesterday their were two teams on that ice. A determined Ottawa team, and a dipsy-doodle Flyers team.
The first period was all Flyers for the most part and they scored the only goal in the second period. They carried the dreaded 2-goal lead into the third period. I saw facebook posts like "I hope the Flyers don't blow another 2 goal lead" and "The Flyers should get Tim Tebow to play goalie"
Poppycock.
They owned Ottawa in 4 of the 6 periods in the home and home series. But the period they lost each time was the third. Luckily enough they held on to the game Saturday. 1 point out of a potential 4 would not have been good. The fact that Ottawa got out played and out manned in pretty much both games yet still walked away with 3 of the possible 4 points is not a good one for Flyers fans.
It has to worry you for the playoffs. As the standings currently stand, if the season ended today the Flyers would play Ottawa in the first round of the playoffs. For the first time in almost 3 seasons, that sounds frightening. Ottawa in the playoffs.
This team would lose in 6 maybe 7 games to the Sens if Craig Anderson played like that throughout the entire series.
Ottawa shut Claude Giroux out in both games. Scott Hartnell and Jake Voracek didn't even register shots yesterday. All three players were on the ice for over 14 and a half minutes and two of them didn't even get a shot on goal.
How can this team win in the playoffs if our top line cant score against a pretty mediocre team, our defense cant hold a lead, and our goalie gives up 4 goals a night almost as much as he doesn't.
So what do we need?
We need to want it more. We need more heart. We need more guys like Danny Briere who has been in a funk and then has a hat trick while dancing with Kyle Turris. So what Turris looks like hes 15. Briere needed a spark for himself and he went out and got it. He even credited Jody Shelley for some of his fighting skills.
We need guys like Carle to step up. We need guys like Matt Read to make it hard for the Flyers to trade them. We need the defensive aspect of the team to step up all around. Forwards need to do a better job of back checking, defensemen need to go down and block a shot. I swear, if I see one more goal go in off of a Flyers player I am going to lost my mind. I love this team. I want this to be the team that wins the cup. I don't want them to make a move for a defensemen. Unless it means that Lilja is out of the line up, I'm all for that.
Hopefully the Flyers can get some of that heart back when they travel to Carolina tomorrow to play the Hurricaines at 7:00.
No word on who will be in net, but I will be very surprised if it is not Sergei Bobrovsky, perhaps the Flyers most valueable piece.
Please send all questions and comments to Phlyers1967@gmail.com Thank you for reading.
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