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The Confluence

Flyers better change things up, or it’s over

by Tony on 04/16/09 at 10:51 AM ET
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Not that I’m rooting for them to actually do it, mind you.

Interesting to read some of the post-game comments from the Flyers last night after their 4-1 drubbing at the hands of the Penguins.

Some talked about bad bounces, while some talked about getting behind early.  Lots talked about their stupid penalties.

One thing’s for sure:  If the Flyers continue on their current path, they can start booking their golf vacations for next weekend.

‘Cause what they’re doing ain’t working, and if they don’t change, you can get your brooms out.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the Pens definitely had a few fortunate bounces of the puck go their way.  Sidney Crosby’s opening goal happened as a result of a scrum in front of the net, as well as pinballing off the post and Marty Biron’s skate.  Tyler Kennedy’s goal looked like a Phil Niekro knuckleball (kids, Google it) but went it.  And Mark Eaton’s slapper from the center point deflected off Claude Giroux’s stick.

So in that sense, yes, perhaps the score might not have had to have been as lopsided as it should have.

But it was clear, crystal clear in fact (Jack Nicholson - A Few Good Men reference), that the Penguins aggressiveness and speed were running circles around the Flyers last night for the majority of the game.  Particularly, the Flyers had absolutely no answer for the bottom two lines centered by Jordan Staal and Max Talbot.  Staal himself had at least two great scoring chances after easily gliding through the Philadelphia defense.  Naturally, the Flyers have to concentrate on matching their defense against the Crosby and Malkin lines, but if they know what’s good for them, they had better have gotten a wake up call about defending the bottom two lines as well.

But it was the silly, but not surprising, penalties taken by the Flyers that really set them back.  Specifically, someone needs to explain to Scott Hartnell where that line is between being aggressive and agitating the Penguins’ stars, and what he was doing last night, which was taking stupid, undisciplined penalties.  The fact that the Flyers “only” got burned on one powerplay goal because of those penalties could be attributed by some to their penalty killing, but I’d lean more towards the continued poor execution of the Penguins’ powerplay.  Can you imagine what’s gonna happen when the Penguins finally start clicking with the man advantage ??

That said, all of this blustering could be forgotten about if the Flyers do what it takes to escape out of Pittsburgh with a split.  They still have a powerful powerplay, although the Penguins penalty kill is playing exceptional.

But if they keep performing like they did last night, call Don Meredith, it’ll be time to turn out the lights, the party’s over.

Kids, Google it.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: NHL-Hockey, Philadelphia+Flyers, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

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