READING, PA – With Tuesday nights 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, a measuring stick game if there ever was one, the Monday morning quarterbacking is surely about to begin for Flyers fans. I can just hear the phone calls coming into the post game show on sports talk radio. “Who’s to blame for blowing a two goal lead? God that Biron sucks! Fire the coach! Fire the GM! Fire Santa Claus!” That scary part is, you think im joking. Hey, you have the internet, find out for yourself. But hey, were not here to bash the fans these days. We will do what we always do, evaluate the team in the most kind, loving, thoughtful, non-biased way. On the positive side, for one period, and the early part of the second period, the Flyers took the Red Wings best shot after taking stupid penalty after stupid penalty. The Flyers were outshot 19-8 in the first period and 17-8 in the second period. Martin Biron did everything but serve popcorn at the concession stand. He saved the Flyers time after time. The team rewarded him with a 2-0 lead 4:28 into the second period thanks to goals by Scott Hartnell and Joffrey Lupol. Then, for some unknown reason, the Flyers felt that they could hold onto a 2-0 lead for over half a game against the highest scoring team in the league. Well, that fine, outstanding strategy not only failed, but failed miserably. With 2:33 left in the second period, Pavel Datsyuk took the puck at center ice and skated past Daniel Carcillo like a pylon down the left wing at the Flyers blueline, and put a wicked wrister past Biron to close the gap at 2-1. One thought should immediately come to your mind once you read that paragraph. What-the-bleep was Carcillo, a fourth line forward who makes less than $1 million a year and skates backwards about as well as my grandma does, doing playing defense? Well, someone might want to ask Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers “best defenseman” making $8 million dollars this year, why he was deep into the Red Wings zone at the time? I mean, after all, its not like the Red Wings can score on the Flyers who religiously get outshot game after game now can they? Flyers fans might be wondering if there is still time before the playoffs to petition the league for a special exemption so they can call the Florida Panthers about defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Than, like a bolt of lightning, the Red Wings scored twice in a span of 1:32 midway through the third period to put a choke hold on the game for a 3-2 Detroit win. Another “moral victory” for the Flyers, another 2 points in the standings for the Red Wings. When the Flyers decided not to sit back at any one point in the game, they actually looked like a team that wanted to win. They took the game to Detroit during 5-on-5 situations, and looked good doing it. The major question following a game like this, who’s idea was it to sit back and kill the lead with so much time left on the clock? “You get a lead, you like to close it out there,” Head Coach John Stevens said after the game. “They got the one goal, it kind of gave them some momentum. We didn’t make it easier on ourselves and they found a way to get the lead and keep it. They are arguably the best team in the league and we got some work to do to catch up to them. We got to get our nose to the grindstone and start helping ourselves.” Really, ya think? Of course Stevens didn’t take blame for the loss, and neither did he blame his players, but in this case, someone should lay blame. Ultimately it’s the coaches responsibility to motivate his players, and in this case, Stevens didn’t. While it might be too early to panic, a bit of reality should start setting in. Unless the Flyers can start being more disciplined, stop taking stupid penalties, and reduce the burden on their goaltenders, it wont matter if Biron, Niittymaki, or the reincarnation of Bernie Parent is in net, the Flyers won’t win the Cup yet again. First place is now a distant memory thanks to the cruelty joke from hell when Martin Brouder came back into the New Jersey Devils lineup. All of a sudden, the Flyers are in a fourth place tie in the conference with Sid the Kid and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and only six points away from missing the playoffs all together. It seems unlikely that the Flyers will miss the playoffs, but anything can happen. Still, it’s time to start chewing people out in the locker room. That means the head coach needs to start being a leader of men, not a casual observer of them. Players need to start taking responsibility, and not compliment the opponent on how good they are. It might only be one game, but it did make two things very obvious after the fact: The Flyers will not win the Stanley Cup this season, and the Red Wings just might repeat as cup champs. Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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