PHILADELPHIA, PA – Ok, explain this to me. You’re the Philadelphia Flyers and your team is in a free fall with your spot in the playoffs slowly fading away, your offense can’t score even if you bribed the other teams goalie, and your next opponent is the New Jersey Devils, a team that has, pardon the pun, but has scared the hell out of you ever time you touch the same ice as them over the past 15 years.
Flyers defenseman Matt Carle
Let’s see, no Ray Emery, no Michael Leighton, and no fourth string goaltender in Johan Backlund who gut hurt the game before, just Brian Boucher.
Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve had to say this but the Devils have been the Flyers cure this season rather than a curse having now beaten the Devs five times in six meetings this season. The offense, at least for one night, decided to show up and beat the Devils at every opportunity, except of course when they take stupid penalties all night. The Flyers had the game from beginning to end. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
How they won the game is irrelevant. The Flyers are now in sixth place in the conference and should they beat the Islanders this Thursday night, which they have done on five previous occasions this season, the team will look more and more like a playoff team rather than a team that blew a chance to make the playoffs with ease.
Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger
The Bruins and Rangers have a game in hand on the Flyers so some scoreboard watching is in serious order. A repeat of Sunday night’s performance the rest of the season will solidify a playoff spot, but in the end, even if they do make it the team will most likely finish no higher than fifth where the Ottawa Senators reside these days.
The scary part when looking at the conference standings is that the 14th place team has only 10 less points than the Flyers. Should Sunday’s game only serve as a brief fart in an continuous slide out of the playoffs, there should be hell pay but their won’t be. Fill in the excuses/reasons in the blanks and you will understand why.
According to President of Comcast-Spectacor Peter Luukko, GM Paul Holmgren’s job is safe. For now, that is. According to a recent report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Luukko was quoted as saying, “Paul’s doing a great job.”
Really? Well, as much as id Loooove to get into how good a job he has really done, I will save that for my post season article. Besides, “Homer” has a contract that runs through the 2011-12 season so you can bet he will be given every opportunity to give the team a reason to give him an extension depending on how the team has does next season, not just what he does in the off-season.
No, whatever happens will happen to the players this time around. Off-season moves will definitely come at the expense of some of the teams higher priced players. For now however, the team can enjoy a win over the hated Devils. For Flyers fans, they will take that, for at least one night that is. At least until they lose again. This is Philadelphia after all. Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.