Biron shuts out Kings, pours fuel onto goalie controversy

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This goalie controversy thing isn’t going to go away any time soon, is it?

Martin Biron stepped up tonight and, coming off his unbelievable blunder on Saturday, shut down the young Kings 34 times for the 25th shutout of his career. His solid performance will no doubt cast a larger spotlight on the ongoing Philadelphia goalie controversy.

As the playoffs get closer, I think we all get a little more worried about how this is going to play out. Yeah, it’s great that both guys are playing pretty well right now, but if the Flyers don’t have one guy as the starter when the playoffs start — well, that could be a recipe for disaster.

But tonight, Biron was solid. He followed up Antero Niittymaki’s great effort last night with one of his own tonight. And he had to be good. His offense, which has been so potent over the last week, couldn’t muster anything tonight. One ugly goal and an empty netter that wasn’t even easy on 20 shots is nothing to write home about. That’s okay — those nights happen every once in a while. Perhaps the team was tired from expending so much energy against Washington. Again, it’s understandable, but only because Marty stepped up big time.

He was matched by his counterpart at the other end of the ice. Erik Ersberg made 18 saves, several of them very impressive. He was helped by his defense, as any Terry Murray club is sure to be strong defensively. The Kings did an excellent job in cutting off cross-ice passes and getting sticks in passing lanes.

Los Angeles played a very good hockey game tonight, but luck simply wasn’t on their side.

Notes

• There was just a general disinterest in this game tonight, and I’m sure that had to do with the fact that we never play LA, and we were coming off of that huge, emotional win last night. Tonight just seemed kind of “meh.”
• Two wins on back-to-back nights without Kimmo Timonen is a great thing. Hopefully, though, Kimmo will be back Friday night against Montreal, because 23+ minutes of Randy Jones is just plain hard to watch.
• Los Angeles is going to get better and they’re going to be a very good team sooner rather than later./

Questions With Answers

1. Can Jeff Carter stay out of his slump? He broke a five-game drought with a goal last night. Carter scored the lone “real” Flyer goal tonight and added an assist on Gagne’s empty netter.
   Does Randy Jones not suck tonight? Meh. He doesn’t deserve first pairing minutes, let’s go that far.
   How’d Marty respond to that crap on Saturday? Does he go one game without letting up a weak goal? Hell of a showing by Marty.
   The Flyers PP has been stagnant lately, but it’s still number one home unit in the league. It was ugly last night — can they step it up? I mean, I guess when they score the only goal on the power play… it’s hard to judge that on a night when the entire offense is flat.
   Danny Briere is returning on Friday. Darroll Powe, Claude Giroux, and Glen Metropolit are the guys in line to be sent away (although Giroux is probably safe). Who feels the heat and steps it up tonight? I thought Powe and Giroux both had a lot of jump tonight. Metropolit, Cote, and Asham all played less than 10 minutes, while Giroux and Powe played around 15 each. If ice time is any indicator, maybe Giroux and Powe are sticking around… we’ll see.

I’ve got a few things planned for around here tomorrow so be sure to pop in on the off day for that. Should be an interesting day leading into Briere’s return on Friday. Go Flyers.

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