We traded him away for Danny Syvret, and tonight, he made the Flyers pay with a game-winning goal 16 seconds before they would’ve sealed a point. Ryan Potulny, who now has 12 goals on the season, has a salary cap hit of 595 thousand dollars. Scott Hartnell makes seven times that salary and has the same number of goals.
Ryan freakin’ Potulny.
The Flyers didn’t necessarily deserve to win this game, thanks to not finishing on about 30 chances, but they didn’t deserve to lose it either. Jeff Deslauriers stood on his head throughout and truly earned a shutout. Michael Leighton matched him at the other end but his offense just didn’t give him the support.
Too many missed opportunities, too many bad bounces to simply chalk it up to unfortunate luck. Ryan Potulny never should’ve had the opportunity to win this game in the final minute, and that’s all there is to it.
It’s late and this is succinct, but there’s really not much else to say. The Flyers won on Monday in Calgary because they were opportunistic and buried their chances. They didn’t do that tonight and they lost two points because of it. Plain and simple.
After the jump, an updated look at the playoff picture, questions with answers and the comment of the night. Remember, you can see the lowlights in the NHL.com widget on the right sidebar of the site.
Playoff Race
5th: Ottawa – 57 GP, 68 pts (won tonight)
6th: Philadelphia – 55 GP, 59 pts (lost tonight)
7th: Montreal – 57 GP, 58 pts (didn’t play)
8th: Tampa Bay – 55 GP, 57 pts (didn’t play)
- 9th: Florida – 56 GP, 57 pts (didn’t play)
- 10th: NY Rangers – 57 GP, 57 pts (didn’t play)
- 11th: Atlanta – 55 GP, 56 pts (didn’t play)
- 12th: Boston – 54 GP, 55 pts (didn’t play)
- 13th: NY Islanders – 56 GP, 54 pts (didn’t play)
Questions With Answers
- Can Leighton step in after not playing in eight games and put together a solid performance? Leighton was solid tonight, yes.
- Will the Flyers show up for a game against a sub-par opponent? It’s hard to say. They didn’t play terribly but they couldn’t capitalize offensively. I would hesitate to say they didn’t show up, but clearly there’s another level they didn’t get to tonight.
- How does Mike Richards follow-up his two goal performance from Monday? Kind of invisible.
- Can the Flyers play an all-around solid road game as they did in Calgary? Generally speaking, yes. On the defensive end they were pretty solid. Offensively, quite the opposite. They generated chances though.
Comment of the Night
So what’s the scoop on Danny Syvret?
>> Bruce McCurdy, writer at The Copper & Blue
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