Well today was not a good day. After sitting at a computer all day waiting for something (Tomas Vokoun, anyone?) to be announced, nothing happened. Then the Flyers stepped on the ice and got demolished.
There really isn’t too much to say. Michael Leighton, quite simply, did not have a good game. Brian Boucher came on in relief and promptly gave up two goals, and – although he recovered – didn’t look good either. So, when John Boruk quotes Paul Holmgren as saying “I never made one call on a goalie” in a mid-game tweet, you can forgive me for asking “are you PROUD of that?”
But enough of that. The Flyers had won five in a row, just won a game 7-2, and played the second game of a back-to-back tonight. Maybe Boucher should have started tonight’s game, but it doesn’t really matter.
The good news from tonight? Ville Leino and Ryan Parent both scored their first ever goals in the Orange and Black, Parent scoring his first ever NHL goal. Congratulations to those two.
What? You wanted more good news? How about more bad news: Jeff Carter and Danny Briere both scored goals, but they were on the PP. As a result, the pair going minus-3 on the night was especially depressing. Only four players outside of the new fourth-line (Leino-Betts-Laperriere) avoided a minus tonight – Pronger, JVR, Asham, and Parent – and the Panthers had 7 power plays. Seven! You’re not going to win when that happens.
With that, jump for Questions with Answers and Comment of the Night.
Questions to Answer:
- With the assurances that nobody will be traded (ignoring waiver trades), do the Flyers come out like they did last night? Not at all.
- There were rumors of a potential deal involving Jeff Carter for Tomas Vokoun: In a ridiculously small one game sample, does Carter prove more valuable? More valuable? No. Not at all. But Carter did score on him, so there’s that.
- The Panthers defense is… significantly weaker than it was on Sunday. Can the Flyers take advantage? No. Four goals usually warrants a “yes”, but their defensemen did enough to win. And scored two goals (one empty-net)
- Nobody got traded or fired today, so can the team best their efforts from last year’s game against Calgary (after Upshall was traded) and this year’s game against Washington (after Stevens was fired)? Um… I must say the team as a whole did best their efforts from the Calgary and Washington games. But Washington was largely the result of a 9 minute power play, and the team quitting after that. Here, the team didn’t play poorly (they didn’t play well either), but were let down by poor goaltending.
Comment of the Night:
Nothing worse than looking forward to a game all day, and this is what you get….
