It'll be a Game Seven: Flyers fail to clinch as Rangers win 4-3
by Travis Hughes on Apr 9, 2010 10:14 PM EDT
in 09-10 Game Recaps
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What is there to say? There were bright spots, there were weak spots. There were hits, there were misses. There was discipline, there was restraint.
There was Mike Richards' leading by example. Chris Pronger with a gorgeous stretch pass. Dan Carcillo drawing a penalty, Dan Carcillo taking a penalty. Lapses in effort. Overwhelming effort. Pronger the victim of a bad bounce. Terrible plays by Brian Boucher, and gorgeous plays by Brian Boucher all at the same time. Matt Carle getting in the way -- in the wrong way. Scott Hartnell being dumb, over and over again.
Game 81 of the season was a microcosm of the entire Flyers 2009-10 season. In the end, they came up short. Let's just hope they don't do the same with it all on the line on Sunday.
After the jump, questions with answers and the comment of the night.
Questions with Answers
- Do the Flyers control the flow of the game out of the gate? Out of the gate, yes. Two minutes out the gate, they stopped.
- What is Carter's impact on the game tonight? For someone who clearly was still a bit hobbled, Carter looked solid. Had several opportunities. Let's hope he doesn't get hurt again.
- Does Brian Boucher display the same confidence he seemed to show against Toronto? Um, tough to say. He wasn't necessarily shaky, but he didn't look the same.
- Are the Flyers in the postseason at the end of the night? Nein.
Comment of the Night
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
>> Ben Feldman
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Geoff will proudly disagree with you on that matter.
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
Yes I will.
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 9, 2010 10:57 PM EDT up reply actions
As usual, I’ve got Geoff’s back on this one….
In my opinions based on watching the highlights again just now, the first goal and the fourth goal really weren’t Boosh’s fault. The first goal took a bad hop when the original shot was knocked down and Drury was all alone at the post when the pass across got to him. Pronger bobbled to create the turnover on the fourth goal, and Boosh’s position looked okay in the replay to me before it deflected off Carle and changed direction. The second goal Boosh got beat, but no one picked the shooter up after the face off, so he was wide open with no pressure on him which gave him way too much freedom when he had his one on one moment with Boosh. The third goal was a pretty nifty set up, so yes Boosh got beat but Pronger was also caught a little flat footed; he didn’t do much to stop Dubinsky from getting to the post for Gaborik’s pass (if anything, he might have even screened Boosh a bit). Neither of the two I think you can pin on Boosh were really softies to me, it’s not like he was way out of position when the play started on those. He did have some good saves mixed in there too. So if you want to blame him for those goals (or his own scary moment) that’s your choice, but I don’t think “incompetent” is accurate at all for this game.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 9, 2010 11:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks :)
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 10, 2010 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions
I understand that not all the goals were Boosh’s fault but after how many games do we have to go to slow motion replay to justify Boosh’s goaltending. He doesn’t look comfortable, horrible at handling the puck, he doesn’t make any saves look easy, he is never set and therefore always moving and the puck never sticks to him. The team plays tight with him in net because they have zero confidence in him and I think that has a affect on the offense.
All of the 3 goalies Emery, Leighton and Boucher have started around 30 games and there SV PCT and GAA are all about the same, yet Boucher’s record is an abysmal 8-18-3. Come up with whatever reason you want he is not getting the job done.
I had to defend Emery because you guys were calling him after give up breakaway to prove Superstars in the league Semin, Heatley, and Ovechkin earlier in the season. Today Boucher couldn’t come up with a save on Jody Shelly yes Jody Shelly his 1st goal of the season and 1st goal in 60 games.
All Micheal Leighton did was win and everybody complained about all the bad goals and rebounds. Where were the excuse for Leighton? I like Boucher as person and the memories and I was glad the got him as a backup but he is wildly inconsistent and always seems to be fighting the puck. Ever game besides that Devils game has been a nail bitter no lead is safe. That can be extremely mentally draining and hurt a team’s confidence. And confidence is such a big part of this sport.
I understand your point. But if you read back through what I put up there, I didn’t say Boosh was blameless on all of them. I was merely arguing the use of the word “incompetent”, because while Boosh’s performance wasn’t stellar, it wasn’t incompetent because he didn’t let in terrible, soft goals. You say Boosh should have stopped Jody Shelly, but there’s also no reason for 3 Flyers to be between him and Boosh at the faceoff and then no one picks him up to defend against him (Coburn went to play the puck, in his defense, but the other two did leave him there alone). There’s a difference between a goalie getting beat by what ends up being a good shot, and actually being incompetent. And that’s the argument I was trying to present up there.
There’s an article on Fanhouse on the sidebar right now where Pronger is quoted as basically admitting two of those goals were his responsibility. I’m not saying there weren’t excuses for Leighton too, but the name calling on Boosh has gotten out of control for me. You’re complaining about him not being confident, but the fans treating him this way is not going to help him fix that, it’s just tearing him down more. I never saw an article out there saying “Flyers lose because of Pronger’s rough night” while Leighton was in goal, because the team did play better in front of him. You pointed out specific things you didn’t like about Boosh’s game, which is the same idea as the people who pointed out bad rebounds on Leighton; it’s a specific analysis of something he actually did. That’s a legitimate argument to me, even if I don’t personally agree with it. It’s the generalization of incompetency without looking at what happened in front of him that makes me defend Boosh here.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 10, 2010 1:46 AM EDT up reply actions
I’ll add to that that I know we’re all going to defend some players more staunchly than others, that’s just the nature of these things, I think. But pretty much every player who has been getting called out this season has had someone step up and try to defend them from such generalizations, and everyone is entitled to do so when they see fit. In this case, I feel strongly enough to do it. We’re never all going to agree on everything, the conversations wouldn’t be interesting anymore if we did.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 10, 2010 2:01 AM EDT up reply actions
All of the 3 goalies Emery, Leighton and Boucher have started around 30 games and there SV PCT and GAA are all about the same, yet Boucher’s record is an abysmal 8-18-3. Come up with whatever reason you want he is not getting the job done.
If you were in the game thread, we discussed this. I’ll be writing something about this. But this is like saying Lee, Hamels, and Martinez have the same s% and the same gaa, but Martinez sucks because his W-L record isn’t good. I don’t understand how any intelligent person can say “Boucher’s S% and GAA are about the same as Leighton’s and Emery’s, but his W-L record is terrible. Therefore, Boucher is incompetent.”
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 10, 2010 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions
If the Flyers lose, is there some improbable scenario that still gets us into the playoffs, or is it win or go home?
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
They have to at least force overtime Sunday even to set up a crazy situation of crossing our fingers and praying Montreal or Boston lose out. So yes, we really do need to just worry about winning the darn game.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 9, 2010 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Good game tonight guys, looking forward to Sunday, should be an all-out war.
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by Jim Schmiedeberg on Apr 9, 2010 10:20 PM EDT reply actions
If by “Good game” you mean “the Flyers played one goal dumber than the Rangers did,” then yes, it was a good game.
I give the Rangers credit for being opportunistic and doing what they needed to do to win. The pressure shifts to the Flyers now, and trust me, they will wilt.
The second period in particular was the microcosm of the Flyers’ season. By hook or by crook, they found themselves down. And just as they tied things up, something stupid happened which they never recovered from.
Good luck against Washington.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
No no no
Don’t you pass the becon of hope our way! Ranger fans feel exactly the same about Sunday. We’re all nervous.
Blueshirt Banter: Covering the New York Rangers the only NHL team with three home arenas.
by Joe Fortunato on Apr 9, 2010 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Meh
At this point, I feel both teams are just playing for the privilege of getting swept in the first round by the Caps. I’d almost rather the Rags win at this point than subject myself to that hot mess.
"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko
True that
If by some miracle we did make it to the playoffs and get swept by the Caps I’m sure the excuse will be the injuries. Nevermind the inconsistency, no heart, poor defense we’ve been watching for the last year and a half, the injuries will be the excuse, in which case Homer will keep his job, no major moves will be made, and we’ll all be sitting here watching the same shit next year and bitching about it because it’s more of the same.
We can still get seventh or even sixth place. Quite honestly, we’re not in much worse of a position than we were 24 hours ago.
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. Got goaltending? Searching since 1987.
by Travis Hughes on Apr 10, 2010 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Sunday
Aside from a win on Sunday, I think the only way the Flyers could get in is with an OT / SO loss, provided Montreal loses in regulation to Toronto on Saturday night. Otherwise, you can forget it.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Unless I’m much mistaken, we also own the tie breaker if we get a charity point and Boston loses to both Carolina and Washington in regulation. But if we can’t win Sunday, we don’t really deserve to have the chips fall our way anyway.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 9, 2010 10:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Oddly enough, I have more faith in Montreal losing to Toronto than anything else.
It wasn’t the fact that the Flyers lost tonight – it’s HOW they lost. Once the Rangers scored that fluky-as-hell 4th goal, I knew the Flyers were toast. They’ve had that kind of luck all season long and they’ve never been able to overcome it.
Get ready for Homer’s Last Stand, everyone. They changed the coach, now it is time to change the players. If that doesn’t work, then you change the GM.
Personally, I’d change the GM, THEN change the players – although Homer’s done his best work in the offseason. We’ll have to wait.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Game 81 of the season was a microcosm of the entire Flyers 2009-10 season.
Exactly what I was going to say.
Also as much as I hate al of you
and I do :), I love playing you guys. We sure do bring out the best in each other
Blueshirt Banter: Covering the New York Rangers the only NHL team with three home arenas.
OMG
First Richards, then Langebrunner, now this?!
Jeff Carter just blew off about 12 media members after the game.
Strip him of his ‘A’! Give it to Pronger! Oh, wait…
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 9, 2010 11:46 PM EDT reply actions
Forgot to mention how inevitable it is that Sunday’s “winner gets a playoff spot” will go to a shootout.
And regardless of the outcome of that, it would be a crying shame if someone’s season ended like that.
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
Didn’t NYI make the postseason on a shootout win?
Cидни Kросби: Александр Oвечкин, он твой папа теперь
Capitals Coming: for Capitals fans who can bear reading something less intelligent than a story at Japers' Rink
by red army line on Apr 10, 2010 8:55 AM EDT up reply actions
If they did then it was a few years ago and I don’t remember it. But regardless, making the playoffs and/or knocking a team out of the playoffs in a shootout really is not fair. The postseason should not come down to a skills competition.
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
That will be fine if Montreal loses in regulation on Saturday night.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
They play the Leafs. Don’t get your hopes up too high for that.
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
But they hate the Habs a lot too, if there’s any season they want to spoil, isn’t it theirs?
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 10, 2010 12:15 AM EDT up reply actions
Just because the Leafs want to win does not mean that the Leafs can win or the Leafs will win. They are a terrible hockey team.
As much as we hate the Habs, they are the better team and should win that game.
Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".
The Habs are as inconsistent as we are though, anything could happen tomorrow.
And if there’s any doubt as to the Leafs’ motivation against the Habs, the first few paragraphs of PPP’s morning links article should give you a good idea how much they’d like to spoil this for Montreal.
by DragonGirl0583 on Apr 10, 2010 12:35 AM EDT up reply actions
If Montreal loses tomorrow, the Rangers and Flyers are fucking idiots if they don’t just agree to let the Rangers win in OT Sunday.
So that the Flyers get the 8th seed? Why would they do that??
If Montreal loses in regulation tomorrow, a Flyers win puts them in 7th. A Rangers OT win puts them in 8th. The Flyers would be “fucking idiots” if they purposefully take the 8th spot and a trip to Washington as opposed to NJ.
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 10, 2010 12:55 AM EDT up reply actions
PLEASE WIN
I live in Quebec and I can’t stand Habs Fan anymore. If we don’t make the playoff they will think that they have a better hockey team than we do.
So could we say that we aint got the goalie for the break aways or enough depth in the puck handling /possession department to prevent turnovers for this system which sounds alot like a 3rd man High to work. Couple that with alot of puck watching, penalities and sometimes rudderlessness (if it is a word it is one now) when things go wonky, we’re gonna titanic which is funny because “iceberg” is a word that would come up in describing how fast the Rangers skate. Supreme let down and on night when the Phillies crushed the the living piss out of one of my most hated teams and in that fucking miniature golf course, sad excuse for a ball park. And was it me or was Jeff Carter more useless than tits on a nun last night…I would have much rather have had Leino in there. Man, there was nothing catrhartic about writing this like I thought there would be. Still, see you sunday. Toodles
they way that puck went over prongers stick then in our net makes me feel this is not our year I kinda don’t want the playoffs but I don’t want to lose to a terrible rangers team twice before the end of the season
I wasn't even a year old but I stayed up to be outside the Vet with my Dad and Mom when the Phillies won the World Series 1980.
Last night’s game officially made me change my mind. I really hope the Flyers lose and miss the playoffs. I’ve developed such a deep and abiding hatred of this team. And, other than Hartnell (who is useless and should be nowhere near the ice in any must win) I don’t dislike any of the particular players. This team is so much less than the sum of its parts, I want to see it blown up. Go Rangers.
flyers record at home on sunday(after the olympic break):
3-1.
people, save your apathy for the offseason. if there is one game we need to be positive for, it’s tomorrow. put yesterdays bad bounces behind you, and let’s focus on tomorrow. the flyers would want it that way.
and dtrain-please amend your last statement. that’s near unforgiveable.
Eat what the monkey eats, then eat the monkey. -U.S. Navy survival guidance
by psudrozz on Apr 10, 2010 12:21 PM EDT reply actions 5 recs
Rec’d
Broad Street Hockey - SBN's Philadelphia Flyers blog. Got goaltending? Searching since 1987.
by Travis Hughes on Apr 10, 2010 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions
if there is one game we need to be positive for, it’s tomorrow.
Why?
If there’s one game that can change the direction of this franchise and set it back on track, it’s tomorrow. And the only way that happens if with a regulation loss.
I find it hard to believe that the Flyers’ management is so incompetent as to think everything is OK when a great team on paper needs to win its last game to get it.
Cидни Kросби: Александр Oвечкин, он твой папа теперь
Capitals Coming: for Capitals fans who can bear reading something less intelligent than a story at Japers' Rink
by red army line on Apr 10, 2010 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions
when a great team on paper needs to win its last game to get it.
hence the need for better advanced metrics….I’ve dabbled a bit but baseball’s my mainstay and it’s a sport that’s so damn measurable….on the other hand baseball junkies are data whores, hockey heads not so much. Some of the advanced hockey metrics have alot of noise…more data would clear things up a bit to see what exactly is or isn’t regressing to the mean.
Baseball advanced metrics are a lot better because of the 1-on-1 nature of things. Hockey advanced stats are progressing, but it’s a lot harder.
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Apr 10, 2010 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions
no doubt to a statiscian hockey’s a vertible effing nightmare whereas baseball’s is a wet dream. Infact its the easiest of team sports to measure then basketball whereas hockey is the hardest. But bottom line more data is necessary. At first, you’ll probably need to lock people in a stat watchtower during games and continously feed them ritalin to keep up with the pace of the game and record all the new data.
That’s nice, but:
1) They got to this point by being that incompetent.
2) This is from the President of the Flyers just two weeks ago:
He is safe. Paul is doing a great job. When we’re playing consistently, we’re very good and have as good a shot as anybody [in the playoffs].
Sometimes people have to learn lessons the hard way. He hasn’t been around for a while. No Milbury yet. And, to be fair, he built a good team—probably just one extra signing for a skater that should’ve gone to a goalie. Not so incompetent there. Just not as competent as the better GMs like Holland and Lamoriello and (ugh) Shero.
Also, not completely his fault Lavi hasn’t been able to make the team stop underacheiving, right? If George McPhee hadn’t found Bruce Boudreau, he’d be looking for a job right now (McPhee). Sometimes it falls on the coach. And two firings in once season is probably too much.
Cидни Kросби: Александр Oвечкин, он твой папа теперь
Capitals Coming: for Capitals fans who can bear reading something less intelligent than a story at Japers' Rink
by red army line on Apr 10, 2010 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions
1) The team is built completely wrong and that has nothing to do with goaltending.
2) It is entirely his fault that Laviolette was a bad coach to hire. Even Lavy has now conceded, by making the Flyers play a neutral zone trap for the last week, that the main reason he was hired (a two man forechecking/Dmen as forwards system) won’t work with this team.
Yes…I thought I was just stupid…well the jury ‘s still out on that…I think considering we’re in a conference that has the two of the top offensive players in the league that play on the 2 top offensive teams in the conference wouldn’t it make sense to build a more defensively minded team? 1] we have two seriously good dmen already, 2] It suits alot of our other personnel’s strengths. Instead of trying to put a square peg in a round hole let’s maximize what he have until we can really restructure the team. That’s why I think Volchenkov would be a nice addition to the team but don’t know if that’s in cap budget.
They just need a solid #4/5 dman this summer to put on their third pairing. Just like they had last September before Holmgren started destroying the roster. Volchenkov is adding too much payroll to the position. I’m thinking a guy like Andreas Lilja. Just someone to stabilize the third pairing.
I thought so…despite that boarding of Gagne i was impressed by his play. So we stick with Carle , Coburn, Powe, Parent or do have to jettision one of them?
To be clear, I may have overvalued Volchenkov. But I think he’s seen as a #2/3 guy.
I would like to ditch Krajicek, sign a guy, and go with Bartulis as the #7
I forgot about him..kind of easy to. He’s alittle undersized…I think he plays looking over his shoulder alot. Don’t know if he bulked up a bit if it would help. What about Syrvet, will they send him down?
But then what would we do with the t-shirts?!
"Good night. Good hockey."
by KreiderDesigns on Apr 10, 2010 8:50 PM EDT up reply actions
i see where you are going with “a loss helps us in the long run” argument, but i can never agree to consciously root against my team.
if we did lose, could you say with 100% certainty that management would put this team in a better position to win?
Eat what the monkey eats, then eat the monkey. -U.S. Navy survival guidance
if we did lose, could you say with 100% certainty that management would put this team in a better position to win?
Not to sound like I’m waffling, but… probably.
We can say with 100% certainty that Mr. Snider is none too pleased at what the Flyers and Sixers have done this season. We can say with 100% certainty that the Sixers will have a new General Manager and new coach, and probably some new players as well. We can also say with 99% certainty that Mr. Snider has let Homer know that this summer is his last chance to fix the Flyers. In fact, the only reason Homer keeps his job this summer is because Snider is cleaning house with the Sixers.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
is that last statement true? not being a jerk-i haven’t heard that one yet.
so basically, win or lose tomorrow homer keeps his job, right? then i reaffirm my position. bollocks to wishing them to lose.
Eat what the monkey eats, then eat the monkey. -U.S. Navy survival guidance
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