So here’s the good news: Flyers moved back into a playoff spot tonight.
The bad news: every other fucking thing imaginable holy fuck what the fuck Flyers boooooooooo.
Flyers, who have been playing like a good hockey team lately, did very bad hockey things to lose this game. Up 2-0 with only two and a half minutes left, Flyers went on a power play that should have even further locked up a game that was already super locked up. Even Tim Cook wouldn’t have thought this lock could be broken.
But then, holy wow, Flyers somehow lost. First Flyers gave up a goal that probably was off of a high stick, then Flyers gave up another goal with seven seconds left. Then, in the first predictable occurence of the evening, Flyers lost in a shootout. It was bad.
- Netminding is not easy, but golly is Steve Mason (usually) pretty super at it. He’s so good that he made it out of Columbus. Nobody makes it out of Columbus. He had to play most of this game on his own and it was fine.
- Empty net misses when up two rarely matter, but Wayne Simmonds of Flyers really missed pretty emphatically from long range with a chest-high line drive from inside his own blueline. It was called icing and then he sorta shrugged and then the Beejs scored twice. If you’re gonna miss, miss big. He’s still cool.
- Jake Voracek is also cool.
- Flyers are still probably going to make the playoffs but it’s going to be close. If they do make it, it’s gonna be against the Caps, who make a habit of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, whereas Flyers have some of the least sturdy jaws in the league.
- Ryan White is my Flyers favoritest. I’m always reluctant to name favoritests because the first time I did it was Scottie Upshall and he got traded immediately. Then my favoritest was Oskars Bartulis and Scottie Upshall came back from the dead to murder Oskars in some Greek Tragedy bullshit. But Ryan White is cool. Ryan White is the type of guy who scores tonight and then shouts “Fuck yeah, boys!” because that’s what hockey players do.
- Are hockey players ever going to be allowed to say anything? At some point CSNP put up a “Quote of the Game” (which wasn’t even about this game!) from Brandon Manning about scoring his first goal, and then Therien (?) got an audible erection when he read the part where Manning said that “The most important thing is that the team won.” Which is boring and not true. The most important thing to Brandon Manning, whoever that is, is that he scored his first ever NHL goal. That’s way cooler than your team winning whoever you are, and the anti-glory boy gestapo in hockey needs to stand down. This world often sucks. Don’t discourage happiness.
- Next up is Colorado. I went to Denver for the first time last fall. It was really smoggy. Didn’t expect that. Try not to breathe, Flyers.
- Some butthead tried to take out Bellemare today. Wasn’t cool. /
10 more games to go. Flyers playing meaningful hockey is pretty cool no matter what happens. Go the Flyers.
