You win some, you lose some.
This would be the theme for the back to back set of games between the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets.
There were highs and lows for both clubs, a little tragedy involving one player, and we’ve learned that losing Steve Downie might hurt more than any other move the Flyers have made the past week. The lows for the Flyers included allowing 10 goals in two games against Columbus, losing Grossmann to the flu, Downie to injury(out 7-10 days), and looking out of sorts with the changes made.
Lows for the Blue Jackets may have been worse seeing as they lost star forward Marian Gaborik to a broken collarbone in his very first game back from a different injury, and even though the Blue Jackets have been playing well as of late, this kind of blow has to hurt. Gaborik was back only moments before he made his presence felt with a great odd man rush assist, and is the kind of player that only makes a team better. This is a contract year for Gabby, and its tough to consider what kind of impact this will have on Gaborik’s future with the club.
Whatever magic I may have missed on Thursday(that would be Giroux’s amazegoal) due to a hospital stay, wasn’t present last night, and now I sort of wish I could have switched days to be ill in hindsight.
Last night’s game did feel like it could have gone either way, especially when the Flyers tied things up in less than a half a minute after trailing 2-0, but Columbus made certain things would go their way this time around. They rallied around the Gaborik injury, resolved themselves that there would be no repeat collapse, and began to apply pressure on the patchwork Flyers until they caved.
It was nice to see Vincent Lecavalier’s return from his own injury, but losing regulars Downie and Grossmann hurt more. It was obvious how much chemistry was lost between those two, and no amount of veteran presence in the form of Lecavalier and Hal Gill could make up for it. Too many odd man rushes, too many defensive gaffes, and Ray Emery stood no chance.
The team has one more game, at home against the Wild, before it gets a welcome five day reprieve. This team needs it badly, as it hasn’t really recovered from the grueling six day road trip, and the time off will give everyone a chance to heal up, finally giving the Flyers potentially their first healthy roster in ages.
*Photo courtesy of NHL.com
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