Well, before this week we all knew that this was a huge opportunity for the Flyers.
After this week, we can safely say they blew it. First off, in New York, two awful line changes, one of the single easiest things to do in hockey, lose you the game. That, and the fact that the Flyers didn’t show up with their A game after the first period, is absolutely inexcusable. Rick Nash hasn’t been great this year, but he has certainly been clutch (all of his goals have come in the 3rd period). The Flyers could have taken advantage of a Brad Richards-less Rangers, but they didn’t. Again, inexcusable.
Then, two days later, they played the Penguins, their biggest rival. You just know there’s going to be a ton of goals in these games. Things couldn’t have started better for the Flyers, with the score at the end of the first period being 4-1 Pittsburgh. Then, as is predictable, more goals came. Only they didn’t come from Philadelphia. That’s right, they came fom your very hated Pittsburgh Penguins. Dupuis, Neal, Kennedy, and finally Kunitz (18 seconds into the period… we’ve seen that before) finished off the Flyers.
They did absolutely nothing on a power play chance midway through the period, but they thought they had tied the game when Scott Hartnell scored a goal that was waved off immediately because he played it with a high stick midway through the third, after the power play. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that, after one period of fantastic hockey, the Flyers again couldn’t hold the lead. They took the ice in the second and third period incredibly lazily. You simply cannot do that against a team that is as talented as the Penguins.
Next up: Flyers @ Bruins, Saturday, 1PM
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