March Madness Featuring The Pesky Flyers
Flyers 4, Avalanche 2 | (36-24-13)
^Click play and enjoy. Unless you’re white and over the age of 25. In which case, you probably don’t like Future.
I don’t know if I should be excited or if I should expect Ashton Kutcher to come barging through the door and kicking me square in the dick at any minute. But here we are. It’s March 25th and if the playoffs were to start today, the Philadelphia Flyers would still be holding on to that 2nd and final Wild Card spot getting ready to take on Nate @ Nite’s Capitals. We’re down to single digit games left in the regular season and the Flyers are in playoff contention. Now last night’s win in Colorado wasn’t pretty. Actually, that 1st period was downright offensive to watch. The Flyers were getting out-shot, they were getting out-hit, they were about as competitive as a used condom on the ice. I don’t know whether they were still getting over that meltdown in Columbus or maybe it was jetlag or maybe they were too focused on Villanova making it to the Elite Eight for the first time since their Final Four run in 2009. But the first 25-30 minutes of last night’s game was an abysmal performance. But you can keep the sad tissues in the drawer because we’re only using happy ones today. Thanks largely in part to the kid.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
Before we talk about Ghost, let’s show some love to Bellemare for getting a stick on that shot and some love for the 4th line all around. 2 goals on the night with this deflection and White’s greasy empty netter to seal the deal with 5 seconds left. You’re an idiot if you don’t think these guys playing well fires up the rest of the team. If you’re looking for an orgy of cliches, you’re gonna find them with this Flyers 4th line. They play blue-collar, hard-nosed hockey. They bring their lunch pail to work with them every day, they get greasy and they eat up minutes. Great to see them get a nice little payout last night for their hard work.
But now back to Ghost. Because speaking of eating up minutes, Shayne O Mac logged 20:40 last night. Those are some big boy minutes. He was the only Flyer outside of Mason last night that was able to put together a full game. I know he’s still just a rookie but last night’s game was vintage Ghost Bear. His anticipation on the puck was beautiful. He was breaking up rushes defensively. He was strong on the puck offensively. He was bombs away from the point and was able to break out of his 4-game pointless slump. Just a little warning to the rest of the NHL right now, you do NOT want the Ghost getting hot again right as the playoffs are about to begin.
Stone Cold Stevy Mason
After that 1st period it looked like Steve Mason was going to have to face another 50-shot night. Luckily things cooled off for a little bit but he still had to be a little too busy to start the game for my liking. And without him pulling some outrageous saves out of his ass last night, the Flyers are back in that 9-slot in the East looking to get back into the playoff picture. Now I love that Steve Mason has been trying to Superman his way through this last stretch of the season without Neuvirth there to take a few games. I’m sure that if you asked Mason himself, he’d say that he wants to take every game from here on out. It’s his competitive nature. But what good will it do the Flyers if they ride him all the way to the playoffs only for him to be a broken down Chevy come game 1? The Flyers have Arizona tomorrow, Winnipeg on Monday and then Washington on Wednesday. I wouldn’t hate to see Stolarz get the go in at least one of those next two games, or even both of them depending on how that game against Arizona goes. But this Flyers team looks like they can go as far as Steve Mason will take them and with the way he’s been playing lately, I’m already thinking about what type of alcohol I’d like to mix Nate’s tears with.
Floodgates For G Baby
I thought for sure that I was going to have to file another false charge on Semyon Varlamov after last night because like Mason, he was playing out of his mind. But little did he know that after scoring that empty netter against the Isles on Monday night, the floodgates have been opened for Captain Claude and he now has goals in 3 straight. The Flyers top line really started to take over once Colorado took that 2-1 lead in the 3rd. I don’t think they lost a shift after that and obviously capped it off with Claude potting home the game winner. That’s what you need to see out of your top dogs. A little bit of resiliency, a little bit of Jam as Lavy would say. They knew they shit their pants against Columbus on Tuesday night and knew that they needed to get 2 points out of Colorado. That’s how you finish a game.
Dadko Gudas For Norris?
That’s 5 goals in the month of March for Radko. He has zero total from October-February. It’s amazing how much better a player can be when he’s not getting tossed from every game in the 1st period. Not sure if I just stumbled into some big hockey secret here or anything but it would almost appear that scoring goals is good and getting game misconducts is bad. I’ll get back to everybody once I have a little more evidence to support my claim.
The Other Guys
– I want to see more of the Raffl-Couturier-Voracek line together. I just think that with the way the top line has been playing lately, Hakstol won’t be too quick to break them up. But the Claude line combined with this new 2nd line actually makes for a pretty damn good top 6. Might take them another game or so to get some chemistry going and hopefully Arizona is able to just lay down on Saturday and pretty much make it a practice for those guys to find some gel.
– Besides Radko’s goal, I need every single Flyers defenseman who isn’t named Shayne Gostisbehere to never touch the puck again in their life. Mark Streit can NOT clear the zone. Like ever. He’s so weak on the puck it makes me want to puke. Ever see the kids playing Mites of Ice complete a 10-ft pass? Maybe every once in a while even though they’re all selfish bastards and never pass the puck. Have you ever seen Andrew MacDonald complete a 10-ft pass? Not once not never. It’s tough to watch and eventually some of these turnovers in the defensive zone are going to end up in the back of the net so yeah, no more touching the puck in the DZ if your last name doesn’t rhyme with Shmostisbeer.
Hockey Hugs!