Oh Danny Boy . . .
The pathetic excuse for hockey the Philadelphia Flyers presented against the Calgary Flames during the first period left me contemplating this morning’s blog. Perhaps I would talk about the importance of work ethic. Or I could address whether fans should boo their own team (something I will likely tackle in an upcoming entry).
And then I watched as Danny Briere was absolutely mauled in the corner, midway through the second period. It happened directly in front of our seats, so we had an excellent view of the incident.
At the time, two things about that play struck me. First, Briere skated quite slowly to the bench, especially considering that one of his linemates had recovered the puck at center ice and was waiting for him to clear the zone. I asked my dad, who was with me, if he thought Briere might be injured. His reply was just a groan.
And in Flyer world right now, that essentially implied “Figures he would come back, cost us Metropolit and Vaananen, give us no cap space for the trade deadline, and then decided to be injured.” {sigh}
The second thing was the absence of Flyers retaliation. True, the entire performance was rather soft for a franchise built on the Broad Street Bullies’ shoulders. I would expect some sort of response for aggressively targeting a key Flyer forward, though. The Flames rode Briere all night, and neither his linemates nor the rest of the team seemed ready to send a message of protection.
That needs to change and fast. Briere will be vital to playoff success for the Flyers; they cannot afford constantly recurring injuries. Opponents know both of these things, and the Bruins and the Flames targeted him as a result. This team needs to step up and defend the diminuitive center.
Maybe the Flyers are feeling sorry for themselves in light of the personnel losses. But no one is offering the Flyers a free two points simply because life on the ice got rougher. The stretch drive is not a good time to melt down.
It’s very hard to feel optimistic about this team right now . . .
We’ve got two major blowouts going right now, plus NJ got mauled by the Isles before {I feel much better about that 4-2 loss now.. NOT!}. Canes-Bolts I don’t care about, but I’m thoroughly enjoying that 7-1 scoreline in the Jackets-Wings game. Oh, and just for the record, the Flaming F*gs still suck! 🙂
What the heck.. We actually won a game?! With Budaj in net to boot. Against a contender, {Well we can’t beat the crappy teams and I guess we have to win /some/ games} on their ice.
Okay, with the Avs all but eliminated, I’m looking ahead to the Playoffs and my ‘perfect scenario’: The Preds move up to the 7th seed, and the Kings leapfrog their way into the postseason, leaving the F*cks, Wild, Oilers and Stars out of luck. The Predators than upset the Red Wings, the Hawks use home-ice advantage to oust the Canucks, and to top it all of, the Blue Jackets take down ‘mighty’ Calgary and their supposedly upgraded roster. As for the rest of it, I don’t really have anything against any of the other teams, so I don’t care who wins the West.. As long as they don’t let the Eastern representative hoist the Cup! 🙂
Hey now, not so fast with the anti-East talk!
I’m actually rooting for Columbus out west. Their fans deserve some playoff action, and I’d love to see Umberger have success out there.
I’d also love to see the Preds make it and get into the second round – which would be a first for their team.
I’m rooting for Columbus to ship Steve Mason to Colorado, but I know it’ll never happen. If I had to pick a team, it’d be Chicago just because of Quenneville. Nothing like making management watch Joel win it all the year after they decided that Granato was the coach for them. I could get behind the Predators I guess, but not the Blue Jackets.. They routinely killed my Avs this season {Who didn’t, really?} and I can’t find it in my heart to forgive them. Unless, of course, they are playing the Wings or a Northwest Division squad other than the Avalanche.
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