Even At Their Very Best, The Flyers Are A Pretty Bad Hockey Team
Wednesday Night Rivalry. The night you LOVE to HATE. Ever heard of it? Cool. It’s basically just like any other night of the season except this time the game starts an hour later so it’s pretty frickin’ sweet. Anyway, the Flyers and Caps squared off last night in the Wells Fargo Center for a little bit of professional hockey action. Personally, one of my favorite actions that there are in this world. And boy oh boy did the Flyers come out guns a blazin’ in this one. Probably because of the Rivalry Night and everything. 23 seconds into the game, Dale Weise hustles his dick off to beat an icing call, the puck gets kicked out to the point, shot on net, and Voracek gets extra greasy in front of the net to put one past Holtby before most fans were even able to find their seat. But wait! There’s more! Because in the midst of everything, Dale Weise accidentally tapped Braden Holtby and the goal was called off for goaltender interference
NHL stands for “Never Hard League” because they are always making soft ass calls like this one. But yeah. 23 ticks into the game, Flyers think they get themselves on the board, the crazy EDM goal music starts blasting through the Farg, momentum is with the boys in Orange and everybody is happy. Then they get the goal waived off and it’s worse than never even scoring the goal in the first place because if you think of momentum like an egg, it’s perfectly fine when you’re just walking in a straight line with it. But when you through that egg as high as you can into the air 23 seconds in the game only for it to just as quickly come crashing back down, your egg is cracked. So let’s check out all the yolk real quick.
There was this goal from Nick Backstrom after an egregious turnover from Brandon Manning.
Last night would have been the perfect opportunity for Manning to do something really stupid to get in a lot of trouble. He could have taken out a Capital while also getting suspended for the rest of the season and never having to play as a Flyer for the rest of his career. Would have been win-win all around.
Then there was this filthy filthy snipe from Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Short side. Over the shoulder. Back bar. Unreal shot from Kuznetsov. And then lastly, there was this goal from Ovechkin and Oshie that really highlighted just how out of their league the Flyers’ defense is.
Ovechkin moves the puck cross ice, turns on the jets, burns Manning to the front of the net, Oshie puts it on the tape through Gudas, puck ends up in the back of the net. Looked like a practice drill for the Caps. Looked like way more than the Flyers defense could handle.
And here’s the thing. I thought the Flyers played a strong game last night. I thought they did what they could to generate some pressure although this team fucking hates to shoot the puck. They’re always making just one or two more moves than necessary. Not to be a “shooooot” guy but it gets to the point where they are leaving me with no option. But yeah. The Flyers came out and they played a pretty decent game all around and they still ended up losing 4-1. Anybody who thinks that this is A) a playoff team and B) a team who could at least not get swept in the 1st round is an idiot. This year has been a loss. And with less than a week until the Trade Deadline, they need to realize that this season is a loss and try to move some pieces around. If you stand stagnant in this league, you’re dead. Do not stand stagnant, Hexy. Do not.
Now I guess all we can do is just wait until 2019 when the Wings come back to town before we can celebrate another championship in this city. God this gets depressing.
P.S. – Jay Beagle needs to get himself into the weight room. Eat your Wheaties, kid.
P.P.S. – Live look at me watching the Flyers last night.
