Ok first and foremost, I'm aware I haven't written in just about a month and for that I apologize. Been a little bit busy/lazy and admittedly kinda forgot about the blog for a while but I'm back. I hope everybody had a great Christmas and New Years (I know I did) and I assure you I have been watching the Orange and Black. Honorable mention from last week...our boys won their first game in Detroit since before I was born, so kuddos to them. Now on to tonight's game.
That was a bit of a fluky game, lots of goals allowed by each team. One of which I'll get to in a minute. Boosh looked relatively decent in goal, there were a few goals he let in that were a bit questionable but for Boosh that's to be expected. There were a few times, especially in the second period, where Boosh completely bailed the Flyers out and kept the game close. As much as I've ripped him in the past, Boosh has been pretty solid in the net. Bob has been having some difficulties but it's to be expected from a 22 year old rookie from Russia that's getting acclimated to the North American style of gameplay. What really chaps my ass is that Zherdev continues to get scratched for sub-par players, with the obvious exception of tonight. He had a slight knee injury and got better just in time to be scratched. Seriously the guy has 14 goals in...36 games I believe, and may I point out he's been on the 4th line for some of those games. Now, I know I'm not in the locker room, I can't say what kind of teammate he is, I can't say that he's the nicest person to be around but as a hockey player myself I can say that what you do on the ice is 1000000x more important. He's tied for 5th on the team in goals with 15 after tonight's game, and as a fan I can tell you that's what is important to me. He knows how to put the puck in the net and at the end of the day, that's what matters.
And on to the goal that really wasn't a goal...yea if the zebras could actually do their jobs and notice that the mesh actually fluttered when the puck hit it, I'm not saying the Flyers would have definitely won but without the momentum the tying goal gave the Bruins, they had a good chance to at least getting to overtime. As Phaithful we should be used to beyond questionable calls going against the Flyers but today stung pretty badly. When the refs literally give the other team the tying goal...it cuts pretty deep. Luckily the Bud Light was flowing pretty well tonight so I'm not as violent and pissed off as I would usually be but I can still recognize a screwing when I see it.
There's not too much more to say about tonight's game, with the way it was played it was really anybody's game. There was like 4 or 5 different lead changes and both goalies stood on their heads and let in soft goals. Despite the fact that we lost it really was a good game, definitely had a playoff feel to it. Hopefully we'll meet the B's in the playoffs again (but not with the cardiac arrest inducing ending) and come out with the W again. Tomorrow night we square off against Chicago East, with some Thrashers mixed in. Atlanta had their way with us last year in the words of Jim Jackson but we're a different team this year so if we stick to Flyer's hockey we should pull out a W.
Again I know it's been a while and I promise I'll keep up with the Flyers better from now on. On a side note, I joined the army and I'll be leaving for boot camp in May, so in the likely event that we're still in the playoffs I'll leave the rooting for the Orange and Black to Eric Superfan and the rest of the Phaithful. Like I said before I hope everybody had a great holiday season...Let's Go Flyers!
