Owned

Once again, the New Jersey Devils absolutely owned the Flyers up in North Jersey this evening. The final score was 3-0, but it could have been 1-0 or 65-0, for that matter. This game just didn't feel competitive at all.

At this point, it is reasonable to wonder if the Flyers will ever beat this team. The Devils keep jettisoning players, but the results remain the same. Guys like Scott Gomez, Brian Rafalski, Scott Stevens, etc. leave, but they get replaced by players you've never heard of that are just as effective.

Of course, the easy answer is that Martin Brodeur is the link throughout the years of success, but I think it goes deeper than that. It just seems like the Devils organization has some mystical hold over the Orange & Black. I think we need a feng shui expert or maybe a voodoo doctor to try and find a way to break the spell. Ok, maybe that's a little over the top, but this team needs to try something drastic because I simply can't stand losing to this weakly supported franchise from Newark of all places.

Plus, the more I think of it, I can't recall any team in any sport that has been so dominant over any of our Philly teams over such a long period of time. The Devils have pretty much owned the Flyers since Lindros and Brodeur came on the scene back in the mid 90's. We're coming up on almost fifteen years of dominance. I can't think of a team that routinely beat the Phils or Sixers in a similar fashion. I am aware that the Cowboys pretty much dominated the Birds through the late 60's up to the Dick Vermeil era, but many of those Eagles teams were brutal. The Flyers have missed the playoffs once during the Devils' dominance, so they have toyed with some pretty decent Flyers teams over the years.

I challenge you guys....can you come up with any other team that kept a Philly team under their thumb as long as the Devils have held the upper hand over the Flyers? I sure can't think of one.

In any event, I'm sick of all the losing to the Devils. Paul Holmgren and Co. have to think of something.