That Was More Like It!

Thanks to some early opportunistic goal scoring, competent defensive play, and unexpectedly outstanding goaltending, your Philadelphia Flyers are back to all square in their first round playoff series.

As well as the Flyers played today, you can't help but have a "what if" feeling tonight. Had the Flyers just played a little tighter defense, the refs called a stoppage a play after Thoreson took a slap shot to the nuts or BEE-ron made a key save or two at some point in the third period on Friday night, then the Flyers would be in the driver seat as they head back to Philly. Instead, the Flyers come back tied and looking very much like a confident team that knows it is better than this Capitals team.

One of the bigger changes I noticed today was how much contact affected the play of Caps' defenseman, Mike Green. He looked like a different player after getting hit a few times. By contrast, Ovechkin didn't seem as interested and I wonder if it was because he wasn't involved in the physical play as much as he was on Friday.

The one thing that has me a bit worried is our inability to establish ourselves down low and pound in some goals. Most of the goals so far we've scored against the Caps have been off the rush. I'm waiting to see Richards, Lupul, Hartnell, Upshall an Knuble start to wear down the Caps defense and knock in some goals from in close.

Basically, the Flyers have been the better of the two teams for 5 of the 6 periods so far. If the Flyers can continue to play like they did today, I think we'll like the results for the rest of the series.

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Other thoughts from the weekend:

1) Gotta love Action News' lead story tonight: A Flyer's wife delays child birth for playoff game. In case you missed it, apparently Mar-TAN BEE-ron's wife delayed the birth of their child until tomorrow so Martin would be there to see the kid born.

2) The Phils blew a good chance today to get over the .500 mark. I don't know what happened to Chase on that ill fated throw in the 10th inning. I don't know why he rushed himself so much to try to throw out a pitcher. Overall, it was a good series for the Phils. On Saturday, Cole once again showed that is undoubtedly the best starting pitcher the Phils have had since Schill.

3) Memo to Sixers: It's kind of important to go into the playoffs on a roll. How about showing up and giving a good effort.

4) The final round of the Masters was completely boring. It's a shame Tiger missed all those putts on the back nine it could have made Immelman's last couple holes pretty interesting.

5) Is anyone else intrigued by the complete lack of news coming from the Eagles as of late? I'm wondering if they have something up their sleeve.