Today is one of those days where it truly paid off to be a sports phan. The final round of the Master's was compelling from beginning to end. Tiger and Phil kept things interesting in the beginning of the round and then the final holes and playoff was golf drama at its best. I still can't believe that a guy won the Master's after inadvertently banking a ball out of the rough, off a tree and into the middle of the fairway. The Golf Gods were smiling on Angel Cabrera today.
Not only was the ending of the Master's fantastic, but the Phils and Flyers did their best to make me look like an ADD kid who forgot to take his Ridilin. Thankfully, the Phils came up big. Matt Stairs delivered another game winning, pinch hit homer which instantly made us all recall Game 4 of the NLCS. Good times for all, right? Unfortunately, that's where the Good Times ended.
Today's loss to Rangers, which knocked the Flyers out of home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, put the cherry on top of an unbelievably underachieving year. Sure, they made the playoffs, but I never felt that this team was running on all cylinders at any point this year. They kind of slept of walked through the entire season rarely putting together more than two straight strong games together. For all of their scoring depth, this team plays in way too many close games, which seems to exploit their biggest weaknesses: inconsistent goaltending and lack of defensive depth.
Timonen and Coburn are very good defensemen and Ryan Parent looks to have a great deal of promise as a defensive defenseman, but the rest of the top 6 leave much to be desired. Matt Carle is overpaid, undersized and not nearly tough enough or dependable enough to play in the Top 4 of any Eastern Conference team's defensive corps. He shows flashes of offensive brilliance here and there, but he flat out underwhelms me. Andrew Alberts is actually ok. I'm fine with him as a #5 or #6, but his partner Randy Jones is flat out brutal and does not look like he has ever recovered from early season hip surgery. At $2.5M this year and $3M next year, Randy is also completely over paid. You want to know why we had to dump Scottie Upshall for salary cap reasons? Just look at Randy Jones and Matt Carle, they are Exhibits A and B.
The most depressing thing about today is that without home ice advantage, I really don't see how the Flyers can beat Pittsburgh in a seven game series. Not only has Pittsburgh been better than the Flyers since changing coaches at midseason, but they are more talented overall and the refs always favor the Pens since the League wants the repulsive Sid the Kid to progress deep into the playoffs. Unless this team starts showing attention to detail on the defensive side of the ice, we are looking at a short series, which is sad.
However, the fact that no other Flyer did anything at the end of the game when Sean Avery and the rest of the Rangers were laughing at the Flyers floored me. They looked totally emasculated. I really hate today's NHL.
So, who is to blame for what appears to be a disappointing season for the Orange and Black? I think you can only point to two people: John Stevens and Paul Holmgren. Stevens rarely gets this team emotionally ready to play. Perhaps that's because he appears to lack a pulse and rarely shows any emotion himself.
After having a phenomenal two year run as the Flyers' GM, I don't think Homer made one successful move this year. While his offseason free agent pick ups were total busts and his in season trades gave the team little to no spark, his pre season contract negotiations put this team squarely behind the 8 ball for years to come. $4M plus to the ultra inconsistent Joffrey Lupul? $2.5M to Randy Jones? What was this guy thinking? He is crying out for a Joe Banner type to help him manage the cap. Now, he has to hope that some team will take one of these over paid stiff off our hands to give the Flyers some salary cap flexibility.
I realize I'm bitching quite a bit for a team that hasn't even played a playoff game yet, but I know how this one is going to end and I think one of the two mentioned above could end up losing their job.
Most of all, I would like to thank the Flyers for putting a disappointing ending to a great Easter holiday.
4 comments:
I kept muttering to myself the whole third period, "this is a great way to be playing heading into the playoffs..."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Christ, only 13 more weeks of hockey. No One but you three care.
Hey, maybe we'll be pleasantly suprised (or if we advance past the Penns we'll be utterly shocked), anything can happen. We got a score to settle and we're a healthier team this go around.
I doubt the Flyers can beat the Penguins playing the way they are. Maybe the Phantoms can close out the Spectrum with some magic since they are heading into the playoffs on a high note.
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