* Pre-Skate *
Well, I'm back after sitting a night out. The family and I came down with one of those stomach viruses. My daughter had it first and we had a rough morning with her (she seemed okay and was in a great mood other than just a few vomiting episodes), so sleep was a rare commodity. I was able to make it through work but I was more then ready to pass out when I got home. If you rely on me for your hockey fix (God help you), I hope you just did what I would do and watched replays on NHL.com or ESPN.
Since I turned in early for the night, I was able to watch all of the Flyers/Rangers game. Unfortunately, I'm sad to say that I wish I didn't. What a frustrating game. The Rangers absolutely slaughtered the Flyers in every aspect. I'll start with the goaltending. The game started with Brian Boucher in net, which I was happy to see with how bad the Flyers have been with Bobrovsky in net. That's not necessarily Bob's fault either. Boucher was far from solid. Again, it was hard to tell if it was lack of effort by the other five guys on the ice or if Boucher was to blame. I think it was right down the middle. Boucher let up a couple of soft goals but the rest of the team was pretty lethargic anyway. I'm more worried about the long term issues of Bobrovsky and Boucher. They need to determine which will be the guy to lead the Flyers towards and in the playoffs. Neither goaltender has the edge at this point, though for the sake of experience, I'd go with Boucher.
The forwards were pretty bad aside from Claude Giroux. Giroux continues to be one of the few players who shine during the Flyers skid. Before I go after a few players, I'll guess a lot of the bad play is from illness and injuries. The flu bug went around the team as they're still missing Jeff Carter and Dan Carcillo. Carter is an immediate upgrade. The lines aren't the desired ones without him playing. Carcillo has been scratched a lot this year, but at this point I'd welcome the spark he'd bring.
That said, I'll start with my critical thoughts. Alex Zherdev, back with the Flyers since being waived, started off well enough but was awful the last two games I watched. His defensive and neutral zone play hasn't been consistent. Bluntly, he's look lazy. There are glimpses of great talent but it seems to come and go. I still think he's capable of great things but maybe just needs a kick in the butt. Andres Nodl is another player I wasn't happy with. This actually isn't his fault. I think he plays hard and means well but he's playing top nine minutes when he probably shouldn't be playing past the third line. Instead, we've seen him get a lot of minutes and even time on the power play. Nodl is obviously playing more due to injury so I'd hate to knock on him. He plays hard and I generally think he's a pretty good player, just not for top line and power play situations.
Aside from those two, the rest of the team seems out of sync. The Flyers are taking stupid penalties all too often. Danny Briere took really stupid penalties with a slash and an interference call against him today. The game was pretty much decided, but I don't think that matters. The power play is awful statistically speaking. They did well generating shots in the first period, but the second and third periods featured a toothless power play. At full strength, the forwards seemed to stop skating or trying to generate scoring chances by the middle of the second period when the score was still like four or five to nothing. I felt like the Flyers should have just asked to end the game at that point as they had quit already. The Rangers just completely kept the Flyers from having any decent scoring chance whatsoever. Lundqvist was very good as well. Not taking away from his performance. He deserved the shootout he earned. Anyway, I'm hoping a good team meeting and the return of their ailing forwards will solve the issues for the Flyers.
The defense has been spotty as well. Sean O'Donnell helped the Flyers out a lot when he came back from a knee injury after three days that was supposed to keep him out at least two weeks. The Flyers claimed Nick Boynton off of waivers and have yet to use him. I think O'Donnell should be rested. There's no sense leaving OD in when Boynton fits the same bill. O'Donnell has been getting exposed as a liability the last few games leading to easy goals. The decision to leave him in (probably hurt) while you have Boynton sitting there is stupid to me. Otherwise, I think the defense is the same as the forwards even with the starting six in place. They just need to get it together and shake off the funk.
The Flyers aren't in deep trouble yet but they're approaching it. The huge lead they once held in the East is spent. They need to play with urgency and purpose. If they can nudge away this slide and find a decent groove, they should be able to hold the Atlantic Division down and possibly the Eastern Conference lead. For that to happen though, they need to find their stride and hit it. They stumbled into the playoffs last year and managed to go far, but dumb luck only gets you so far.
* Results *
Two nights worth of games here. Saturday was a pretty bad night for me. A lot of questionable picks made by me, a shootout loss, an overtime loss, and a few wins by weaker teams. Just the way it goes sometimes. At the end of Saturday, I thankfully held onto a 21 game lead with my picks (104-84). Here's how it played out.
3/5/2011 - Saturday
Blues at Islanders : Pick - Islanders : Result -- 5-2 Islanders : Correct : 101-77
Sabres at Flyers : Pick - Flyers : Result -- 5-3 Sabres : Wrong : 101-78
Canucks at Kings : Pick - Kings : Result -- 3-1 Canucks : Wrong : 101-79
Penguins at Bruins : Pick - Bruins : Result -- 3-2 Penguins : Wrong (OT/L) : 101-80
Canadiens at Lightning : Pick - Lightning : Result -- 4-2 Canadiens : Wrong : 101-81
Blackhawks at Maple Leafs : Pick - Blackhawks : Result -- 5-3 Blackhawks : Correct : 102-81
Panthers at Thrashers : Pick - Thrashers : Result -- 4-3 Thrashers : Correct : 103-81
Red Wings at Coyotes : Pick - Red Wings : Result -- 5-4 Coyotes : Wrong (SO/L) : 103-82
Oilers at Avalanche : Pick - Oilers : Result -- 5-1 Oilers : Correct : 104-82
Stars at Sharks : Pick - Sharks : Result -- 3-2 Stars : Wrong : 104-83
-Results Format-
Game : Pick : Result : Pick Result (OT or SO W or L based on my pick) : My Season Record
OT/W or OT/L - My pick won or lost in OT.
SO/W or SO/L - My pick won or lost in a shootout.
=Dumbest Pick of the Night=
Sabres at Flyers : I feel like this pick was a bit of a "homer" pick. The Flyers have been awful lately. Buffalo is a club that's motivated to win so that they can make the playoffs. The Flyers have taken their foot off the pedal hoping to coast to first in the conference.
Canucks at Kings : Feeling the need to beat up on myself twice for this night. No disrespect to the Kings, but the Canucks were going to win this one. I honestly don't know what I was thinking.
=Hardest Pick of the Night=
Red Wings at Coyotes : Two pretty tough teams and I went with the team that I thought was better. These picks are always the one that come back to bite you. I don't necessarily regret picking the Wings, but the Coyotes deserve to be mentioned as formidable in the Western Conference.
=Easiest Pick of the Night=
Thrashers at Panthers : The Thrashers are far from great but the Panthers aren't far from terrible (professionally speaking). When choosing between a not so great team and a bad team, I always go with the lesser of two evils.
=Shoulda, Coulda, Didn't Game of the Night=
Sharks at Stars : The Stars were a pretty good team for most of the season. The Sharks have caught right up and took their place in the Pacific Division. As of late, the Stars aren't the team we thought they were in the beginning of the season. The Sharks should have taken two points from the Stars but failed to do so.
* Results Part II *
I made these picks with less thought since I had to do them quickly this morning. Somehow I was almost perfect. However, my Flyers pick, the game I spoke so highly of above, was the bane of the day. Horrifically awful. Again, I apologize for being a homer. My reason for picking them was that I thought they would eventually bust out of this losing streak. It lives on! My first three victories of the night came by 3-2 overtime wins by the team I selected. The fourth was also 3-2 without the OT needed to settle it. Funny how that goes. Overall, any night where I can add additional separation between my wins and losses (now at +25) is a great night.
3/6/2011 - Sunday
Flyers at Rangers : Pick - Flyers : Result -- 7-0 Rangers : Wrong : 104-84
Devils at Islanders : Pick - Devils : Result -- 3-2 Devils : Correct (OT/W) : 105-84
Capitals at Panthers : Pick - Capitals : Result -- 3-2 Capitals : Correct (OT/W) : 106-84
Sabres at Wild : Pick - Sabres : Result -- 3-2 Sabres : Correct (OT/W) : 107-84
Predators at Flames : Pick - Flames : Result -- 3-2 Flames : Correct : 108-84
Canucks at Ducks : Pick - Canucks : Result -- 3-0 Canucks : Correct : 109-84
=Dumbest Pick of the Night=
Flyers at Rangers : I'm writing this ahead of the other games finishing (at this point the four games were complete, leaving Preds/Flames and Canucks/Ducks) and I still feel this would qualify as my dumb pick. I chose the Flyers thinking they would surely bust their slump eventually. If I took in account that the Flyers played yesterday (better, but not enough to beat a team much lower than them in the standings) then I should have at least taken that more into play. I didn't. The pick was made merely off the guess that the Flyers would right a ship. See "Full Metal Jacket" for where assumptions get you.
=Hardest Pick of the Night=
Predators at Flames : Both teams are playing hard towards the playoffs. Calgary is already in (5th seed) for now but has the seeds right behind them right on their tail. Nashville is not currently in the playoffs (11th seed) but only trails Calgary by 4 points (a matter of two games). That shows how close it is. It was difficult determining which team would pull it off. It's easy to underrate the Predators as they have don't have the names on their teams that Calgary does. Still, Nashville plays an awesome team game to make up for that. Both teams made this a tough choice.
=Easiest Pick of the Night=
Capitals at Panthers : Hate to pick on the Florida Panthers twice in one blog, but I must. Washington is deeper and more talented than the Panthers. This isn't a Thrashers on Panthers bashing either. When looking at the two teams it didn't require much thought.
=Got Owned Game of the Night=
Flyers at Rangers : The Rangers completely outplayed the Flyers. The score completely matched each team's efforts. Rangers 7, Flyers 0. The Philadelphia Flyers, my favorite team in the world, you guys got owned.
* Picks *
Not much on the menu for Monday. One difficult to measure divisional game in the Capitals and Lightning game. I can already assure you that's my Hardest Pick of the Night. The other games are a little less difficult but aren't clear cut either. The Stars could beat the Kings. The Blue Jackets should beat the Blues, but the Jackets haven't been great lately either. The Blues are playing for fun which could easily lead them to a victory. We'll see.
3/7/2011 - Monday
Capitals at Lightning ==> Lightning
Blue Jackets at Blues ==> Blue Jackets
Stars at Kings ==> Kings
Night!
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