Flyers Can't Pull One Out in New York

The Flyers finished up their New York weekend road trip with a 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers in a shoot out on Sunday afternoon. The Flyers were clearly tired and worn out towards the end of the game but still managed to get a point out of what turned out to be one hell of an entertaining hockey game. Unless of course you were listening to Eddy Olczyk and Pierre McGuirre KISS New York's ASS ALL game long. Other then that the game was enjoyable, it was classic Atlantic Division hockey. The good showing of Flyers fans would start a "let's go Flyers!" chant which would quickly be drowned out by the Blueshirt faithful screaming "Flyers Suck!" It was great, and on National television to boot, good for the NHL as well.

Now onto why the Flyers lost. Yes, you can attribute it to having played the day before. You can attribute it to all the injuries to key players. Or you can place the blame squarely where it belongs, defense being to passive and too many turnovers in your own end. That right there is a recipe for disaster and most NHL teams playing that way would get blow out half way through the second period. Nearly every Ranger goal was a product of lackluster, passive defense. The defensemen almost looked unsure of what to do, stuck in the middle. "Should I press or should I back off?" Jarosolov Modry is the biggest culpret, every since the Flyers picked this guy up, he's played worse then Jim Vandermeer had, and that was hard to do. He's either getting burnt by a forward or just standing in front of the net while someone crashes in and gets an easy rebound goal. If theres a flurry in front of the net that leads to an opponents goal you can be sure that Modry is around. However, the rest of the defense with the exception surprisingly of Ryan Parent are all equally to blame today. When your coach and your bench are screaming for you to get more aggressive and step up at the blue line then theres something wrong. If the problem doesn't get solved you can count on an early exit from the playoffs if they make it at all.

On the bright side Jeff Carter continues his awesome play, and Scottie Upshall has also strung together a couple of good games as well. The Briere, Prospal, Umberger line also continues to impress. All in all the Flyers are a battered and bruised team who is obviously in desperate need to get healthy in a hurry. However, there are major problems that just don't seem to be able to be solved any time this year. If the defense doesn't shape up they could be in real trouble.

Mike Santa Barbara