Blogs > In The Room with Anthony SanFilippo

Daily Times beat writer Anthony J. SanFilippo takes you inside the locker rooms of the Philadelphia Flyers and the rest of the NHL.



Tuesday, October 27, 2009

IT'S A CAPITAL OFFENSE...

... that these Flyers can't score goals. Really. Does anyone else think they really miss Mike Knuble right about now?

He was that guy who used to get all these ugly goals that padded leads, or got the team back in games. He had a knack for those specifically. Right now, nobody is scoring anywhere near the net.

It's troubling and it's got the Flyers scratching their heads a bit.

Consider - 81 shots the last two games and only three goals.

Consider - Jeff Carter hasn't scored since the Game 2 of the NLDS between the Phils and Rockies - yeah, it's been awhile.

Consider - fourth liners Arron Asham and Darroll Powe each individually have as many goals (3) as Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux combined.

Yikes!

The game was entertaining. It always is between these two teams. And it's a little bit funny. As much as Flyers fans hate the Penguins, Rangers and Devils, they seem to truly respect the Caps. Whether in Philly or in D.C. there's always a lot of props being handed over to Washington for the way they play, whereas the venom is clearly visible dripping off the incisors with Pittsburgh, New York and New Jersey.

MY THREE STARS

1. Jose Theodore - He looked like the Theodore who won the Vezina a few years back, making 41 saves. Maybe, for once, the Flyers can lean on that old "we ran into a hot goalie" crutch.

2. Nicklas Backstrom - The young center had a hand in every goal - scoring one and assisting on the others. His line with Alexander Semin (3 points) and Alexander Ovechkin (2 goals) was really good.

3. Ray Emery - The Caps threw everything at him and he held his ground. The three goals he allowed (the fourth was an empty-netter), either deflected off a Flyer or came through a bad screen.

DID YOU NOTICE:

- The Flyers had a season high in shots with 43 and now have 84 shots in two games against the Caps.

- James van Riemsdyk got another assist and remains the only rookie to average more than a point per game he's played.

- Chris Pronger logged 30:41 of ice time - which is more than half the game.

- Kimmo Timonen was again a minus-3. That's two games in a row. He's now minus-10 for the season, tied for second worst in the league among 662 players. (Minnesota's Brent Burns is minus-11). His partner, Braydon Coburn isn't much better (minus-9)

One final personal note:

I love Washington D.C. I went to college here. I lived here for a bit. But I never understood (and never will) how the Beltway can be an 8-lane road and have the kind of gridlock I experienced driving here today?

It's a smaller city than Philly, our highways are smaller (I-76 has only 2-lanes in each direction for Pete's sake) and more people live here - yet we don't have this kind of traffic.

My trip was going fine until I hit the beltway, then it took 40 minutes to go 4 miles. I almost missed the start of the game. Unreal.

1 Comments:

Anonymous A Truly Concerned Fan said...

Anthony, what is wrong with braydon coburn? he doesnt look injured but he is always out of position? he is killing kimmo timmonen. i dont understand how a player who has been so reliable can play so poorly. it has to be coaching.

and how many two goal leads can this team blow in the first few games. they need urgancy and need it soon. this whold team needs an attitude adjustement starting from the captain down.

I like stevens but we need a coach that can get this team going if he needs to and can keep them focused and disciplined enough to hold a lead.

I know its early but this does not look like a championship team and i am loosing faith fast. the writers have to address the real problem and that is that this team has no heart and no leadership.

October 28, 2009 12:12 AM 

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