Tonight’s 5-4 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals was exciting, tense, and ultimately disappointing. Ignoring the average first period, the Flyers absolutely dominated the Caps at even strength during the last 40 minutes.
The top three lines all contributed goals, turning a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 late in the third period. Versteeg put the Flyers on the board in the 2nd period, followed by a tic-tac-toe play between Braydon Coburn, Andreas Nodl, and Claude Giroux.
Giroux returned the favor in the third period, feeding the puck to Nodl in the slot. Nodl, throwing his weight behind the puck, launched it past Capitals goaltender Michael Neuvirth. Danny Briere redirected a shot from Kimmo Timonen to take the short-lived lead.
By all accounts, the Flyers played fantastic tonight, if you ignore the goaltending. Sergei Bobrovsky, expected to be the starter after his performance in Dallas, let in 3 goals on 9 shots before being pulled. In each case, he was guilty of getting caught too deep in the net and not challenging the shooter.
Brian Boucher kept the Flyers in it to make it to overtime, but he let in a similar softie to tie it in regulation. He was fine in overtime, but looked awful in the shootout. How difficult is it to not try to poke check during a shootout?
The Flyers have a very limited amount of time to figure out who’s going to be their starting goaltender for the playoffs. Every time we think we’ve seen enough, both goalies manage to give the coaching staff more headaches.
Call me crazy, but it’s beginning to look like keeping Bobrovsky over Michael Leighton was wishful thinking.
The Flyers return to the ice on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s a crapshoot who will be in net, but don’t count Bob out for a redemption shot.
Play Bob on Thursday, he’s played well against the Pens all year…. but God, he was awful tonight. Easily the reason we lost this game.
yup bob should start against the pens. the flyers are still going to be alright. they have only lost back to back games a few times this year. (think 4 times). by avoiding losing streaks you give yourself a chance. goalies will be “good enough” to win.
It’s a shame that after 60 games and 3/4 of the Season, that the Flyers have still not decided on who the #1 Goalie should be … Doesn’t this seem to happen almost every season whey they always appear to be indecisive on probably the most important position on your team…. Ridiculous if you ask me..
Boucher blows! I have been saying all year, he is a mediocre goalie with an excellent defense. The Flyers need to ride Bobs into the playoffs and through them regardless much like when Hextall was a rookie! Enough of the goalie carousal!!