This past weekend’s sweep at the hands of Montreal leaves the Flyers perilously close to missing the playoffs despites being 2nd in the conference just 3 weeks ago. Mounting injuries and a relentless schedule, as well as continued strong play from the division rivals are big factors in the slide, but the continued sloppy play is the most alarming trend. Bad penalties and even worse turnovers are leaving goalies Antero Nittymaki and Martin Biron to have to stand on their head in order for the Flyers to have a chance to win. (Nittymaki almost did, playing brilliantly in Saturday’s 1-0 loss).
The defensive woes are definitely more pronounced during this losing streak, but they have been giving up too many shots all year; they were just scoring enough to cover up for a couple of mistakes. There is much blame to go around, but let me point out a few who are underachieving:
Danny Briere – 1 goal in the last 10 games, and offers little on the defensive side. Seems completely devoid of confidence. This team really needs him now.
Scottie Upshall – While he is certainly hampered by a nagging ankle injury, he takes too many penalties for someone who hits little and scores even less. He needs to be more disciplined.
Jim Vandermeer – Was brought in for toughness, but just isn’t playing well enough to justify his spot in the lineup; he just turns the puck over way too much. Lasse Kukkonen has been (until recently) a healthy scratch, and Phantoms Ryan Parent and Alex Picard are more deserving of his ice time. His continued presence in the lineup is puzzling to me.
With games this week against Ottawa and San Jose, breaking this streak will be tough to do, but the Flyers have to find a way, or risk another early summer.
Phils-Mets a rivalry – finally!
New York Mets CF Carlos Beltran took a page out of Jimmy Rollins’ book last week and declared his squad the “team to beat” in the NL East. The back and forth trash talking between the two teams finally brings a full blown rivalry to the Phillies-Mets series. Since the Mets came along in the early 1960s, both teams have rarely been good at the same time. But with last year’s race going down to the wire, the Mets epic collapse, and the their subsequent acquisition of ace pitcher Johan Santana, this season’s 19 games between the two teams should provide great theater. If the Mets have any sense of pride, they will come at the Phils with everything they have, and I don’t see the Phillies, who now know they can win, backing down.
It’s going to be a fun season.
Sports, media, and Congress
Why is Andy Pettitte getting a free pass? He seems like a nice guy, but he also lied several times about his HGH use. His humility in now coming clean (is he telling the whole truth even now?) Doesn’t make him any less of a cheater or a liar to me.
Why is Arlen Specter taking so much media heat for holing the NFL accountable for its actions during "Spygate?" Didn’t any of these media people ever question how this probe was cleaned up and swept under the rug so quickly? I’ve heard that it isn’t congress’ job to hold Commissioner Roger Goddell accountable? If not the government, then who? If the tapes Goddell confiscated were so benign, why were they destroyed so quickly? Why wouldn’t he let some media members see them before he destroyed them?
I don’t think any of Senator Specter’s questions are all that crazy. Are these not legitimate questions? Now, about that magic bullet…….
Again I ask where the media is. They are quick to dismiss the government’s involvement in sports as unnecessary. This would be true if the media hadn’t turned a blind eye to steroids and baseball, and hadn’t also been more than willing to let the NFL off the hook for “Spygate.”
The media needs to investigate more and to facilitate spring-training pranks less.
That being said, if you, like Kyle Kendrick, don’t know that you cannot be traded to Japan, than you deserve to get “punk’d.”