Michael_leighton_goal
I tried to find a picture that adequately depicted what it would be like to take your childhood sweetheart to the prom, only to have her ditch you mid-dance, before you rekindled the flame with a recent ex, who had trouble keeping her legs closed last summer, and danced the night away with her until she ditched you just prior to sealing the deal so she could go participate in a painful to watch three-way with the aforementioned high school sweetheart and her new beau.

So I just used a picture of Michael Leighton.

I can’t even point the finger at Leighton. He came in cold – it doesn’t get much colder – having played in only one NHL game this year. For two and a half periods he did what he had to do to give the Flyers a chance. A failed clearing attempt that resulted in a little too much scrambling and boom: open rebound to the other team’s best player. Sucks.

A few thoughts:

Goalies– I don’t even know anymore. Clearly Lavs has no desire to establish a consistent net presence. It’s as though he views all three goalies as having the same ability and just uses whichever one is next in the rotation. It’s worked for 15 months and it’s not going to change.

Here’s are the responses I got last night when I posted the Game 6 ‘tender question on Twitter (in order): Bob, Leighton, Backlund, Bob, Kendrick, Halladay, Neil Little, Dwyane Wade, Grant Fuhr, 4 goalies 1 cup, Leighton, Bob, Bouche, a “B” goalie, Big bear, Bouche, Bouche, Hextall, Parent, Vanbiesbrouck, Backlund, Frose, Parent, Drunk Parent, Hextall, Mak LaForrest, Pronger, Gran Fuhr, Parent, Parent, Lavs, Garth Snow, Garth Snow, Hextall, Greg Goldberg.

That’s it, someone call Bernie.

Outplayed– For four of the five games in this series the Flyers have outplayed the Sabres, yet they’re down, 3-2.

Think I’m joking? Look at these stats via the Flyers:

The Flyers put 87 pucks towards the Buffalo net (39 on net, 29 that were blocked, 19 missed) compared to 50 for the Sabres (32 on net, eight blocked and 10 missed).  That is a series high.  The Flyers have put at least 60 pucks towards the net in four of the five games of the series.

 

It all comes back to goaltending… once again. While it’s not fair to point the finger at the goalies – except for last night – it would be nice – no, helpful –  if a goalie would steal a game once in a while. We shouldn’t be surprised, however, the Flyers went the entire season without a shutout. But it goes beyond just the goalies:

Every skater on Buffalo’s roster blocked at least one shot tonight except Patrick Kaleta. 

 

Every player (I don’t count Kaleta as human). That’s incredible. 

Powerplay– It’s terrible. 2-for-26 in the playoffs. Raise your hand if you thought they were going to put an end to that in the final two minutes of last night’s game. – raising!!! –

Pronger and Carter– According to CSN Philly, they are both done for the series. That seems to verify both reports by Howard Eskin about Pronger re-breaking his hand at the end of March and Carts having a knee sprain. Meanwhile, according to (@flyersfanatic12) on the Tweets, Carts was in the Captain’s Corner box with a bunch of hot girls. He probably had a better chance of scoring there than he would have playing the wing on the powerplay.

Briere goal– One of the best hockey plays you’ll ever see. Dump and chase. Lifted pass around the net, snatched out of air by Briere, stuffed in. Briere is a big-game player.

Watch the highlights and Lavs' presser, after the jump.