Flyers

No Jam

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 4th, 2012 · 9:21 AM EDT

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And thus began a lousy evening in North Jersey.

As you may have heard by now (…), the Flyers lost Game 3 in overtime last night, 4-3. They lost because they’re all playing like December James van Riemsdyk– heavy on the skill, but easy on the vigor. Almost to a man, the Flyers are getting beat to pucks, and then pushed off them once they get there. 

Ilya Bryzgalov has turned in – by far – his two best efforts of the playoffs in Games 2 and 3, yet the Flyers have nothing to show for it. 

Look, I even came up with a Reuben Frank-like stat to put the misery into some context:

The Flyers are 0 for their last 4 evening games, with their previous three wins coming on each of the past three Sundays. 

That’s right, thanks to the NHL schedule makers and THE TEAM FUCKING GOING TO BED BEFORE JEOPARDY, the Flyers haven’t won a weeknight game since Game 2 in Pittsburgh, on April 13.

Let’s delve.

 

Braydon Coburn

 

He head-butted a man in overtime. 

 

Penalties

If you want to see a way in which officials can directly influence a game, you need to look no further than what happened in the second period last night.  

When Ilya Kovalchuk flipped a puck off Matt Read and into the crowd, officials called him for a delay-of-game penalty, ignoring the fact that the puck glanced off Read. It was a lousy call that, predictably, let to another similarly lousy call.

 

That’s Brayden Schenn interfering with the guy who once fucked his sister-in-law, before James van Riemsdyk buried the puck into the back of the net. Goal called off. Penalty on Schenn. Technically, the call was correct. Schenn made contact with Brodeur. But, had Kovalchuk not been given a penalty just moments earlier (played on the scoreboard for all to see how wrong the call was), chances are Schenn wouldn’t have gotten whistled for such a minor violation, which had Brodeur flailing to the ice like an asshole.

 

Sean Couturier 

Unless Howard Eskin tells us, we’re never going to know what happened to the Cooter. He left the ice with what is being classified as a lower-body injury. Some thought it was a cut, but replays reveal that his left knee gave out while he was involved in a scrum in the corner. 

I actually think it could be his groin or his hip, because the stress didn’t appear to be his on his knee.

There are reports that he'll be fine.

 

Powerplay

Danny Briere isn’t happy with it. Here’s what he told reporters after the game:

“Power plays cost us the game tonight. I was trying to protect it– the first two games saying that good things were going to happen, it was just a matter of time. But, ah, the last two games, the all-around effort on the power play is just not good enough. It seems like we just think that they’re going to let us do whatever we want out there. Um, their penalty kill unit is outworking us by a mile and it’s the reason why we lost the last two games."

"Um, you know, the 10-12 guys that are on the powerplay we, ah, it’s time to step up here now. Want to be out there. It’s an honor to be out there. Right now we take it for granted.”

 

Well said, Mr. Soft Hands. Well said.

Elsewhere around the league, an icegirl picked up a catfish with her bare hands in Nashville. It was… hot?

Mike Richards had a Gordie Howe hat trick last night and the Kings are up 3-0: