As soon as the horn sounded on the regular season finale between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers, I sent a text message to a guy I used to work with, who happens to be a dedicated Penguins fan: "We just don't have the goaltending. Pens in 6." After calming down and looking a little further into it, I picked Pens in 7 on this blog. Even though it seems I was right about the Pens taking this series, it doesn't hurt any less to see a season with this much promise end the way it did. And it hurt even worse to see that goaltending wasn't the only problem, but heart.
Of the four Philadelphia major sports teams, in my eighteen years on this earth, if you asked me on the whole which franchise was the most dedicated to winning, working hard, and never quitting, I would say the Flyers. Few times in my life as a sports fan have I ever questioned the heart of the Philadelphia Flyers. Today is a rare exception. The first period ended with Philly up 3-0. In the beginning of the second, after Daniel Carcillo beat the living daylights out of Max Talbot, I thought I could safely watch the NFL draft for the remainder of the afternoon. But the Penguins used the fact that Talbot put his body on the line to drop the gloves and rallied behind it, because they wanted to go home with the series clinched. Why? How? Because that's what great teams do, and that's what teams with heart do. Love 'em or hate 'em, and its certainly the latter for me, the Pens have a deadly combination of dedication and talent. But today wasn't really about the Penguins overcoming the three goal lead, but about the Flyers blowing it.
To give up five unanswered goals in any game is embarassing, but in a postseason elimination game, after just scoring three goals and winning one of the most lopsided fights I've seen this season? That's utter humilation, for the players, coaches, and fans. So what's the next move? I think John Stevens is one of the last guys that can be blamed for this end-of-season flameout, but the consensus move in professional sports in this situation is to fire the coach. So I think Stevens is out, probably within the next few days. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that Marty Biron and Antero Niittymaki are both free agents, and honestly, I don't think it makes sense to bring either of them back. Take that money and go get a stud goalie. I'd rather a stud goalie and a shaky backup than two mediocre players between the pipes. If there's one silver lining in this post, its that the Flyers are never afraid to go out and get that impact player.
But honestly, it's way too early to even think about it.
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