The Flyers are riding a scorching hot goaltender right now in Marty Biron. His glove is catching everything. His poke checks are timely. And he is entering Pat Burrell elite status. Indeed, he is "completely awesome."
Heading into the third period last night, the Flyers led 3-0 and it seemed they only needed to kill twenty more minutes, but they didn’t think they would need to kill seven of them short-handed (including a five minute major on Derian Hatcher for boarding). The atmosphere was tense as Montreal collected two goals during Hatcher’s penalty to pull within one. However, outstanding penalty killing by the Flyers and Biron kept the score at 3-2 till the end and the Flyers skated to a two games to one advantage in the series.
I’m hearing a lot of "The Flyers were outplayed" and "If the Flyers don’t play better, they’re in trouble" and "The refs aren’t calling the games fairly." I completely disagree with all of those statements and here are the reasons why.
The Flyers are playing the passing lanes perfectly. Montreal is a finesse team with highly skilled players. Their passing is incredible, but the Flyers are filling those lanes and the passes are not getting to their wanted destination. Furthermore, the Flyers are making the Canadiens play a physical series, which they would rather not play. These two reasons are disrupting Montreal’s offense and gameplan.
The Flyers are winning the battles on special teams. I can’t express how important this is. Montreal did score two power play goals last night during Hatcher’s five minute major. However, the Flyers were able to kill the remaining two minutes (just under two minutes) of that major, three other five-on-four minor penalties (including one with six minutes left) AND a two minute five-on-three penalty. In addition, Mike Richards was able to tally a short handed goal in the second period. The Flyers are winning the special teams battles. You can’t look past this considering the Canadiens had the best power play during the regular season.
The Flyers have the hot goaltender. Marty Biron had another spectacular game last night. His poke check against Saku Koivu as Saku came flying out of the penalty box untouched on a breakaway kept the game tied at zero in the first period. His glove remains the best penalty killer for the Flyers. And his positioning and ability to see through screens seems to be getting better and better. The Canadiens netminder Carey Price is not performing well. He is giving up too many rebounds and his glove is made out of brick.
The refs are calling a good series. I’m not even going to get into that. The Flyers are a very aggressive team and penalties will mount up for them. If the Flyers don’t want cheap penalties and to be short-handed for five straight minutes then they will have to be more disciplined. When you have players like Hatcher and Downey, and a reputation of being a dirty team, you’ll find yourself short-handed more times than not.
If the series can remain physical and Biron stays hot, Flyers fans shouldn’t need to worry about how their team is playing. They are winning. That’s all that matters. Nothing can be more devastating to a team than losing games that you feel you should be winning, and that is how Montreal feels.
Game Four will be at the Wachovia Center on Wednesday where the Flyers look to take a demanding three to one advantage.
Leave a Reply