Flyers Brought Back Down to Earth

The Flyers lost last night in Montreal 5-1, but still hold a 2-1 series advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Well, I guess it was wishful thinking to think the Flyers would never allow another goal in the playoffs, and just win every game on their way to their first Stanley Cup since the 1970s. The Flyers lost against a motivated, and spunky Montreal Canadiens teams, in front of a raucous/annoying crowd of French Canadians singing soccer chants.

The Canadiens took control from the beginning of the game, and never looked back. In the first 5 minutes of the game, the Flyers actually had 2-3 decent chances to score, including a power play, but Halak made a few nice saves, and kept the score tied at 0. Montreal got on the board halfway through the first, when Mike Cammalleri put in a rebound off the back boards to break Michael Leighton's shutout streak, and finally give the Canadiens some momentum, and their first lead of the series. The Canadiens put in 3 more, before the Flyers were able to get a goal in the 3rd period to avoid the shutout. And in classic Broad Street Bullies fashion, the Flyers just beat the crap out of the Canadiens at the end of the game. Simon Gagne continued his hot scoring streak, and scored the lone goal for the Flyers.

The Flyers defense really was the reason they lost this game, and it was most notably Matt Carle, and Chris Pronger. Quite frankly, Carle, and Pronger were horrible in this game. Carle and Pronger were both guilt of defensive let downs, turnovers, and not picking up guys going to the net all game long. It is hard to blame Leighton for most of the Canadiens goals, the Canadiens just flat out outplayed the Flyers all game long.

The Canadiens also outshot the Flyers for the 3rd straight game, which is disconcerting. The Flyers need to do a better job of keeping the play in the Canadiens end, and doing a better job cycling in the offensive zone. If the defense can play better, and the Flyers can cycle the puck and keep it down low, they should be more effective in Game 4.

A loss in this situation isn't necessarily the worst thing that could happen. The Flyers weren't going to sweep through everyone. You knew they were going to lose a game at some point, and it happened on Thursday night. Losses are not always necessarily the worst thing that can happen. The Flyers can not re-group, move on from their solid 6 game winning streak, go back to the drawing board, and pretend that this series is tied going into Game 4. If the Flyers can win Game 4 in Montreal, they still will be in command of this series.