Big Win, but Don't Get Excited Yet

So last night was a HUGE win for the Flyers. With all of the struggles we have had the last month(!) it is refreshing to see them win a game against a very talented team. But, it was still a lucky win with some lucky bounces and some really terrible missed calls going in Philly's favor for once. I'll do a quick break down of the three periods:

First Period. Came out very flat and looking like the team we are used to seeing lately. Gave up a lot of chances to Boston and Booooosh looked very good to keep us in the game. By the end of the period I could see that Philly had realized it was time to play, but still didn't play over the top of Boston, they pretty much just played at the same level, which I guess was good enough.

Second Period. Walked into this period still playing with Boston instead of over the top. We looked good in spurts but also gave up a lot to Boston. Then Hartnell's interference penalty seemed to give Boston the little kick in the pants they wanted and they ended up with a very ugly goal with the usual lucky bounce that goes against Philly. That was with 1:28 left in the second and I figured Boston would come out on fire in the third, but to my surprise it was the exact opposite.

Third Period. Philly came out with a purpose and absolutely dominated Boston. It was one hell of a surprise for me. They had a TON of pressure on the puck, were shooting well, getting in front of Thomas, just really playing the way they should. A great hustle play by Asham and great smack in by JVR got us to the tie, and then a very lucky deflection off a Boston player's glove on Timonen's shot got us the lead that we wouldn't surrender. I believe they said when Timonen scored his goal we had already been outshooting Boston 10 to 2 or something like that. Overall, very impressive third period and a strong way to head to Pitt for tonight's game. Philly 3 - Boston 1

Oh yeah, and I swear Chara is a 6'9" robot from some far away planet. Not a single person on the Flyers could push him around, and watching Richards trying too was just plain funny. And I WISH Carcillo could have fought him, that would have been extremely funny too.

One last note about this game; as you all know I live in Florida so I have to watch these games on Center Ice. Most of the time they have a feed for both the Home and Away teams, but last night they only had the Boston feed. Going into the game I already know the Boston annoucers are GIGANTIC homers so I figured it would be a terribly called game from a Flyers fan perspective. I did find it quite hilarious how they freaked out about the non-calls and the called back goal early in the first, but it really is annoying as hell to see these guys going insane over this stuff and not saying a word about the missed calls that would have been against Boston. There were at least 4 or 5 missed calls against Boston as well. I think I saw 2 that could have been called boarding, and probably 2 or 3 high sticking calls that could have been made. Now this is not complaining as it was pretty entertaining to hear them make so many excuses and get really upset over a couple missed calls, but I just wanted to point this out. At least the Philly announcers get almost just as excited when the away team scores a goal as when the Flyers score one...

A second post will come later with a short preview of tonight's game against The Cry Baby.