I was staring at my computer, saying “don’t do it. don’t write another Flyers’s blog. It’s not worth it.” but as I gathered my thoughts, I have to.
The Flyers just fell in a shootout to the New York Islanders and sure, it’s a point, but a win here would have been nice.
For starters, some positives (I like to be positive). Carter Hart. Much, much better game for him today. Hart stopped 22 of the 24 shots he faced and he had some good saves in the shootout. He’s struggled, I’ve talked about that before but a good game today could be great for his confidence moving forward. When you’re in a funk and everyone is talking about how bad you are, that makes it even harder to do well and get better. A good game, despite it being a SO loss, could be the little boost he needs. He had a good quote in the press conference, it’s at the bottom.
Claude Giroux being the Captain with two goals. In Claude We Trust.
Okay now for some negatives.
I hate to say it because I hate dogging on players. This is a guy who was drafted in the first draft I ever watched and he’s one of my favorite to watch in the league but he really, really needs to get his shit together like now. It’s Nolan Patrick. I wrote blogs when he returned this season about this being his revenge tour and I want more than anything for it to be true. I know he missed a year and coming back in this weird season has got to be rough but he has to get back to the Nolan Patrick we knew and loved. So far through 34 games, Nolan had 7 points (4G 3A) and a -20 rating while averaging 13:49 on the ice. That’s not counting his 15:03 on the ice against the Islanders where he registered 0 points, 2 shots on goal, 1 hit, and a 67% faceoff win percentage.
Nolan Patrick is like Alex Galchenyuk to me, I formed a soft spot for them and no matter what I want to see them succeed and kick ass — no matter what anyone says. I want him to get back to that so badly but he needs to get his head back in the game.
Another guy the Flyer’s desperately need out there is Kevin Hayes. Hayes is a fuckin beast and I have no clue what’s going on with him. He has 24 points (11G 13A) in 35 games. He only has 3 points in the last 5 games but he’s playing big minutes. Tonight, he played 20:06 with 1 shot on net, 2 hits, and a 67% faceoff win percentage. The Flyers don’t win games when Hayes is down.
I’ve said time, and time, and time again that this entire roster needs to wake up. It’s getting late in the season with playoffs looming and if they want the slightest chance at playoffs, they need to make change now. I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face that I hate being negative, because I do, but this team is giving me very little to be positive about. The big takeaway from today’s game was Carter Hart not being as loss as he has been. We’ll have to move on from there.
For now, enjoy this gold comment from Hart. I’m picturing him walking into practice with a hard hat and metal lunch pail. He’s superstitious, it could be real.
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