Ups and downs have been the theme to the Flyers season so far and Monday night was no different. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead after the first period they would completely fall apart in the second. The Rangers would score three straight goals to give them a 3-2 lead before Joel Farabee would tie it at three late in the second. The Rangers would regain the lead quickly into the third period but Captain Claude Giroux would tie it back up and we would head to overtime. Jake Voracek would be the hero the Flyers needed as he would bury a beautiful breakaway goal to give the Flyers a 5-4 win.
Now look this Rangers team on paper isn’t better than the Flyers but they are still a decent team. They have proved that in the games they’ve played against the Flyers this year. The bigger issue with how this game went is every time it seems like the Flyers are getting back to the Flyers from last year, they go ahead and ruin that hope just a few minutes later. The important thing is they found a way to win and pickup the two points and get right back into the playoff picture.
Right now the Flyers sit three points behind the Bruins for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East division. While it hasn’t been all that pretty I don’t think I am alone here when I say we are starting to see the turnaround starting for the boys. Yes, there are still issues on defense and I’ve said it multiple times Chuck Fletcher is going to make a move to sure things up on the backend.
The offense has been scoring plenty of goals, the powerplay is starting to find its stride and once the defense stops sucking that will only improve the play of the goaltending. Tonight is a perfect night to continue to put this thing together and get a winning streak started. The Flyers are a better team than the Rangers it is as simple as that, now they need to go out and prove just that.
I’m expecting them to come out an dominate and build off the momentum from the overtime win. Now, that Jake has gotten on the board he should start heating up and hopefully he goes on a little goal scoring streak here. If the defense can just start playing with their heads out of their asses they should be able to keep the Rangers at bay. More importantly though we need to see a complete sixty minute game out of them. It feels like we haven’t seen that at all this year yet and with only 30 games left now is the time to turn things around so the Flyers can solidify their place as one of the top four teams in the East division.
Make sure to tune into the Ginger Thread Flyers pregame show tonight with myself and Kelsey at 7:00pm.
-Walsh
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