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| My heroes! |
Interesting game last night. The Flyers won—just. They
had to go to a shootout to break a 3-3 tie, but thanks to a savvy coach, a
couple of unfamiliar players, and a disdainful Claude Giroux, they nailed the
second point.
The controversy came in the form of Ilya Bryzgalov,
the 51 million dollar goalie whom the Flyers let go when he failed to prove as
consistent for them as he did with Phoenix. He was nearing the end of his
Coyotes contract and Philly bought the free agent act. Not that he’s a bad
goalie, because he isn’t. He’s actually pretty darned fabulous when he wants to
be. Or when he has a decent defence corps in front of him (that’s the other
controversy in Philadelphia). The Flyers bought him out for a meager 25 million
during the off season and he subsequently signed with Edmonton. Last night was
his first game against his old team and let’s just say if he had played that
well in Philadelphia, he’d still be playing in Philadelphia. As it was, last
night Philly paid him roughly $27,000 to stop 35 shots for the Oilers. Oh,
the irony.
Meh. Truth is, the Flyers didn’t show up for the first
period, the Oilers forgot to come back for the second, and we started from a
2-2 tie in the third. If not for a bunch of dumb Oiler penalties, the Flyers
would have lost, since their three goals came on power plays and the third was
the result of a 5 on 3. Poor Ter was having a heart attack, being the lone
Oiler fan for the occasion. The kids burst out of the gate in the first period
and after that … well, the shootout might have been planned given the setup of
Bryz vs. his former teammates. You could see him anticipating almost every move
during the game, otherwise the Flyer would have killed the kids. So, what
better ending than a showdown between sides of the ugliest divorce in the NHL?
I wasn’t quite fetal in my chair, but Bryzgalov
is a better goalie than Steve Mason. No discredit to Mason, he’s steady enough
but not – here we go again – that consistent. Plus, Bryz knows the Flyer
shooters better than Mason knows the Oilers. And the Oilers have some tricky
young bucks on their top two lines. Yikes. I wasn’t fetal, but I was worried.
First round. Jordan Eberle scores first. No surprise.
Vincent Lecavalier shoots first for Philly – he wasn’t on the team last year, but
Bryz stops him anyway. Crap.
Second round. Mason stops David Perron. Phew. Claude
Giroux steps out. I love Giroux, but wait a second. The coach sends out the best
player the Flyers have? The guy who played with Bryzgalov for two years?? The
guy whom Bryz knows better than any other goalie in the league? Heart in mouth,
I watch No. 28 cruise up the ice and casually flip the puck through the five
hole. That’s how good he is. Surgical precision and no real expression – not
open contempt, but you could almost sense the sneer. Now we’re tied (again).
Third round. Sam Gagner can’t get past Steve Mason. If
the Flyers score now, we win. The coach sends out Austrian wunderkind, Michael
Raffl. This guy is fresh from Europe, already on the top line, and totally
unknown to any Flyer ex-goalie. Brilliant move, coach. I can’t even describe
the goal, it was that pretty. He foxed Bryz right out of the crease. I let out
the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding and Ter graciously give me a
congratulatory high-five. She’s the classiest hockey fan I know.
Yeah, yeah, it’s just a game. I was simply thrilled to
be watching my boys on Saturday night instead of Tuesday afternoon. I’ve seen
them a few times already this season, thanks to TSN2, and they’re en route to
Vancouver to play the Canucks tomorrow night. Another evening game in my time
zone against another goalie with his own agenda (this one, auditioning for the
Olympics). How will they do? Right now, I don’t care. Right now I’m just happy
that the game is on Sportsnet. Ryan Kesler vs. Giroux and Co.
Life is good.
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