Game One

Well, that one suuuuuuuucked. The first twenty minutes was promising, a good road period despite the visiting Flyers being unable to score on three power plays. Then Washington took over and we never recovered.

I haven’t watched the Caps much. I don’t like their “loud and proud stars and stripes” jerseys and I’ve decided that I really don’t like Alex Ovechkin. He tends to enjoy slamming guys in the numbers as much as he enjoys potting goals, and while I can admire the latter, admiring the first is not in my nature. I don’t like my guys slamming other guys through the boards, either – it’s a game and no one needs to end up on a stretcher to get the win.

That said, we lost our minds a bit after continual bruising through two periods. The Caps are bigger and uglier and way meaner than Philly, and there is bad blood between the teams. Tom Wilson checked Brayden Schenn off planet a couple of years ago, and guess who was in the thick of a scrum last night? Wayne Simmonds totally lost it at the end of the game and went right for Wilson’s throat after Wilson gave Schenn a friendly nudge into the boards. Not terribly smart, as Simmonds is the best Flyer on special teams (power play and penalty kill), and we were left without him during the most critical time of the game. Players on both sides were behaving like heat seeking missiles toward the end, so while we took the worst of it and won’t have a chance if we continue to take a physical hammering, I’d say that the stage has been set for a dandy series rife with drama, dislike and more elbows in the corner.

It’s only game one, after all. Lots of time to recover. Philly gets stronger as they go and the Caps are historically unable to win a seventh game in any series. Assuming that they don’t kill off our best players as we go (we lost Sean Couturier to an upper body injury – thanks, Ovie), we could conceivably beat them in seven.

In other playoff news – this time in the Western Hockey League – the Kelowna Rockets have evened their series against the Royals after Victoria got a two-game lead in their series. This serves as a reminder to Basher and me that falling behind is not the end of the world. Ground can be gained with patience, perseverance … and knowing thine enemy’s weakness. I just hope the Flyers can stay alive long enough to figure out what Washington’s weakness is!