Claude Giroux is quickly becoming a dangerous threat
for opposing teams to watch whenever he has the puck
in only his sophomore season. (Neat1325)
It feels like forever since the Flyers have walked into the dressing room after a victory. It is not that they have lost many games in the last two weeks, but an 11 day stretch with only one game is enough to drive a fan-base to the brink of insanity.
The Flyers, coming into tonight's home match-up against the Boston Bruins, had dropped three straight; twice in regulation and another in a shootout. The shootout at the Wachovia Center on this night had a different outcome though as sophomore Claude Giroux is the only scorer. All three attempts by the Boston Bruins were stone-walled by Ray Emery who improves to 3-10 lifetime in games going past the five minute overtime.
Regulation ended in a 3-3 tie with Flyers goals coming from unlikely sources in Darroll Powe and Arron Asham both of whom have been hot despite long stretches in between games. Chris Pronger gets the other on an assist by Matt Carle who now holds soul possession of the lead in the Flyers' points race while being tied for the league lead in points by a defenseman.
For the most part the team played very well. The "relentless" tag-line for the 2009-10 orange and black quest for the Stanley Cup fits this team's offense. There were times in the game where Boston just could not compete for the puck. This has been something the Flyers have been good at all season.
Bad bounces and spectacular goaltending usually keep the team from running up the score. The biggest issue though is the costly turnovers, most of which are due to the team playing an east-west game in their own end as opposed to a north-south game.
While John Stevens has made it a point of emphasis to correct these problems, they are still costing the Flyers way too many goals and way too many leads. There is progress, but at this point it is more like pulling teeth.
At least the face-offs were far better.
The Flyers get Friday off but remain on home ice for back-to-back games against the Florida Panthers on Saturday and the San Jose Sharks on Sunday. Back-up goaltender Brian Boucher is likely to make his first regular season appearance with the Flyers during one of the games this weekend since originally leaving the team in 2002.
They close out the month of October with an away game against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, the 27th and a home game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, the 31st.
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