Gosh darn it

I didn't want to come here today, to talk about a 3-game losing streak. Rather, I wanted to talk about how the Flyers had tied the Penguins for the Atlantic lead after a momentary lapse of quality games. Unfortunately, I'm not posting about that.

A 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh today means Philly is back in 3rd place alone in the division, which obviously isn't terrible because we're only 4 points back, but IS terrible because we've lost 3 in a row and we got beat by two division opponents. As I've said before, I'm OK with a little losing streak against non-division teams. But when you go on a skid against the rest of the Atlantic, it's bad and it annoys me. Especially when you get shut out AGAIN by the Rangers BACKUP and lose to a team you're competing with for the division title.

Losing to Washington at home didn't hurt too bad because that team is on a roll and looks like they may just win the lukewarm Southeast Division. But the Rangers game was very disheartening. I watched the game here in Syracuse, and once again our offense was very uninspiring against the Rangers D and Mr. Valiquette. Also, as "big momma" pointed out yesterday, our penalty kill seems to take days off when we play against a mediocre power play team. The Devils were godlike and the Rangers were also extremely effective against us. For as great as our power play is, the other end of the special teams likes to let us down at the worst times.

Today's performance against the Penguins wasn't bad, but a lame second period killed us in the end. Marty Biron didn't have his best performance, but I can't really make a judgment because I didn't see the game and I'm just interpreting what I'm reading from the AP report. But in a rhetorical sense, we can't keep losing these games to divisional opponents. Losing streaks are bound to happen over an 82-game season, but it really ticks me off to lose 5 of our last 6 against Atlantic teams. That kind of thing can't happen at this point of the season if you want to be either a division champion or taken seriously come playoff time.

- R.J. Umberger, 2 goals, very nice.
- 1/2 PK, eh.
- Daniel Briere is in a bit of a scoring funk.
- 30-20-5, 65 points, 3rd in Atlantic, 4 back of Pittsburgh, 1 back of New Jersey.

Interestingly, our fall to 6th in the conference means we would match up with the Capitals in the first round if the season were to end today. I've said all along if we don't win the division, our best bet is to finish 6th so we can go up against the Southeast champion, who probably won't be a great team. But we'll see.

Peter Forsberg is close to making a decision on his comeback. Any Flyers fan should be crossing their fingers and hoping he returns to the orange and black. If our last few games are any indication, especially the Rangers game, I don't think anybody would argue we could use the extra spark.

-ajd