Week 18 of NHL 2005-6

The humiliating skid for the Flyers continues. As if the 6-0 beating from Tampa was bad enough, now came the 5-0 spanking from the Canadiens. That’s from a team that will be lucky to get the seventh or eighth spot in the playoffs. The overtme loss to the Rangers was a bummer too since it cost them first place. I was too ill to watch the Canadiens game and actually I forgot that it was even on. Once again, the Flyers look so great on paper. They start the season pretty decently and then get around to this part of the season when they provide more turnovers in front of their goal than a Pilsbury bake-off. I personally didn’t think sewing the C on Hatcher’s jersey was going to make any difference. What they need is a good swift kick in their collective asses such as a trade or two because not all the pieces are fitting together anymore. 
 
Another thing I’m growing tired of is the media and their nonsense about Forsberg. This team didn’t have Peter “Frequently Injured” Forsberg for its previous 39 years of existence. They have two Stanley Cups, a few conference and divsion titles and have only missed the playoffs six times before this guy signed on for a mere two years. They’ve won 10,000+ games without him, they will continue to win games without him and he is only a temporary solution while Richards, Carter, Umberger, Meyer and Niitymaki gain more experience. Those guys I listed before won a Calder Cup in the AHL. They are the Flyers’ future sprinkled in with Gagne, Pitkanen and Johnsson and are more likely to bring home Stanley before the aging Mercs (Hatcher, Forsberg and Nedved) can. At this point, I will change my prediction from elimination in the Conference Championship to elimination in the first round, a sad repeat of the drubbing they received in the 2001 playoffs because they just don’t want it badly enough. 
 
Meanwhile, the goalie the Flyers squandered for Psycho Cechmanek, Brian Boucher, was traded from the Coyotes to the Flames. It was inevitable. In Calgary he’ll clearly be the backup. It didn’t look good for him when CuJo was signed. I hope he’ll have a chance to shine there and not end up being sent down to their AHL franchise, the Omaha Knights.