Week 23 of NHL 2005-6

The trade deadline closed up on Thursday afternoon and not only was it tight, it was probably the lousiest job GM Bobby Clarke has done in a while. Not only did Philly take in two defensemen that won’t make a difference during this run of injuries, but he failed to get a decent forward to take the place of sidelined captain Keith Primeau. I have not changed my forecast to the Flyers being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by a team from the North- or Southeast. Mark Recchi waived his no-trade clause with the Pens and he still ended up going to the Hurricanes! Rumor has it that the Pens wanted one of the younger players such as R J Umberger. No thanks, I would’ve given them a couple trade picks since they’re in a constant state of rebuilding. Anyway, my Flyers are still stuck with big, slow, poor puck-handling defensemen such as Hatcher, Rathje and Therien while Johnsson remains seriously injured and Pitkanen and Meyer lack enough experience. Then there’s Desjardins whose game just hasn’t been the same since his arm was accidently broken by JR last season. 
 
The other problem I’m still seeing is they’re running hot and cold on their plays. Their last two wins were in shootouts. OK, they still walk away with a point either way and they did defeat Carolina, the current team in the East to beat even though Ottawa is the smart money. Meanwhile they totally sucked against Buffalo and Pittsburgh, two game they should’ve won but failed miserably. Firstly, Buffalo was a match with the lead and then they just dropped gears. This resulted in an exciting although frustrating back n’ forth game they ended up losing with mere seconds to go. Buffalo may have more points but they’re as lame as the NY Rangers when it comes to depth. The Pittsburgh loss was even more inexcusable, especially with a 2-0 shutout loss. It’s highly doubtful the Pens will suddenly win their remaining games to earn enough points to put them in the playoffs. Despite that, I’m going out on a limb and saying they’re out of the running this season. This makes them more dangerous than the Sens, ‘canes, Leafs and Rangers combined. They have nothing left to lose so they’ll take riskier chances on their plays, which they did and this completed whipped the Flyers. If you can’t go any further, why not spoil it for everyone else you’re playing? 
 
I don’t know how many more team meetings it’s going to take. I’ve given up on that solution. The trade deadline is past so that threat is off the table until the day after the Cup is awarded. If they don’t get it together, there’s a possible chance they could be knocked out of the playoffs as New Jersey closes in. The only break they’re getting is the NY Rangers sharing a similar struggle holding on to first place in the Atlantic, like it were the C badge on a Flyers jersey. The rest of this week includes some more matches against Southeast teams, hopefully they can come away with 4-6 points.