God I hate the Flyers. Well I don’t actually hate them, they just had to do things the hard way.

I had predicted the Flyers would win in 5 and they would had done that, if they didn’t decide to play like ass in the 3rd period of game one and in game 5.

In game seven I was just waiting for them to lose. The third period had all the hallmarks them going home, but Biron held them in and they took advantage of the Poti penalty in OT. I do think the Flyers got a huge break when Thor basically caused Huet to be knocked from the crease. But hey, he almost lost a nut earlier in the series, so its all good.

Kudos to the Caps for making a series of it. If Leonsis is committed to build the team around Ovechkin instead of maximizing his profits like he was when the salary cap was first introduced, the Caps should be back in the playoff hunt next season. Being 11mill under the cap this season and being in a weak division, that shouldn’t be hard to do if he is committed to winning.

Looking at specific players I was happy with the play of Briere, Prospal, Richards and Biron. Carter was decent, but he needs to expand his options, like passing. When he is carrying the puck into the zone, everyone knows what he is going to do, shoot.

The bad, the Captain Jason Smith for one and his defensive partner Modry the other. Smith being second from last in plus/minus for all players in the playoffs. And the both of them dead last looking at teams moving on to round 2. Injury or not, they need to tighten it up. Also the team as a whole needs to eliminate ‘the losing the lead in the third period, thus losing the game’ mentally. Up by 2 goals, good, keep the ‘pedal to the metal’. The officiating, bad, but that is to be expected I guess. Missed calls, bad calls and ‘letting them play’ noncalls/calls, the inconsistency is awful. Hits that aren’t even penalties that were suspensions in the pre-season that is if your name is Downie. No, that still doesnt burn me, at all. 👿

I don’t get why the Flyers get only a day rest between series, Montreal got 2? While the Rangers/Penguins start their series a day later and they have had a week plus off already? Not saying its a conspiracy or anything, just isn’t right. With that being said, it is still the Flyers fault that they didn’t close out the series sooner.

Predictions for round 2? I don’t know. Flyers win in six or Montreal wins in 5.
Maggie the Monkey picked Montreal for round 2. The monkey had the Flyers in round one, the smartest of the group out of tsn. The rest had the Caps, not smart. 🙄
Second round I really think is a toss up.