These are times and games when the big guys play big and the lil' ones maybe show up. Well last night the Flyer goalie made 34 saves, Lundqvist made 19. Wayne Simmonds scored a hat trick, Rick Nash had zilch. First game, rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson of the Flyers added his first goal to a solid performance, Ryan McDonagh struggled and played like a nervous rookie. So it went as the Flyers destroyed the Rangers to tie the series at three leading to tonight's showdown at the Garden.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux said it best, "We've got a lot of character in our room. For us to get kicked out. we're going to have to get beat by harder work." Therein lies the tale. Get beat by harder work. Harder and smarter. The Rangers continue to take stupid penalties and the Flyers made them pay going 2-3 on the power play. Pouliot started it in the first period and Simmonds quickly struck.
The other side of the coin saw the Rangers go 0-5 on the power play. The negative run is now 0-20 with the last PP goal being in game two. The Rangers are 3-28 in this series, the Flyers are 6-18. Work harder, play smarter. Big guys play big, small guys maybe show up.
Speaking of big guys why is Dan Carcillo not in the lineup? Put him in and pull out Pouliot who has been terrible in this series. There is no tomorrow AV. Its now. Its do or die. Its High Noon in the Big Apple and we need the entire squad to come out with all guns blazing. All hands on deck. Lets do it. I told you this series would go seven games. We should have won in 5 or 6 but we lack the killer instinct and now we are fighting for our lives. Lets turn Claude Giroux words back on him and the Flyers. Lets outwork the bums!
Sorry to hear about the death of all time Ranger great and Hall of Famer Edgar Laprade who passed away at the age of 94. He was one of the leaders of the 1950 team that took the Detroit Red Wings to seven games, losing the seventh game in OT. That was my all time favorite team, which also included Bones Raleigh and goalie Chuck Rayner. All seven games were played on the road. Two 'home' games in Toronto and five in Detroit. Condolences and prayers to his family and RIP Edgar Laprade.
Wikipedia:
Edgar Laprade --
During his career, Laprade played three full seasons without recording a penalty, and was awarded the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 1949-50. In the same season, the Rangers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, the closest Laprade ever came to winning a Stanley Cup. The series went all the way to a Game 7 before Pete Babando of the Detroit Red Wings scored the game-winning goal in overtime. After that, Laprade played five more seasons with the Rangers before retiring. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.
I was wondering about that too -
Carcillo may have been fairly useless most of the season, but he was a spark plug the last game in Philly, energized his teammates and antagonized the Flyers and their fans. Why wasn't he in the line-up last night??
WELL DOES IT GO TO 1 IN 64 FOR ME AND 2 IN 78 FOR YOU? I'M AFRAID TONIGHT'S THE END..
AS FOR NASH AND LUNDQUIST , ONE MORE PLAYOFFS THEY DON'T SPARKLE, BUT CAN SAY THAT FOR MOST OF THIS TEAM