Thursday, March 24, 2011
Posted: 10:57 a.m.Updated: 3:17 p.m.
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette is biting the bullet and doing the right thing tonight as his club faces the Pittsburgh Penguins at Wells Fargo Center.
Hes throwing rookie Sergei Bobrovsky, who was simply dreadful against Washington on Tuesday, back into the net.
The Flyers need to find out whether Bob has it or hes lost it with just 10 games left and theres no better way than to face the Pens, a team hes faced three times this season with a 2-1-0 record.
Hes had good success against Pittsburgh and its an opportunity to get him back in the net afterthe last game, Laviolette said. Nobody wants to sit on a game like that. Hes been great for us all year, so he gets a chance to go back in there.
One person in the organization suggested that Laviolette needs to ride Bobrovsky over a stretch of games here to determine whether hes ready for the playoffs. The Flyers know theyre in. What they dont know is who their starting goalie is and whether that starter is up to the task.
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Were it not for poor goaltending, the Flyers would have had two points against the Caps this week instead of one, following a 5-4 shootout loss.
Theres a lot of positives with the last game, Danny Briere. The ending wasnt what we were looking for. But watching the tapes and the way we dominated the game, puck-possession wise and on the forecheck, we definitely deserved a much better fate.
If keep playing the same way, well be successful on more nights than not.
The Penguins will be without both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as the Flyers can add some more distance between themselves and Pittsburgh. The gap now is five points in the Atlantic Division.
Weve got a game in here and this is a good game, Laviolette said. Nothing is set in stone. One team could win out and one team could lose out, you never know what the future has in store. But certainly, you can give yourself an advantage.
We let an opportunity go by the board the other night to get us some distance against Washington. Instead of gaining some points, we lost a point.
With their big guns, the Penguins are now playing a very simple, north-side game (except for Alex Kovalev) and coach Dan Bylsma has done a remarkable job to keep his team in position to contend.
The Pens have also been getting consistently strong goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury, who has 31 victories with a 2.38 goals against average and .917 save percentage.
Theyre a hard-skating, hard-working team, Laviolette said. They have a good goaltender. With regard to injury, everybody has injuries. We have our own.
Injuries are part of the game. Theyve done a good job without some of their big guns in the lineup. Theyre still playing well even minus those guys.
This is Part II of III against top clubs the Flyers face this week on home ice. Boston, the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, visits here Sunday after the Flyers travel to Long Island to meet the lowly Islanders on Saturday night.
The Flyers got one point against the Capitals and fully expect to sweep both the Penguins and Bruins. If tonights game against the Pens is anything like Tuesdays was with the Caps, there will be an electric, playoff feeling to Wells Fargo Center.
Theyre playing good hockey and were playing good hockey so this should be a good test for us, Kimmo Timonen said. I want to see us play well and skate and play playoff hockey here.
They may be missing a couple key players but they have been playing well. They play hard and they are very good system-wise. If youre not ready to compete youll lose.E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
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