Richie18

Here comes da' Ray Emery bandwagon, DE • United States • 15 Years Old • Male

Depleted, deleted Flyers shutout by C-Bus 3-0

Man oh man, this was another one of those games where the Flyers just had nothing. This time, it was against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Steve Mason stopped 20 Flyers shots for his third shutout of this season. This kid is really, really good, and he's the future goalie for the Jackets. Nothing against Mason, but the Flyers just didn't have the energy and there wasn't a ton of high percentage shots. In this game, the Flyers were listless, no energy, no nothing, just like last night in Chicago. I expected a better game than this. Once the Jackets got the lead, it was over, because the Flyers had nothing in this game. Obviously, traveling has been an issue the last few days for the Flyers. They got to Columbus later than expected. I know the Flyers have just had craptastic luck of late, but that's not an excuse. You still have to go out there and find a way to get energy and win the game. The Flyers have been out of sync lately, and when two of your best defensemen are out with injuries, it doesn't help. Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle did not play, after they got hurt when blocking shots last night in Chicago. However, Scotty Hartnell surprisingly played tonight with a broken big toe. That was really shocking to me. In this game, the Flyers just could not get a sustained forecheck in this game and they did not throw much at Steve Mason. When you take penalties, it taxes your penalty killers, and it's inexcusable. I'll tell you this right now, every team you play in the Western Conference is tough, no matter what, because you rarely see them, and the crowds are always good. For the Flyers, Antero Niittymaki was the only player that I thought showed up, for the exception of Scotty Hartnell. Niitty made some big saves in this game, and kept it from being a total blowout. Niitty has played really well for the Flyers this season. You can say what you want to say about the traveling and injuries and the fact that it was the reason for the loss, but the bottom line is that the Jackets are playing really well. Hitch got his guys to play a wire to wire, textbook, 60 minute game where the defense played well and they created offense. If this game was in November, the Flyers would have still lost this game. That's all there is to it.

Game Summary
First Period
SCORING
CBJ- Hejda(2), (Unassisted) 3:22 Jackets 0-1
CBJ- Murray(5), PP(Umberger, Russell) 18:08 Jackets 0-2
Penalties
PHI- Hartnell, Holding the stick 2 min 5:08
PHI- Lupul, Fighting(major) 5 min 16:51
CBJ- Klesla, Fighting(major) 5 min 16:51
PHI- Knuble, Inteference 2 min 17:30
Second Period
SCORING
CBJ- Malhotra(4), (Nash, Huselius) 7:39 Jackets 0-3
Penalties
CBJ- Tyutin, Boardin 2 min 0:09
PHI- Knuble, Slashing 2 min 2:29
PHI- Vaananen, Roughing 2 min 8:56
CBJ- Picard, Roughing 2 min 8:56
CBJ- Hejda, Holding 2 min 10:35
Third Period
SCORING
NONE
Penalties
PHI- Powe, Charging 2 min 8:11
PHI- Cote, Roughing 2 min 8:11
CBJ- Boll, Diving 2 min 8:11
CBJ- Malhotra, Holding 2 min 12:10
PHI- Carts, Tripping 2 min 15:09
PHI- Hartnell, Slashing 2 min 18:58

GOALIES
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
#30 Antero Niittymaki: 30 saves on 33 shots(L)
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
#1 Steve Mason: 20 saves on 20 shots(W)

THREE STARS(MEDIA PANEL):
1. #1 Steve Mason CBJ
2. #27 Manny Malhotra CBJ
3. #8 Jan Hejda CBJ

Next Flyers game: Tuesday night @ Canucks 10pm CSN-HD

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