It’s 3-1 Flyers, and this post is late!

I apologise for not getting this up sooner. It was a combination of laziness and the inability to reach a computer because I was in London (UK) for most of today. I could go on and on and on about game 4 but I’m sure you’ve had enough of that. If I had waited till Saturday to write this, you would haven’t of gotten much because of my “Don’t speculate on the game, the day of the game” policy. It’s a superstitions thing.

However, It’s still Friday in the UK for 3 hours and 8 hours in the US, so I shall begin speculating…

Saturday’s game will only finish when the 3rd Period ends. The Canadiens will bring their A game and so will the Flyers. They will take it down to the wire and I’m not sure if i can predict who will come out on top. At least not without a certain level of deep meditation and words from God if I’m going to make an educated prediction. The Megadeth bouncer in me says the Flyers will win, but the cynical part of me believes that the Habs will be able to do one better over the Flyers.

So lets break it down into sections. We’ll start with Goalkeeping. Biron has been hot. I swear the picture I have of him in my study started smoking recently. If he can keep it up, the Flyers are in a great position. Carboneau himself admitted the Habs have tried everything to put the puck behind Biron and have failed at every turn. I am forced to wonder if I’m putting too much trust in him. I remember putting alot of trust in Robert Esche, and we all know what happened then. The Canadiens goalkeeping has been fairly poor this series. Price is totally shell shocked from the first three games, and his confidence won’t be great after Carboneau dropped him. Halak put up a better job than Price in game 4, but the Flyers still found ways of scoring.

Offensively, The Habs are consistent in outshooting the Flyers, which why I’m nervous about Biron. If the Canadiens can score early in a game, keep up a good pace and continue to out shoot the Flyers, things may make a turn for the worse. However, the Flyers are very good at matching the pace of the Habs and are so physical in their style of play, they are keeping the Habs relatively at bay. The chemistry in each of the Flyers lines is also helping to score, despite the shooting defecit.

Defensivley, the Flyers are doing better than what they were doing in the rest of the season. Yes, there is a shot defecit but for the most part, the Flyers are closing them down. The Habs seem to be quite happy to let the Flyers repeatedly dump the puck in and play it from there. This is a plan that has been working well for the Flyers but Carboneau seems determined to ignore it.

Penalty wise, the Flyers are in bad shape. They are getting far too many penalties which is resulting in opportunities and goals for the Habs. Need I mention Game 3 or 1? I’m not saying the Flyers penalty kill isnt any good, on the contrary, it has done excedingly well considering the circumstances. The Habs are getting fewer penalties in contrast and aren’t suffering as hard. However, their penalty kill has been poor recently, allowing the Flyers to score at critical moments.

I won’t comment on the fans. There very similar in their fervour and zeal that I would be wasting my time (Also, my response would be higly bias)

I imagine some Habs fans are looking at the First Round for hope. I will now shoot it down in the style in which I am famous for.

Some believe that The Habs were forced to a Game 7 after being 3-1 up against the Bruins. It is a belief, one taken by Carboneau, that the Canadiens can emulate this. I don’t think so – The reason for the Bruins sudden leap forward was because of poor goaltending on the Canadiens part (Price in particular). There is also a belief that the Habs could emulate the Caps in coming back against the Flyers. To begin with, The Canadiens don’t have Ovechkin and Federov. Also Huet was a much better Goalie than Halak OR Price. So there.

If the Flyers fail to close it out on Saturday, the deed will be done on Sunday, I am sure of that.