It's Now Or Never For The Philadelphia Flyers And The Rally Starts Tonight At Chickie's & Pete's For The Stadium Series Kick-Off Party
Alright so listen. Last night sucked ass. It sucked a copious amount of ass. The Flyers have gone from one of the hottest teams in the league to now getting their dicks kicked in twice in a row this week. I mean I wrote a blog on February 8 titled, “The Philadelphia Flyers Are Going To Be A Playoff Team And You Can Take That To The Heckin’ Bank”. (Sidenote: I’m not a banker or anything like that so if you actually took my advice there, that’s on you. Don’t be mad at me that you were dumb enough to follow my brain). The top comment on that blog was the following:
Welp it looks like the joke is on Rwright10 because it didn’t take a full month for the Flyers to start to violently crash back down to Earth. It just took 14 days because not only have the Flyers gotten shit pumped twice this week, but Carter Hart has been pulled after giving up 3 goals in the 1st period in both games.
It’s just been that kind of stretch for the 20-year-old rookie. I mean the fact that this Brendan Gallagher shot was able to find the back of the net just goes to prove that the Hockey Gods truly exist and that they are now punishing Flyers fans for getting too ahead of ourselves. There was quite literally only room for the puck to hit that small gap at the exact right angle and the exact right speed for that shot to squeak by Carter Hart, and it did exactly that.
Here’s my quick take on Carter Hart’s recent struggles: naturally I’m a little worried about the kid because part of what made him such a great goaltending prospect was the fact that he was so technically sound. Letting up a goal like this is very unlike Carter Hart and there’s definitely a chance he’s in his head a little right now. With that being said–there’s also a chance he’s just tired. I mean he’s been starting a shit ton of games since getting called up. Between having to play all the damn time while also figuring out how to adjust at the NHL level, that can take it’s toll on a 20-year-old kid physically and mentally. So my hope here is that this is more of a case of Carter Hart just being a little fatigued rather than being in his head. It’s a shame he had to get yanked in a game where he was going head-to-head against Carey Price but it could be a learning experience, for sure.
The one thing that can’t be used as a learning experience? Just how fucking awful the Flyers were playing in front of him. Look at this shit right here.
That looks like the Montreal Canadiens invited a high school JV team out to practice with them last night. Travis Sanheim gets absolutely smoked. Ivan Provorov gets caught in no-man’s land and neither takes away the passing lane nor the shooter. The forwards were just fucking around in the neutral zone watching it all unfold. And then obviously that’s a shot that Carter Hart probably needs to come up with. For a team who needs to catch every break they can in order to keep their hopes of getting into the playoffs alive, this shit right here was disgusting.
So now tomorrow’s game at the Linc against Pittsburgh should pretty much determine what the mindset should be here for this team the rest of the way. It is very much a do or die situation. If they find a way to beat Pittsburgh tomorrow, then maybe not all hope is lost. It’ll be an uphill climb for sure, but they still would have a shot at jumping past teams like Buffalo, Columbus and Carolina in the standings because I don’t trust either of those teams to be able to finish out the regular season strong. But if they lose on Saturday? At least 7 points back from a wild card spot and only 20 games left to go? I think that’s where you start giving the younger guys some more looks and start game planning for next season.
I realize that it’s hard to get fired up about this team right now after the way the past two games have gone but if there’s any time to start the rally, it’s tonight at Chickie’s & Pete’s. Come on out for the Stadium Series Kick-Off Party presented by New Amsterdam Vodka with the Barstool Philly crew and Spittin Chiclets. The party is from 7-9 but we can continue to get #InOne for as long as you guys want.
Drink responsibly and everything like that, but I heard that the only way the Flyers are able to salvage this season is if we drink all of the Pink Whitneys in sight. So don’t drive. Just call an Uber. And let’s have ourselves a night and roll it straight into tomorrow at Lincoln Financial Field. The season is on life support right now, but we are going to fire it right back up tonight with the help of New Amsterdam and Crab Fries. See you beauties there.
P.S. – Pretty sure Gritty is banned from Chickie’s but we’ll try to sneak him in anyway.