The Magician Giroux Lifts Flyers Back to Winning Ways in Shootout

The Flyers won in a shootout. The Flyers won in a shootout. Just say that to yourself. Feels good, doesn’t it?

The Bruins came into last night’s game with their fair share of injuries and opting to let Tim Thomas get a rest since he played the night before in the win over Nashville. They were a team coming off a big win to visit a team that hasn’t played in pretty much a whole week. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Danny Syvret started simultaneously for the first time as Ryan Parent is still nursing an injury and Emery was still starting. How’d the Flyers fare?

The first period was pretty quiet in the Wachovia Center. Both teams came out of the gate ready to go, but it still didn’t feel right as the Flyers were trying to get their game legs back after long drop-offs of not playing. The Flyers drew blood first with Chris Pronger’s second goal. His slap shot was a MONSTER from the point and got the crowd going. Sitting there at the game, you could still see the cobwebs in the Flyer’s play but that would change when the Bruins would answer five minutes later on the powerplay with Derek Morris scoring.

By the 2nd period, the hitting game got really going. Every line was getting into it and the 4th line was throwing their body around and hounding after pucks like their lives depended on it. Hell, I even saw Danny Briere throwing his body around in the offensive zone when he was trying to find the puck. You have to take inspiration from a small guy like that doing something out of the ordinary. When those hits started flying, the crowd started going and the Flyers and Bruins exchanged goals to tie it at 3-3 going into a 3rd period. The Flyers dominated much of the 3rd period with scoring chances and controlling the tempo of play even though it was a scoreless period. And then the rest is history as they killed off a late 3rd period penalty and the rest of it in OT as they went to a shootout and our 3rd shooter, Claude “The Magician” Giroux, dazzled everyone with his goal. Ryder hit the goalpost for the Bruins, and the Flyers won in a shootout.

Last night’s game was a big win after dropping the last 3 games. They have a knack for keeping it close, as the three games I’ve been to this year so far (Caps opener, Ducks, Bruins) have all gone into overtime and the Penguins game was a track meet from start to finish. The biggest surprise was the first star of the game. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen netted that honor after having a solid 12-minute game where he had two assists for his first multi-point NHL game of his career. More memorable than those assists is where he pounded Trent Whitfield’s face in after he was ridden hard into the boards by him in the 1st period and was shaky getting off the ice. Other notable performances were the goal by Asham as he had time on the first line, and Darroll Powe’s goal came with a GREAT shift by his line where scoring chances were piling so high you had to know a goal was looming.

Great team effort tonight and they played a complete game. Revenge on the Panthers tomorrow night starts a back-to-back home stand with the Sharks on Sunday. These games will start to get our guys in rhythm and we can start winning more hockey games. Have to start climbing up the Eastern Conference now, this team is a lot better than it’s record shows (4-2-1).