I wish I could say that last night's 6-1 debacle in Pittsburgh was just one of those bad games that happen to every club over the course of a season. Even in measuring stick games where there's plenty of motivation, sometimes your team doesn't have it. It could be due to fatigue or simply the other team playing an outstanding game, but there will be nights where the team gets outskated and generally outplayed.
What happened last night, though, was further evidence that this Flyers team lacks both the work ethic and competitiveness to even make the pretense of being a club worthy of challenging the defending Stanley Cup champions.
There is never an excuse not to compete, never a justification for an NHL team to allow so many oddman rushes and easy goals, never a rationale for half-hearted backchecking. Where's the professional pride? The Flyers gave up a power play goal and two shorthanded goals last night and it could have been even worse. Bernie Parent in his prime couldn't have rescued the club last night.
The trio of Arron Asham, Riley Cote and Dan Carcillo did their best to give the team any sort of spark by dropping the gloves in the first period (and Carcillo even scored a power play goal), and the team still didn't respond.
Things have gotten to the point where efforts such as these are no longer surprising. Extremely disappointing, yes, but not surprising.
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The Flyers' waiver claim on Michael Leighton at least gives the club an experienced backup until Ray Emery gets back. He'll likely get into a couple games before ending up back on the waiver wire.
By the way, despite the Flyers' assertions that they remain "extremely high" on Johan Backlund, I don't think the organization truly has much faith that the 28-year-old will ever be more than a marginal goaltender above the AHL level.
Backlund was never even one of the best three goalies in Elitserien (in my opinion, at least) during his career at home in Sweden. He was brutal in the preseason for the Flyers, although it is not uncommon at all for European goalies to struggle early in their transition to the small-rink game. Backlund has played decently in the AHL for the Phantoms, but he was hardly stealing games for the club.
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When the Flyers learned that Braydon Coburn would be able to play last night, they asked for the NHL to void their recall of Danny Syvret. In addition to not being needed to play in the game in Pittsburgh, Syvret would not have been able to arrive at the arena until shortly before game time. The voided recall saved the Flyers some chump change on the salary cap.
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Today's
Across the Pond at NHL.com will take a look at the story of Thomas Greilinger. The leading scorer in Germany's DEL found himself out of hockey at age 24 due to a serious knee injury and weight problems (the 5-foot-10 center ballooned to over 280 pounds after the injury). After spending time in the lower German minor leagues, he worked his way back to the DEL last season and is now a good candidate for the German Olympic team.
Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at the Capitals' 6-1 rout of the Avalanche last night.
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Tonight at 7 PM, I will be at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in
Devon, PA to do the final scheduled book signing of the holiday season for
Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask.
I hope to see some of you there, and would like to say thank you to everyone who came out to the signings at the Flyers fan club event at the SkateZone, Chester County Book Company in West Chester and the Barnes and Noble stores in Deptford, NJ (a really nice turnout) and Plymouth Meeting.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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