Ilya Bryzgalov has given the Flyers a chance to win every game this season.
I also believe that he and he alone has given the defense a chance to get its act together and the penalty kill a chance to do it, as well.
The PK has made huge strides in the last two weeks. It's killed off 21 of 21 opponent power plays over the past six games.
The big test for Brzy and the PK units comes on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh against the Penguins, who have the second best power play in the NHL and a couple of guys - James Neal and Evgeni Malkin, who lead in three PP categories.
Given the wildly, inconsistent team game from the FLyers during this six-game road trip, it's impossible to make a blanket statement one way or the other how things go tomorrow.
But my feeling is THIS game will tell us whether the words of Claude Giroux and Kimmo Timonen really sunk in over the weekend.
It's easy to beat up on the Islanders, even though they feasted in New Jersey recently. It's a lot harder to beat up on the Penguins right now.
One third of the way into the season, the Flyers see just how much they and especially Claude Giroux misses the presence of Scott Hartnell on the ice.
Meanwhile, coach Peter Laviolette has had to juggle his lines continually to generate offense where offense pretty much has been bone bare for a while.
He's also had to change defensive pairs but there is only so much you can do when your defense is slower than it was a year ago. Bigger and tougher and harder to hit, but you know the saying: you can't hit what you can't catch.
As close as the FLyers are to getting into the playoff hunt, you need to remember they have been 1 or 2 points out of the 8th spot for weeks now and unable to bridge that gap.
That is the consequence of intra-conference play where every win or loss hurts you in some way against a common opponent within.
It's time for the Flyers to get serious. Frankly, I'm surprised there hasn't been a trade yet.
Al Morganti and I discussed this and we both think the attitude might be, because this is a short season, you need to bite the bullet. And given the Flyers have issues in front and in back, they are not going to solve both until the summer off-season.
Or at least have a CHANCE to solve both, I should say. Many of the Flyers problems go back to July when GM Paul Holmgren took 3 home run swings on Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Shea Weber and struck out in spectacular fashion with the first two -- and then flied out to the wall with Weber.
The lack of a well-planned backup plan is at least partially responsible for where this team is right now.
Yet that doesn't absolve the cast of players from performing better in the final 2/3 of the season.
Here's more hockey on CSNPhilly.com:
click here 
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»