Couple of things really surprised me about Tuesday's Penguins-Islanders Game 4 on the Island:
1) That Pens coach Dan Bylsma allowed goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to remain in the game after it was apparent in the second period he was a mess;
2) That Bylsma seems reluctant to make adjustments to his game while the Islanders came at Pittsburgh with speed and unrelenting pressure;
3) That Evgeni Malkin, who has such talent in his hands, could make multiple mistakes with the puck and then become unglued emotionally;
4) That Pittsburgh would allow John Tavares to take over the final period and stand back and watch instead of initiating.
There were times in that game that I felt we were watching a replay of last spring's Flyers-Pens series in which neither goalie could stop a beachball, let alone a puck, and still, Fleury looked worse than the guy at the other end.
Last year that was Ilya Bryzgalov. This year, it's Evgeni Nabokov.
As much as Sidney Crosby will go out of his way to defend Fleury and push for him, Bylsma had no choice but to name Tomas Vokoun the starter today for Game 5.
You need to allow Vokoun time to prepare for this and allow Fleury time to reflect on what's happened. And if Vokoun gets it done in Game 5, or even if he loses but looks solid, you stick with him at this point.
Pittsburgh has all this world class talent and right now, there's a problem in goal and also in the team's overall commitment to defense, something we saw against the Flyers last year, as well.
And which is more shocking: San Jose sweeping Vancouver or Ottawa being up 3-1 against Montreal?
I had the Senators upsetting Les Canadiens on CSNPhilly.com but I also had the Canucks winning against the Sharks, who I felt acted like sellers at the trade deadline.
With no pressure on them, the Sharks may surprise but I still expect Chicago to emerge from the West and likely take the Stanley Cup.
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I've been reviewing the Flyers season on CSNPhilly.com and will next turn my attention to their record in drafting and developing defensemen which has been woefully short for two decades now.
Hard to believe but the last Flyer drafted and developed defenseman who had a genuine career here was Chris Therien and that's a disgrace given that occurred in 1990.
Since drafting Therien on the 3rd round that year, the Flyers have taken 198 players since and none have stuck around long enough to really establish themselves.
Which is why all through the 1990s under Bob Clarke and even now under Paul Holmgren, the Flyers have had to go out and either sign free agents, undrafted collegians such as Erik Gustafsson, or utilize UFA offer sheets to other club's best d-men.
Again, I will be looking at that over the next two weeks on CSNPhilly.com.
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