A comeback against Brodeur? With our offense? Nooo…

It happened, folks. Five minutes into the second period, I said to myself, “This game is over.” The Flyers offense looked terrible. Passes weren’t being completed and the simplest of breakouts and defensive plays were being terribly misplayed. It was a miracle that the score was as low as it was at that point in the game.

Shortly after that, Jeff Carter delivered a debatable hit to Anssi Salmela (I’ll have more on the hit later in the post), just a split second after he put the Devils 2nd goal behind Michael Leighton.  The hit seemed to be the energy boost that the Flyers needed, as terrible as it sounds to say that. From that point on, it was all Flyers. James van Riemsdyk got the Flyers on the board early after a crafty move and shot beat the NJ defender and flew by Martin Brodeur. Seconds later, Jeff Carter finally hit an open net on a 2-on-1 pass from Scott Hartnell.

When the third period started, the Flyers came out and showed that they were the better team and wanted to win this game. Mike Richards broke the tie on the power play on a pretty pass from Kimmo Timonen was dished out from behind the goal line. That was all the Flyers needed to beat the Devils tonight.

Once the Flyers woke up tonight, they showed us a great defensive effort and they generated a ton of offensive opportunities. When you’re playing a goalie like Martin Brodeur, you’re going to need all the opportunities you can get. Michael Leighton was awesome in goal tonight, too.

Part two of this home and home series is Wednesday night in New Jersey.

As for the hit, here’s a video of it first.

This hit looked so much worse in the arena and until I got a few more looks at it, I was convinced that it was a dirty hit on Carter’s behalf. Once we slow down the replay, though, it’s not as bad as people are going to make it out to be. Is it a suspendable hit? Probably, but not deserving. Anssi Salmela was skating through the slot with his head down. As hockey players in peewee, we’re taught not to do that. Always be aware of your surroundings, and have your head on a swivel at all times. Salmela did none of those.

The argument that everyone will bring up here is that it was a late hit, but was it? Had Leighton made the save, the rebound would have been right on Salmela’s stick for an easy tap in had Carter not pushed him off the puck.

It’s a tough call to make, but we’d like to know what you think. Drop a comment down below.

Oh, by the way, our podcast debuts tomorrow! Stay tuned for that! Goodnight everyone!

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