Friday, November 25, 2011

Game preview: Habs vs Flyers

So the Habs roll into Philly today to face a bipolar Flyers team. At times, they look unstoppable. But lately they've been stuck in familiar territory: talented, tough and goalie-less. After signing Ilya Bryzgalov to an insane contract, many Flyers fans thought their troubles between the pipes were finally over. But Byzgalov has not lived up to expectations. How can you when you signed a 9 year $51M deal?? And did I mention that deal pays him $10M this season? That's a lot of cash for a GAA of 2.89 and a save percentage under .900 If things don't get better soon for Ilya, he'll be the new shitty contract king of the NHL. Did you hear that? That was Gomez praying someone else can take his title.

Philly can beat anybody, but they can also lose on any given night. For some reason, they're much better on the road than at home. As a matter of fact, the Habs dealt them 1 of only 2 regulation losses on the road this season. They will also be without 3rd leading scorer Jaromir Jagr. With 17 points in 19 games, he's proving that he can still play at a high level. Yet another player who wanted to come here just to have the corpse say no thanks.

Habs send out the same lineup minus (plus) Scott who's out with a lower body injury and a bruised ego. If Eller has one of his killer games, Jackie will have no choice but to seriously consider scratching Gomez until the corpse on the 7th floor decides what to do with him. 20 games was more than enough to give him a chance to play himself out of his funk. St-Denis will be called up and play...forward?? Let the second guessing begin.

Carey will need to keep up his great play of late. He's let in 4 goals in his last 4 games. Without him, it's gonna be a long afternoon.

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