Earlier in the game last night Lappy and Betts had already shown their proficiency for blocking shots on the PK - something they've proven to Flyers fans many times over this year. But during probably the most crucial part of the game, when the Devils, who were given the gift of a second powerplay when the pressure Brian Rolston applied to Mike Richard's stick cause him to trip, had the opportunity to erase a two goal deficit in 2 minutes. Not sure any team could win after a momentum shift like that. It would have been a test for sure. But on that power play there was a single sequence that blew my mind.

You have to figure that an NHL team is going to see the opposition's penalty killers sliding all over and figure out a way around it at some point. And it looked like the Devils blueliners had put some thought into it when a Devils defenseman wound up and Lappy went down to block it, and the defenseman moved to the side of Lappy and wound up to let the real thing go. Only problem was that Lappy had spun around and already had his entire body cutting off any route that puck could have taken to the net. The defenseman surely thought he had Lappy beat this time so he moved back to his original spot - this is all happening in about 3 seconds - and finally decides to rip one.

I don't know how he did it, maybe he's a wizard. But Ian Laperriere was already laying in front of that shot and not only blocked it, but blocked it out of the zone. This was at a point when the Flyers PK unit had been trapped in their zone for a minute. It didn't go far enough for a change but when Blair Betts blocked the next attempted shot from the point and cleared it the length of the ice I was honestly in awe.

As I watch Betts skate off the ice, and sit next to Lappy I thought to myself "These guys were meant to be together as much as Lamar and Chloe."

Lappy's play was simply amazing. Even more amazing is the fact that it's just a standard hockey play for those two. Watching them just kill penalties, although they both provide a number of other keep attributes to the team, made me think that the Flyers need to take a page out of Dan Wadell's page on under-bidding a player on a contract during the middle of the season and sign Blair Betts for two more years so I can watch those two kill penalties for as long as possible. Wadell just used the leverage of providing a secure future to Rich Peverly (who they claimed off waivers) to get the 4th leading points per game player in the league to sign for just $1.3M for each of the next two years. Let's give Betts a mid-season extension, $600k next year and then $700k the year after. Show him we appreciate his work and think he's valuable.

Let's not forget Lappy thought, he gets a statue laying at the feet of Rocky.