Emery should avoid reading the papers until this blows over.

I've thought about it too. Is this the beginning of the end for Ray Emery after a hope-setting preseason and an impressive first 5 periods of the regular season? He hasn't looked spectacular in the past two games, but I also don't think he's been anything less than what we need, except he hasn't been able to bail the team out after a defensive breakdown. I do, however, think the media are going to be quick to question him because that's what they do, and this will be the first test of his constitution in Philadelphia (is that a history joke at 8 AM on Friday?!?).

Single second lapses by the Flyers skaters have resulted in situations Emery shouldn't have been in. Malkin threading the needle between 3 Flyers to Staal, a bad change leading to a Guerin breakaway, Coburn shooting on him. And it wasn't just last night. On Tuesday Ovechkin came in all alone on Emery after a bad turnover and Semin literally swiss cheesed our defense and went in all alone.

So when you hear the Flyers saying they need to do a better job defensively they're not just paying the press lip service this time, they really need to get it together back there. It's not closed-door team meeting time, granted these were two of the league's most high powered offenses, but for Ray Emery's sake, which ultimately goes hand in hand with the Flyers fate, they need to tighten the screws all over the ice. You take away those three breakdowns last night and Emery had a 91% save percentage. I know I'm going to decent lengths to support this guy but how many breakaways from the red line did the Flyers have last night?

Lappy goes in the first.

I was VERY surprised to see Lappy shed the hand protection in the first period last night. Not because I thought he was scared or because he's not that type of player, which he obviously is. But because Riley Cote needed to fight last night and that shift was the perfect time to do it. When Lappy gets a five minute major right then that means Cote isn't back in the game until at least the 12 min mark. The Pens 4th line was out there and that was Cote's golden opportunity to at least take a crack at "Down Goes Godard!" and possibly win some favor back in a city that used to adore him. Lappy should know better than that. After that shift Cote saw 2:07 of ice in a 60 minute game. We'd be better served having just about any Phantom that was defensively responsible come up. I'm thinking Kalinski. Last night Riley Cote's train sailed.

A Rematch

This was as close as you can get to a next season rematch. 83% of the Penguins who played last night also played in the 5-3 Flyers season ending loss last spring. The figure was 72% for the Flyers. Replacing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi were Alex Goligoski and Jay McKee on the back end and Michael Rupp was in Mirslav Satan's pants up front for the Pens. You have to admit, Flyers fan or not, that our back end substitutions of Pronger and Tollefsen for Jones and Alberts are a much more significant improvement than the Penguins. Our front end changes, consisting of replacing Knuble and Lupul with Laperriere and Pyorala, is something that we'll figure out in time. And Emery in for Biron is also still up in the air. Although I think our personnel changes since that sickening game last spring outrank the Pens it didn't show on the ice - still the Penguins beat us.

If we can put the lineup we had the first two nights of the season out there against the Pens on December 15th I think the outcome will be different.