will we ever win?

The Flyers Can't Beat the Devils!

We knew this home at home series was gonna be big. In the first game of the home at home series the Flyers found themselves in familiar territory at the end of the first, they were down 2-0. But the Flyers have been good at playing from behind. Sami Kapinen, who was still mad about some broken teeth, rallyed the troop and would end up with a goal and two assists. The scoring went something like this, first Primeau finds Kapinen for a goal and then Kapinen finds Brashear for another. Then in the third Elias bangs one in for the Devils. And finally the man of the night Sami Kapinen would set Primeau up for the tying goal.

"We can draw a lot of positives from tonight's game," said Primeau. "We came here with the intention of winning, but we came back twice and that is a good sign. We'll draw from those positives and go home to try to keep it going."

And what did the coach have to say:

"I've said this before, that the psychological part of it is just staying with it. That's a huge step, and a step we needed to take. Previous times we maybe would have gotten discouraged, but not anymore."

So now on to round two. The stage is set, here at home, in the Wacko center, with the undefeated streak on the line. A game that is very big in deed. You see for this game ChillyV had extra special tickets courtsey of none other than the former Captain Mr. Ed Van Impe himself! So I find myself sitting just behind the bench in anticipation of one of the greatest hockey match-ups in sports history. Surely my team was ready to put on a show for me! And what do I get? I get three periods of JACK SHIT! I end up watching the best goalie in the NHL get his seventh shut out of the season.

Right from the begining this game had a playoff feel to it. Very tight and very close. Nothing really happened in the first. Then Grant Marshall scored in the in the second. His shot came from the circle deflected off of Joni Pitkanen's stick and found Jeff Hackett's five-hole. In the third period the Flyers would get a much needed power play and a golden oppritunity to tie the game, but 40 seconds into the power play Primeau gets called for interference. They replayed the penalty up on the jumbo-tron and I sure didn't see it. I did however see Pitkanen jump over the board for a classic rookie mistake, and get called for too many men on the ice. New Jersey's Mike Rupp scored on the following powerplay, it was his third of the year all of which were against the Flyers.

The team fired a total of 72 shots at Brodeur in the two games but still managed to leave the series with only one point! In addition to the home unbeaten streak being stopped at 11, Hackett's personal unbeaten streak was also stopped at 11. His last lost was also to the Devils.

Fortunately for the Flyers the Devils won't be back until February 10th. That gives them plenty of games to figure out what went wrong and what to do next time. But if the Flyers can't face this psychological deamon that Hitch speaks of, then all those games don't really matter. After all you can spend the entire season beating everyone except for Jersey and Ottwa and you'll probably end up in first place. But if you can't beat the Devils, and you can't beat Ottwa then you can't get to the cup!