Flyers Lose Hard Fought Battle to Sharks

Coming into Tuesday’s contest against the San Jose Sharks, Craig Berube and the Philadelphia Flyers were desperate for a winning effort on the ice. In hope of making things for his team better, Berube made some big moves on his roster benching the struggling Vincent Lecavalier, and defenseman Michael Del Zotto. Not much noise was made about the Del Zotto benching; but Vinny made enough noise for the both of them. I will go into more about the Lecavalier whining session; but first, lets discuss the game.

The game was well played by both teams, and you could get a sense that it was going to go down to the wire. With six minutes gone in the 1^st period, Sean Couturier was able to find the back of the net, scoring his 5^th goal of the season and giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead early. The score would remain 1-0 until late in the 2^nd period when Marc-Edouard Vlasic was able to not things up with a little over two minutes before the horn sounded. As the 3^rd period moved along, all signs pointed to overtime and at least one point for the orange and black. Then, Matt Nieto played the role of heartbreaker, as he was able to get to a rebound following a shot by Patrick Marleau and put it in the back of the net. The Sharks were able to take a 2-1 lead with 12 seconds left and eventually give the Flyers their 5^th loss in a row.

Overall, Philadelphia played a very good game. However, all it takes in this league is one big mistake late, and all that hard work will count for nothing. The Flyers have only tallied 19 points this season and are officially member of the bottom-feeders club. It is safe to say that the Flyers season to this point has been a complete failure. Although their have been some players showing their ability to be dominant, there are also some players that have stunk-on-ice, and not lived up to their potential. Leading this group of players is former all-star Vincent Lecavalier. He has been a disappointment since he got to Philly and Berube finally put his butt on the bench making him a healthy-scratch for last night’s game. Vinny was clearly not happy about the coach’s decision and made his feelings public. He went as far as saying that he would retire after the 2015-2016 season if that meant that a team would trade for him and get him out of Philadelphia. I have always been a huge fan of Lecavalier; but yesterday’s comments made me lose a great deal of respect for the guy. It has been obvious that he can no longer produce the way he used to and his team is struggling because of it. Instead of taking the decision to bench him like a man and fight to get his spot on roster back, he decides to go after his coach and abandon his teammates. Personally, I hope the Flyers some team dumb enough to take this fool. He is no good for an already hostile atmosphere.