The Philadelphia Flyers hockey players are also football fans. It's likely that most, if not all, of them were watching the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants in the forty-sixth edition of the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
They certainly would liked to have enjoyed the big game with another two wins under their sweaters against two Atlantic Division opponents this weekend. But, that didn't turn out to be the case.
Even without Marty
Martin Brodeur will be inducted into the Hall of Fame after he retires. The fact that he didn't start in net in Philadelphia, during his team's Saturday matinee game, won't change that reality in the least.
Johan Hedberg, a former 1994 ninth round draft selection of the Flyers, allowed four third period goals in Marty's absence. However, Sergei Bobrovsky let in six before half of the second period had been played. He was pulled in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov, who didn't allow any more pucks to cross the goal line.
Do the math and obviously the final result was a 6-4 loss.
Sinning, scoring and fighting
Midway through the first period, the Flyers had been outshot 11-2 and were down 1-0 due to a Kurtis Foster power play goal at 3:05.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored a short-handed goal at 19:03. His twenty-first marker of the season resulted after Dainius Zubrus clearly appeared to have tripped Claude Giroux while he had the puck in the Devils offensive zone. Play then quickly moved over to the Flyers end of the ice and 'Bob' was beaten to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.
Then the Devils got their third goal, with only 0.4 of a second remaining in the period, when Zubrus shook off his sin and scored the deadline tally.
Another three Devils goals in the second period, left the Flyers reeling as they went to the dressing room during the second intermission. But, this revamped roster has shown a propensity for comebacks this season. And so it came to be once more.
Mixed into the Flyers 24 third period shots were four goals and an interesting confrontation between Kovalchuk and Brayden Schenn. These two players, who are hardly enforcers, fought each other with less than 10 minutes to go in the game. This isn't the first time that the scrappy Flyers center has shown a willingness to mix it up and that speaks volumes about his overall character.
Bitten in the apple
After a zesty final frame against the Devils on Saturday, it appeared as though Peter Laviolette's ever-resilient team might transfer their energy into stopping the Rangers on Sunday. They didn't.
No one can take credit away from this iced bunch, as their coach has led them through a series of injuries during what will likely be remembered as a good momentum building year.
Philadelphia's 5-2 loss to the Division leaders had some good points, which included a nice backhand goal by Shenn in the second period. There was also Wayne Simmonds seventeenth tally of the year, while the Flyers were on the power play, early in the third.
However, Henrik Lundqvist was the difference once again this season. The soon-to-be thirty-year-old veteran is playing like the type of goaltender who could look like a wall in the playoffs.
Sean is based in the Philadelphia region. He has written professionally for over two decades and is currently a Featured Contributor for Yahoo! You can follow him on Twitter @SeanyOB and also read his daily Sports Blog: Insight
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