Turnovers, Blown Leads, And Once Again Poor Officiating Cost The Flyers Game 6 And The Series
Well, truly a loss of words. Turnovers, blown leads, and the officials cost the Flyers any chance in Game 6.
Flyers lose 8-5 to the Penguins. The Penguins beat the Flyers 4-2 in the series.
Officiating
Like I said after Game 5, the officiating in this series has been god awful. After battling through a 5-1 power-play advantage for the Penguins in Game 5, the Flyers were up against the officials again today.
Today, it was no call after no call after no call. You be the judge on the no-calls. Here are a few by the same guy. I guess your name and jersey color says a lot of the league.
Letang crosschecks Giroux in front of the ref. No call. pic.twitter.com/d0myvCRAtW
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) April 22, 2018
Letang trips Couturier, no call, and Guentzel scores. pic.twitter.com/RYodiRG5aT
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) April 22, 2018
The Flyers needed a perfect game today to force a Game 7. However, when you are battling more than just the team you are playing against, it is hard to win.
Blown Leads
After the team scoring 1st won the first 5 games, the lead today didn’t help the Flyers. Blowing leads of 1-0 and 4-2, the Flyers couldn’t seem to play a strong game with the lead.
This is something the Flyers have had trouble with all season. During their 10-game losing streak, the Flyers blew 2-goal leads in 4 of those losses.
Too make matters worse, how they lost those leads today were because of bad turnovers by multiple Flyers.
Turnovers
After only having 8 turnovers in Game 5, the Flyers turned it over 13 times today. Flyers turnovers have been an issue all season. But, today it really costed them.
With a 1-0 lead after just a perfect start, a simple shot from the point was whiffed on by Michal Neuvirth and Crosby put home the rebound. However, just 47 seconds later, off a Claude Giroux turnover, the Penguins made it 2-1. But, it gets worse.
Now a 4-2, Radko Gudas whiffed on a clearance and the Penguins score immediately after. Then, with under a minute to go in the 2nd, instead of dumping it out, Gudas tries to stick handle through the whole Penguins team. Turns the puck over and the Penguins score.
You cannot turn the puck over against a team like the Penguins the way the Flyers did today and the whole series.
Injuries
Well, now that the season is over, the injury list and surgery schedule will come out. Lets say what we already know.
Sean Couturier played through a torn MCL in games 5 & 6…
Ivan Provorov played through a severe shoulder injury in game 6…
These were just the first of many injuries to come out now that the season is over.
Result : Flyers 5 – Penguins 8, LOSS
Series : Penguins 4-2
The Flyers have been eliminated from the playoffs. Their season is unfortunately over.