Amidst all of the squashed trade rumours linking Philadelphia Flyers' star forward Wayne Simmonds to the Montreal Canadiens, what better way to look ahead to this weekend's back-to-back matinee contests than with this quote:
“When you play that bad (in reference to Philadelphia’s loss on Tuesday), there’s only one way to go, and that’s up…… - Wayne Simmonds
Simmonds hit the nail on the head with this one, as it's a lesson the Habs should remind themselves of after playing arguably their worst game of the season.
The Flyers, on the other hand, can pride themselves on a dominant 3-1 win over a team that shockingly failed to show up to play.
Against a club desperately holding onto the final Wild Card position while being chased by several others in the Eastern Conference, the Atlantic Division-leading Canadiens fired a season-low of 16 shots on backup goaltender Michael Neuvirth's net. Andrei Markov and Alex Galchenyuk combined to give recently-acquired defenseman Nikita Nesterov his first goal of the year, which is just about the only positive of last night's matchup.
It was a must-win for the (finally) healthy Habs as they were facing a team that was without Shayne Gostisbehere and Travis Konecny, while regular starting goalie Steve Mason sat this one out. Overall, it was a poor team effort as head coach Michel Therrien so transparently reminded journalists during his postgame comments. He came short of throwing Andrew Shaw under the bus for his boneheaded penalty that led to the Flyers’ game-tying goal on the powerplay:
“It was a very bad penalty… we, as a team, cannot accept taking a bad penalty like that.…
Evidently, Shaw’s subsequent benching for the remainder of the game will be a topic of much discussion today, as will the fact that he is the third-most penalized player in the National Hockey League with 84 PIM in only 38 games played. Though he might not necessarily require another sit-down with general manager Marc Bergevin and Department of Player Safety head Stephan Quintal like he did in mid-October, Shaw will have to think twice before acting in the future and placing his teammates and coaching staff in a tough situation.
Granted, this is not the first time we’ve said this. And it's too bad, because he's garnering attention for all the wrong reasons after being named yesterday one of the NHL's LGBTQ Ambassadors in light of the You Can Play partnership with the league, a project that promotes and encourages inclusion in sports. (Read more about the project here)
Last night’s loss did nothing to help the Canadiens in the race to participate in the playoffs, as the Ottawa Senators (6-2-2 in their last 10 games) are starting to gain grounds with 60 points through 49 games played, three less than the Habs who have 67 points.
The league-leading Washington Capitals are up next tomorrow afternoon, and suffice to say the Habs will need a better effort from virtually everybody in order to come remotely close to competing with Barry Trotz’ red-hot group.
But, as Simmonds himself put it yesterday, “there’s only one way to go and that’s up… … right?
NOTE
73.46% of respondents in yesterday’s poll believe that the Flyers will not earn themselves a playoff spot this season.
Today’s poll asks: