Games 58 and 59: Flyers at Canadiens and Vice Versa; Gary Bettman Sucks

I'm just going to do this as one entry because the preview for the second game likely won't be drastically different from the first.

Philadelphia Flyers: 30-22-5, 65 points
Montreal Canadiens: 30-19-9, 69 points

Antero Niittymaki v. Carey Price

Now on a 5 game losing streak after their humiliating loss at the hands of the Lightning, the Flyers try to get back on track against the Canadiens, who have given the Flyers headaches this season.

Antero Niittymaki will get the start tonight, after Biron's poor performance against Tampa. John Stevens is going to keep switching goalies until one of them gets hot again. If Niittymaki plays well tonight, it wouldn't surprise me to see Stevens go right back to him in the next game.

The Canadiens have systematically destroyed the Flyers in the previous two meetings, each one ending in a 3 goal Montreal win. In the first meeting, Montreal jumped out to a 2 goal lead after 2 periods, and added on 2 more in the 3rd to win 5-2. The Flyers were never really in it. The Canadiens lead was 5-1 before Upshall scored a meaningless PP goal in the last minute.

In the second meeting, they faced the same problem. Even strength, PP or even PK, the Canadiens just had all the answers. They were in complete control of the entire game. The Canadiens just seem to magnify the Flyers big problem; the gap between the Defensemen and Forwards gets too big, and they can't get out of the zone. They might be one of those teams that just always gives the Flyers problems, and if that's the case, they need to get over it in a hurry because these two games are huge.

Braydon Coburn and Scottie Upshall could potentially return to the lineup tonight, but no one knows for sure. Bill Meltzer will have that for you soon.

Anthony SanFilippo reports that the Washington Capitals are the dumbest franchise in pro sports and Gary Bettman is the worst commissioner ever.

Basically, the Flyers were fined $25,000 because of their Ron Hextall celebration. They knew that if they did it before the game, it's possible that not everyone would be in their seats to seat the ceremonies. They decided to do everything during the first intermission to make sure the building was full and give Ron Hextall the sendoff he deserves. However, the celebration ran a little too long and the Capitals cried about it. Grow up. I don't care if there are rules about how long intermissions need to be. Who cares? The Flyers were doing something special for a great player and their fans. Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone would've cared if this was Pittsburgh or Edmonton celebrating Lemieux or Gretzky.

Next year, if the Capitals want to hold intermission ceremonies for that one time they won the East or when they failed to make the playoffs with Jaromir Jagr, go ahead. They can last half an hour if they want. I'm sure their two dozen fans won't mind, and neither will I.