After getting whooped up on by the previously putrid Canadiens last night in Montreal, the Flyers are back at it tonight at the Wells Fargo Center against the Winnipeg Jets, who are currently the worst in the East.
The Chris Pronger-less defense did not fair well last night, with Matt Walker and Andreas Lilja taking the brunt of the blame, but they were by no means the only Flyers to come up small last night.
Ilya Bryzgalov did not look sharp behind a shaky defensive unit, having issues controlling the puck and generally not making any big stops when they really needed them.
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Bob will get the start tonight, and, honestly, he's appeared a bit sharper in the early goings in my opinion. The tough part is, it's nearly impossible to evaluate them comparatively, because so much of their performance is a result of what's happening in front of them. Bryzgalov isn't back there dropping beach balls. It's foolish to think that had Bob been in net last night, the score would absolutely have been different. Bryz hasn't been as good as he's capable of, but on the majority of goals, he hasn't really had a chance to be, either.
No matter who is in net, the defense needs to be more active in either ensuring that pucks don't get through, or clearing the bodies and sticks that are currently winning the battles in front.
This young Flyers team has shown flashes of tremendous excitement but also shown the growing pains you might expect from such a newly formed squad. A bounce back win would be nice against an opponent they should beat.