Flyers 2, Bruins 1

Before discussing the game, I just want to say that the pre-game ceremony was quite cool. Having armed forces, police, and firefighters lining the Cup's path into the building, then the video of all the ups and downs of the playoffs, then unveiling the banner itself, that was pretty neat.

I'm glad the speeches were short and sweat. And it was very classy to have players from the 1972 team, along with Milt Schmidt help carry the banner to its raising point. And the poignant tribute to Mark Recchi was the icing on the cake. Very well done.

The game was not so well done. It was the type of game that one year ago would have sent me into a frenzy. Not making plays out of the zone, allowing easy entry, not dumping and chasing. These were some of the problems the Bruins had last night.

Marchand and Seguin were the only two Bruins who had truly good offensive games. The Bruins had 23 shots on goal in this game, only 6 in both the 1st and 2nd periods. Give credit to Bryzgalov for stopping 22 shots. He was very impressive, and it's safe to say that goaltending is no longer a liability for the Flyers.

The Bruins allowed their first goal thanks to surrendering the blue-line too easily. Four Bruins around one Flyer, and he manages to get through. Then the second goal came after Seidenberg had the puck on his own blue line and just tapped it toward the red line. He didn't carry it, or attempt to pass it to a teammate. He just tapped it forward, Philly recaptured it, and a few seconds later they made it a 2-1 game.

I really wish the announcers had mentioned Jaromir Jagr at least once. I certainly did not get my fill on hearing about how amazing Jaromir Jagr has been for the Flyers.

There are 81 games left and I'm not going to flip out as badly as I did last year after just one frustrating loss. These are fixable problems. And on the bright side, Marchand looks great and Seguin looks good.

Bruins host the Lightning Saturday night.

-The Commodore

Racist Or Not Racist?

"The man who threw a banana peel on the ice as Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds was starting a shootout attempt against the Red Wings last week did not mean to make a racist statement and is "mortified" at how he is being perceived, according to his lawyer. Chris Moorhouse, of London, Ontario, was only hoping to prevent a goal, lawyer Faisal Joseph explained. "He was horrified when he saw the implications a day later as to how it had come out, and he said to me, 'If I had an apple or an orange, I would have thrown that out onto the ice. I did not realize the significance,' " Joseph said. "This is a young guy who's guilty, if anything, of an act of stupidity (WEEI)."

It's almost impossible to know this person's intent, but I think we are missing the bigger issue in this whole story. Who the hell heads to an NHL with a banana? Did he wants some fruit with his beer? Did he really have the foresight to be like "Yes, I am going to take this banana and those it at that black guy on the Flyers"?. If that's the case how fucking pumped was this guy when Simmonds came up for a penalty shot? Like that doesn't happen all the time, so it must have been like racist Christmas for this guy.