And the award for laziest shutout ever goes to…

The Flyers may have  peppered….no, that isn’t the right word…paprika’d? Ottawa’s Brian Elliot with 24 shots during last evening’s loss, but no more than two were ever any real threat to hit the twine. Credit the Senators in large part for that, as they seemed to be deflecting/blocking every shot Philadelphia took. Their positioning on defense was fantastic, and they earned at least a percentage of Elliot’s shutout.

But that was nowhere near all of it. From my amazing seats three rows off the ice (where I got to sit next to Steve Coates during pre-game and check out Joe Kadilac’s ‘75 Stanley Cup ring, which were both awesome), the Flyers offense was pathetic. Their puck possesion was horrible. Nearly any time they got it deep into Ottawa territory, they either weren’t able to keep it in on their own or they made a bad pass that the Sens had no problem taking the other way.

Speaking of the passing. Yikes. It was dreadful the entire night. So many errant passes were made I would have thought that the Flyers brought in Jake Delhomme in as an offensive assistant. When Jake Delhomme turns it over less than you do, you’re not playing well. In any sport.

The offense as a whole just looked lost. They failed to score on a 1:46-long two-man advantage in the first period. It was about the only time they cycled the puck well the entire game. Even then, they only had a couple decent opportunities. Which were either blocked, went wide, or were simple saves for Elliot.

Defensively, however, the team looked good. Chris Pronger is a monster who nobody wants to get near. I’m sure his violation of John Tavares’ mouth, which we’ll get to in a future post, didn’t exactly make him more amiable in the eyes of his opponents. They did a great job getting in Ottawa’s shooting lanes, especially Ian Laperriere, who dropped the full face shield after the first period. Ballsy. If I lost seven teeth, I’d probably play in a full suit of armor. Never question the marbles of Mr. Laperriere.

Coach Laviolette better get this team working harder on offense. The dump-and-chase looked horribly off last night and throughout the entire third period, outside of the close score, there was very minimal reason to believe that the Flyers would actually pull this thing out. It sounds weird, but having been there, the crowd didn’t really buy the Orange and Black having a shot.

Nothing’s really going right for Philadelphia. Most of which is their fault, unfortunately. They’re playing hockey like Always Sunny’s Dee plays flip cup. And I don’t see that getting better with the next opponent they’ve got to travel to.

Next game: Saturday @ New Jersey (7 p.m., CSN)

P.S. Maybe this is a contest they’ve got a better shot at winning?

FLIP, FLIP, FLIPADELPHIA!

Tags: At least Boucher played well, Christian Ingram, excessive references, flipadelphia would have been more entertaining, ifyouhaven'twatchedAlwaysSunnyWTFareyoudoingwithyourlife, Philadelphia Flyers, The Flyers got D.E.N.N.I.S.'d