Philadelphia Flyers at New York Islanders 1/12/12 Afterthoughts

It was only the Islanders, but this victory was a crucial one for the Flyers as they are now within two points of the division and conference-leading New York Rangers, who were shutout by Ottawa earlier tonight. Scott Hartnell fittingly scored the opening goal for the Flyers tonight after being snubbed from the All Star Game earlier today. His stats across the board are better than a number of All Star selections, including Alex Ovechkin, widely considered one of the two top players in hockey today... further proving that the voting is nothing more than a popularity contest.

The team didn’t play their best tonight. Simmonds’ goal should not have been—I think he took that shot that at a one degree angle—and the Islanders were firing away on offense. Sean Couturier’s goal ended up being huge as Julian Tavares scored a minute later for the Isles, but the team’s overall play was not that of a Stanley Cup contender. There was one reason the Flyers won tonight and it’s the reason fans usually use when the team loses… goaltending.

After signing Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year $51 million deal over the summer, the Flyers finally thought they had solved their decade-long goalie woes, but after going 16-9-3 and averaging more than 3 goals against per game, it seemed like more of the same for a Flyers goalie, and it made fans wonder why the team could not catch a break at the goaltender position…

Enter Sergei Bobrovsky.

After tonight’s game, Bob is 10-3-1 for the season, with a GAA of 2.41. If you don’t factor his two early season blow-ups against Winnipeg, the earliest of which ended up being a 9-8 loss where every goalie involved got lit up, it’s 1.77. Obviously a decision can’t be made right at this moment—it’s only halfway through the season and Bryzgalov has proven that he can be a top-tier goalie in Phoenix. Bobrovsky has also had his share of struggles and there’s no way to tell if he’ll keep up his solid play, but for now, and I would go as far as to say up until the All Star break, he should remain the starter of this team. Bryzgalov needs to wake up; they tried to let him play his way out of the funk and it didn’t work. Hopefully some rest will. And if it doesn’t, it may not matter if Bob keeps this up.

A goalie controversy in Philly? Say it ain’t so…