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Can't Blame Niitty for This One
Posted February 1st ago via The 700 Level
The following is a portion of the full post
Images and full post at The 700 Level

If you weren't able to catch the Flyers' 4-0 loss to the Rangers last night,  a look at the box score would show that Antero Niittymaki was chased from the net after giving up 4 goal before the game was even half over, while his counterpart, Henrik Lundquist's backup, notched a shutout of one the NHL's hottest teams. Both of those things happened, but in all fairness, Niitty didn't play all that poorly; he just had to endure a number of breakdowns in front of him and was left out to dry.

The highlights after the jump show a turnover that led to a long outlet pass, with the Rangers' Nigel Dawes faking a shot as Niitty challenged high, and finding a small angle to beat him. Petr Prucha was untouched as he gathered a rebound and slammed it home for the 2-0 lead, and although Chris Drury's goal came from about 70 feet out, it went through a three-man screen, two of whom were Flyers. Brendan Shanahan finally chased Niitty to the bench on a perfect 2 on 1 play, and it was clear that the Flyers were changing goalies not because of any fault on Niitty's part; they just needed to do something to try and gain some momentum. Marty Biron slammed the door after that, not allowing a single goal, but the Flyers could muster only 20 shots and obviously no goals.

Worse still, Colton Orr wouldn't drop the gloves with Riley Cote, a wise decision with a 4-goal lead. However, when the Stanley Cup Champion Ducks migrate to Philly tomorrow, the smart money's on some odd numbers in the penalty minute totals. The Ducks and Flyers lead the league in fighting majors this season.

Read the full post at The 700 Level




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