Project Philly: Over and Out

Three weeks ago, I idenitified 8-2 as the necessary record over the final 10 game for the Rangers to make the playoffs, and the path with which to achieve that record. As we all know, they came up one point short.

We know as well that yesterday's game would not have reached a shootot -not even close- had Lundqvist not risen to the occassion, as he has done time and time again.

There was no forecheck yesterday. The breakout was stifled. The power play was DOA, as it was during most of Friday's game at the Garden. The Flyers were hungrier, faster, and better in every phase of the game.

It goes without saying that the way the game played out makes the shootout loss all the more painful. Surely, all observers believed, Hank could get the better of Boucher once it became a breakaway battle between the two.

That did not happen. It hurts to say that both Flyer shootout goals were the kind that Hank generally stops, but it should hurt more to realize that the Blueshirts failed to generate more than cursory offense against a goaltender who was there for the beating.

This year, John Tortorella was not part of the solution, but part of the problem. The same can be said of Glen Sather for the past decade.