So Philadelphia have a bit of catching up to do after they failed to turn up for game one of their first round playoff game against Pittsburgh. They may as well have pulled 18 people from the stand and threw the Orange and White jerseys on their shoulders for all the effort that was put in. They lost 4-1 and will need dramatic improvement by the next game if they are to stay in contention.

You know. I should apologise for the paragraph above. If you pulled 18 fans from the stands last night and threw them onto the ice they would have at least gave you the effort that the actual players did not.

Fear not though. This is just one of seven. There were some positives to take from it and if you scratch and dig long enough you might just find them:

1. The game was in Pittsburgh. It might be just me but it always seems like the Flyers start these series’ slow. Being on the road first they were never going to sweep the Pens and I did predict the Flyers would win in six which means Pittsburgh winning two. So that is one and should Philly get their act together for game two they can still split the series and head back home for two games in the driving seat.

2. Pittsburgh got the bounces. Pittsburgh deserved their win, of that there is no doubt, but the goals that they did get were hardly works of art. They far from ripped the Flyers apart. The Flyers lost the game more through playing badly than through the Penguins playing great. The first goal came of skates and goal posts and the goalie before going in, the second was a mis-hit that fooled Biron, the third a lucky bounce of the boards that threw everyone and the forth a deflection.

O.K. so that is two things to take from the game and now I am struggling to find a third so I shall wrap this up at that and just turn my attention to game two on Friday night.

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Washington got a worse start than the Flyers. They had home ice advantage going in and threw that away when the New York Rangers came in and took the surprise win in front of the sell-out crowd. Alex Ovechkin grabbed a couple of assists but it wasn’t enough to carry his team through.

New Jersey also won as did Vancouver in the only match from the Western Conference. Roberto Luongo was apearantly the different but I got sleepy about halfway through that one and hit the sack.

Tonight has Boston and Montreal getting their war underway while another game worth keeping tabs on will be Chicago and Calgary. Oh and Columbus makes their playoff debut though that is on TSN2 and my Cable package doesn’t get it.

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