Flyers Follow Up Classic With Debacle

The national overnight TV ratings for the 2010 NHL Winter Classic dropped 10.3 percent from last year's game, back to the figure achieved by the first New Year's Day outdoor game in 2008. It might seem surprising that the local ratings here were much lower than in Boston: while the game got a 14.4 rating and a 29 share there, in Philadelphia the rating was only 6/11, behind both the Penn State-LSU bowl game and (this is the shocker to me) the Mummers Parade.

I think there were two factors in the lower rating here, one being that the game was played in Boston. Had it been played in or near Philadelphia (such as at Penn State's Beaver Stadium, as has been proposed) there would have been a lot more local hype, which would have led to more interest. The main reason, however, has to be the season the Flyers are having, as evidenced by yesterday's ugly game in Ottawa.

The Flyers had a four-game winning streak snapped at Fenway Park on Friday, but they got a point since it went to overtime and they didn't play badly. They wasted a lot of scoring chances, botching 2-on-1 breaks a number of times. But they got away from what was working for most of the game, and when a questionable penalty call gave Boston a late power play, you knew the 1-0 lead wouldn't stand up. The Bruins' OT winner may have been helped by having too many men on the ice when they scored.

Still, it wasn't a bad effort. Unfortunately, they followed it up by allowing 4 first-period goals after taking an early 1-0 lead. The Flyers actually rallied to tie the game in the second period, but proceeded to give up 3 more goals in the third period to lose 7-4. I assume these guys were on the same line yesterday because the plus-minus figures are ridiculous: Claude Giroux -6, Simon Gagne -5, Mike Richards -4. It's games like this that lead me to be increasingly pessimistic about the Flyers' chances of even getting into the playoffs, let alone winning a Stanley Cup.