MixBlog 3-22-11

Let's discuss a few topics, shall we? We'll start with sports and then move on...

Flyers' goaltending. Is it now back to being a weakness? Tonight's game against Washington, besides being the first of 11 games to finish the regular season, was the start of a five-game stretch which may well determine if they'll finish first in the Eastern Conference. Four of the games are against teams breathing down their necks: Washington, Boston and Pittsburgh (twice). Rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky hasn't had wins in back-to-back games since January. Tonight he let in three weak goals in little over a period, and was yanked in favor of Brian Boucher. After the Flyers stormed back to take a 4-3 lead and were dominating the game, Boucher let in the tying goal late in the third period and was absolutely shredded in the deciding shootout (which shouldn't decide games anyway, but that's another story). The Flyers got a point but are only 1 point ahead of Washington now instead of the 4-point lead they could have had. Can one of these goalies get hot in time for the playoffs, please?

Phillies and Luis Castillo. Even though everyone who's seen him this spring thinks he's washed up, including the Mets, who released him, the Phils decided to bring him in. Since he signed a minor league deal the only way he'll be paid anything by the Phils is if he actually makes the team. So it's essentially a nine-game tryout to see if he can beat out the competition to hold down second base while Chase Utley is out (which, just because of the fact that the Phils brought in Castillo, seems like it will be for quite some time). They basically agreed to terms Sunday night, made it official Monday morning...and somehow Castillo failed to arrive until after game time today. It's been blamed on a "miscommunication," but come on. I'll be stunned if this stiff wins the job. The guys already competing for spots have done fine, from what I've heard.