Dimitri Filipovich

I think the coaching job has been fine.

Ultimately, his top players haven't been able to get going offensively or produce.

They have three goals for the entire series.

By comparison, the Logan Stankoven line has combined for five goals themselves.

And so that's ultimately what this series boils down to.

I think when we spoke last Friday, we talked a little bit about how

I had skepticism about the Senators as the trendy dark horse pick because they just seemed like a slightly inferior version of the Carolina Hurricanes.

And typically that team doesn't win the matchup when they're not even the best at what they do so well.

And so that's kind of how this has played out.

Like the margins have been closed.

It's been tight.

Game two certainly could have gone either way.

But games one and three, their lack of ability to generate offense is

has really stuck out and whenever they do get a chance it seems like a miracle almost like they had to work so hard just to get one quality look and then the staying open line comes back down and gets three within a 30 second shift and you're like all right that's probably the difference between these two teams right now and now let's talk rick talk it i know people want to credit dan vladar

Every Rick Talkett goalie is like that Scooby-Doo meme where they like have him tied up and then they rip off the mask and it actually is just Rick Talkett under the mask.

Because it's the most plug-and-play position in the league, really.

Like, you're going to get this level when the defense in front of them is playing the way the Flyers have in this series, and that's what it boils down to.

Not to discredit Ladar, who I think has given them some stability at that position that they were lacking in previous seasons, but...

You look at the difficulty of the saves he's had to make, and for the most part, it's been pretty simple stuff from the perimeter.

They've completely blocked everything in the home plate area, and that's a staple of a good Rick Taka team that's humming defensively the way they are, the way the Canucks were a couple seasons ago, and that's what you've seen in the series.