Where'd I leave my gun? (Flyers rant)

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The gun is not for ritual suicide after the Flyers' annual collapse.

The gun is to be used on the group of Flyers fans (and possibly Ken Hitchcock) who are ALREADY bailing out on Roman Cechmanek.

First off, let's not even get into the "who would replace him" question. Their top goalie prospect (Maxime Ouellet) vanished in _last_ year's eleventh-hour Adam Oates trade, one of Bobby Clarke's all-time greatest blunders. There are no unrestricted free agents out there who'd be an upgrade. There are no megatrades in the offing. There's no one of substance waiting at the AHL level (Neil Little is forever wedged into the Phantoms' net, and if fans think Cechmanek is erratic, they'll love Antero Niittymaki, who can turn every shot into an adventure.) It's Cech for the long haul, folks, barring a panic move.

But here's my problem. Did Cech let in some soft goals in this series? Yes. (Show me a goalie who's never done that.) But the "he can't play under pressure" rap is bullshit. The Flyers lost Game 1; Cech pitched a shutout in Game 2. They lost Game 3; he pitched a shutout in Game 4. He kept them IN this series until the wheels fell off the defense.

The Flyers' goal production in this series: 2, 2, 2, 1, 2 (one of which was an oh-by-the-wayer) and 1. Last year, against the same team: 1, 0, 0, 0 and 1. Eleven games, not a single three-goal game among them, and that's somehow the goalie's fault?

The Flyers' power play in this series went 0-for-17. OH-FOR-SEVENTEEN! The Senators scored two shorthanded goals over the six games. When your power play is MINUS TWO in a second-round playoff series, that's not bad goaltending letting you down -- that's flat-out bad hockey. Period.

With the Flyers' payroll, they're turning into the Baltimore Orioles of hockey. For the uninitiated, that is _not_ a good thing.