Winter Classic 2012: Flyers Collapse Highlights Glaring Goaltending Problems

The Philadelphia Flyers' weakness that will prevent them from winning the Stanley Cup was on full display at the 2012 Winter Classic, and it's their inability to find consistent goaltending success.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the second period of the game on Monday, the New York Rangers scored three unanswered goals against Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to win the game.

The second goal of the game was a soft one allowed by Bobrovsky, and it really changed the momentum of the game by allowing the Rangers to gain a lot of confidence after they had struggled for most of the afternoon.

While the Flyers' goaltending issues were obvious, the rival Rangers were able to show off their brilliant goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to the nation. The difference between the Flyers and the rest of their competitors in the East is that all the other top teams in the conference have dependable goalies.

The Boston Bruins have Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask, the Pittsburgh Penguins have Marc-Andre Fleury and the Rangers obviously have Henrik Lundqvist. To win in the playoffs you have to be able to stop high-powered offenses with good goaltending.

In last year's playoffs, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup because they shut down the Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks and the Flyers because of their awesome goaltending from Thomas.

The Flyers almost won the 2010 Stanley Cup despite their goaltending failures, but the high-scoring Chicago Blackhawks were too talented to stop.

Unless Philly finds some consistent success between the pipes, they won't get out of the second round this postseason.

Even after a poor performance from Bobrovsky in the Winter Classic, Flyers chairman Ed Snider isn't worried about the team's goaltending.

"There's no issue," Snider said. "We don't have an issue. We have two good goalies. We'll be fine. We are fighting for first place. Something must be going fine. We can't be that bad."

He's right, they are fighting for first place in the Atlantic division and the conference, but you can get away with bad goaltending in the regular season and win games because you don't face great teams every night like you do in the playoffs.

Philly scores the second-most goals per game in the NHL, but when the playoffs arrive and games become less about scoring and more about defense, the Flyers will struggle due to their goaltending problems.

The Flyers need Ilya Bryzgalov to return to his All-Star form he showed many times for the Phoenix Coyotes, because after signing a $51 million contract in the summer, he has to play better.

Bobrovsky is not going to lead the Flyers past the second round of the playoffs.

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