Last night's game in Tampa may not have been much on the entertainment scale -- especially in the first period -- but there really isn't too much to fault the Flyers about in their overall performance despite last night's 2-1 loss in overtime.
The biggest problem was that Philly took too many penalties in the third period, gave up a game-tying power play goal to high-scoring defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron and then loose coverage by ex-Bolt Andrej Meszaros on the game's final shift led to the deciding rebound put-in during overtime.
Overall, however, I thought the Flyers paid much better attention to defensive detail and actually generated more scoring chances their measly 15-shot total for the game would suggest. Tampa's stultifying 1-3-1 trap that basically drained any life out of what could have been an exciting game between two teams with lots of offensive firepower. But the Flyers did not help their own cause, actually having more attempted shots (19) miss the net than get on goal (15). Some of that was Tampa's D, some was simply errant shooting.
In thinking about last night's game, two plays in particular stand out. The Flyers had a 3-on-1 shorthanded rush with a chance to extend their lead to 2-0 but could not convert it. They also missed the net on a couple of chances for Jaromir Jagr in prime scoring range in the power play.
As for the way Peter Laviolette had his team approach Tampa's trap -- refusing to skate into it, and holding the puck for long periods of time in the defensive zone -- I wish clubs would have done that back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Teams have tried in futility to deal with opponents that refuse to forecheck and play a severe 1-2-2 or 1-3-1, so you might as well call their bluff and not play into their hands by forcing the puck into the congested neutral zone.
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On the next FlyersBuzz podcast -- now scheduled for today at 1 p.m. EST -- Eklund and I will discuss last night's game in Tampa, the re-signing of Braydon Coburn and the return of Chris Pronger to the Flyers' lineup.
In addition, we will be holding a contest for a listener to win a pair of tickets, courtesy of Hockeytickets.ca, to the Flyers' game against the Phoenix Coyotes at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, Nov. 17. The game will be Ilya Bryzgalov's first against his old teammates, and will be Phoenix's lone visit to Philadelphia this season.
In order to enter the drawing for the tickets, please send an email to
[email protected] with "Flyers-Coyotes ticket contest" in the subject line. A winner will be selected at random and then announced on the podcast. I will make all arrangements via email with the winner.
If all goes well, we will be doing a couple of drawings per month. The next one planned is a trivia contest on my blog, with all respondents who come up with the correct answer being eligible for a random drawing for two free tickets from Hockeytickets.ca to see the Flyers play the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at the Wachovia Center on Sat. Dec 17.
I will also run a similar trivia contest on my Stars blog with the prize being two tickets for the Flyers-Stars game in Dallas on Wed. Dec 21. The contest will open to fans of either team but travel arrangements are up to the winner.
Last but not least, I have arranged through HockeyBuzz Capitals and Canadiens blogger Steve Hindle -- who works in marketing for Hockeytickets.ca -- to get a 10 percent discount for Flyers' HockeyBuzz readers on Flyers tickets ordered through their site.
The 10 percent discount applies on any order of $150 or more, and is valid on top of any other promotions or discounts. Enter "FlyersBuzz" in the coupon code for online orders. The discount is valid for any order placed between today and Dec. 31.
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As I do every year on the anniversary of Pelle Lindbergh's fatal car crash, I am posting an unpublished excerpt from the "Behind the White Mask" book. The following excerpt came from the original manuscript for Chapter 24:
When Pelle and Thomas Eriksson signed their first contracts with the Flyers, they bought matching Corvette Sting Rays (or "Curwettes" as Pelle called the cars in his distinctive Swenglish dialect). Pelle makes a gift of the Saab to his father.
The two cars, especially Pelle's, soon become infamous among the Portland police. As Pelle's local fame grows and he befriends many of the cops, he's usually able to avoid speeding tickets. By the time he blossoms into NHL stardom with the Flyers, he's virtually immune to being held accountable for his driving habits.
But in the early days of his rookie season with Maine, Pelle quickly racked up several tickets. Usually, he tried to play the ignorant foreigner when he got pulled over.
Affecting the greatly exaggerated accent he sometimes put on to amuse his teammates, he'd say, "Oooh, sorry off-eee-cer! I'm from Sveeeden ahnnd I didn't knoooow how muhhch eees speed leeemit tvennn-ty miihles. Wooon't happ-uhn igen!"
Sometimes Pelle would remember to pay his tickets, other times he'd forget. On one occasion, he got stopped and cited for driving more than 60 miles an hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. Pelle set down the ticket when he got home, and forgot about it as the Mariners headed out on a road trip.
Shortly thereafter, he receives a summons. Scared, Pelle goes to coach Bob McCammon and asks what to do.
"Just relax," McCammon says. "I'll call up our [team] lawyer, and maybe he can pull some strings."
A few hours later, the lawyer calls McCammon.
"Everything's OK, Pelle," says McCammon. "You just how to go downtown by 3 PM today and pay your tickets."
Lindbergh thanks the coach and departs. The next day, he walks into McCammon's office and lays a speeding ticket down on the desk.
"What the hell? You should've paid the goddamn thing!" McCammon exclaims.
"Yeah, I did," Lindbergh replied. "But I got this one yesterday afternoon when was going down to pay the other tickets."
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