The Flyers' 2-1 win last night over the Phoenix Coyotes was the type of game that coaches like. No doubt Peter Laviolette was pleased with the puck support, work ethic and patience that his team showed in a hard-fought game.
Philly was downright dominating on the penalty kill, got good goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov and generally made good decisions with the puck. Last but not least, they battled through the adversity of losing Jaromir Jagr early in the game.
Matt Read got the kudos for the game-winning goal in the final 18.4 seconds of regulation, topping off another strong game for the rookie and his linemates. The final play was created by the forechecking work of his entire line, especially Jakub Voracek. Max Talbot also made a very astute play to get the puck to a wide-open Read at the opposite post.
On the sequence leading up to Read's goal, you could see that Phoenix was just trying to hold onto a point and get the game to overtime. The Flyers by far were the more aggressive team in going after the win late in regulation, and they got rewarded for it.
For the Flyers, it was also good to see James van Riemsdyk step up to score his 7th goal of the season, which is exactly 7 more than he had at this time last season (he finished with 21). JVR had a 2-on-1 with Kimmo Timonen and wisely elected to shoot, finishing the play with a nice shot upstairs.
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It was not too difficult to figure out with a fairly high degree of confidence-- even without the Flyers saying more than "lower body injury" -- what happened to Jagr.
He wasn't hit and he didn't take a puck off his foot. Usually, when a player leaves the game and there was no obvious cause, the most likely scenario is that the player sustained a groin pull, charley horse or tweaked a knee while he was skating.
Given that Jagr has had groin problems for much of his career -- although he has rarely missed many games -- the immediate suspicion was that it was a groin problem.
Sure enough, that scenario
was confirmed to Tim Panaccio, although Flyers GM Paul Holmgren kept things as vague as possible after the game. Jagr will not make the trip to Winnipeg, so he will miss at least one game.
I have said this many times before: I think it's silly that NHL teams play those cloak-and-dagger games with injury reports during the regular season. The truth always comes out within a day or two, anyway, and opposing teams figure it soon enough.
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I lost respect for Derek Morris and Adrian Aucoin for their classless comments about Bryzgalov. Yes, there was a lot of obvious gamesmanship involved, but I thought it was pretty low to stoop to personal attacks when the goalie himself has done nothing but take the high road in wishing the best to his former team and teammates.
There are times Bryzgalov's emotions get the best of him and he can be accused of showing up his teammates. There were some who felt he threw Braydon Coburn under the bus in his postgame comments after a communication mixup in the third period of the St. Louis game led directly to a backbreaking goal.
During the Buffalo game on Nov. 2, the team was playing lousy hockey in the second period after jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first period. After numerous sloppy turnovers, Bryzgalov banged his stick in frustration. Flyers' radio announcers Tim Saunders and Chris Therien jumped on Bryzgalov for it, with Saunders saying, "With all that's been happening lately, that's the LAST thing Bryz ought to be doing."
I saw that situation differently. I saw it as a wakeup call to a team that needed one at the moment. If they were embarrassed, so be it. Yes, I know, it goes against the "code" of always being united in public and keeping any frustrations or verbal confrontations inside the locker room. But the end result was that the Flyers won the game, and winning heals most every wound.
No team or player is perfect, and there are times every player needs his teammates to pick him up after a mistake. I will also say that, over the last few seasons, Bryzgalov picked up his Phoenix teammates far more than they had to pick up for him. I didn't see Bryzgalov saying things like "Morris is known for coughing up the puck and blowing coverages."
As for his Flyers tenure to date -- which is still only a couple months old -- it is obvious that Bryzgalov is accepted in the locker room, apart from the minor hiccups described above. As long as he stops the puck and the team wins, every one will get along just fine.
By the way, it was Derek Morris whom Read slipped away from for the game-winning goal in the final minute.
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Having an aggressive puck handling goalie like Mike Smith is a double-edged sword for a hockey yeam. Often, such goalies help their own cause by functioning as a third defenseman of sorts, getting the puck out of the zone before the other team can establish a forecheck. Other times, they can create their own monster with giveaways and getting themselves way out of position.
Smith had 4 giveaways last night, three of which very nearly ended up in his net. He played a strong game overall, but his love of puck handling was more of a detriment than a help in last night's match.
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