It has been awhile since the Flyers had a game where the outcome was no longer in doubt after two periods. Even in their 6-3 win over the Islanders on March 1, it was a two-goal game midway through the final stanza before Philly put it away for good.
Despite playing with an injury-depleted lineup, the Flyers brought a lot of two-way intensity and snarl to last night's 5-0 win over Florida. Once again, Ilya Bryzgalov (28 saves) was tremendous in goal. There were a few breakdowns and he had all the answers. He now has a 1.25 GAA and a .960 save percentage during the Flyers’ current four-game winning streak.
Meanwhile the team did a tremendous job in sacrificing themselves to block shots and buckling down defensively to help preserve Bryzgalov's fourth shutout of the season and second this week.
From a Flyers standpoint, there was a whole lot to like about the team's performance, except perhaps for a lapse of several minutes in the first period where Florida controlled the play and Bryzgalov had to scramble to keep the game scoreless. Other than that, Philly was the superior team for most of the night.
I asked Danny Briere after the game if he thought the last two games (the 1-0 win over Washington and 3-2 win over Detroit) were the defensive building blocks the team expanded up in this tilt. He said that he felt it actually started in the western road trip, in the 2-0 loss in Edmonton, the latter 40 minutes of the comeback shootout win in Calgary and the 1-0 loss in San Jose.
Little by little, things started to come together and players slowly started the little things well again until it paid off. Against Florida, the Flyers put it all together at both ends of the ice. Apart from Bryzgalov's stellar play, there were numerous standout players and positive themes that bode well for the Flyers if they continue adhering to the process:
* The Flyers dominated on special teams, going 2-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. After the game, Peter Laviolette said up the recent uptick in penalty killing success, "“I always think that it starts with goaltending and Bryz has been excellent as of late. That gives your penalty kill confidence and guys have done a nice job executing their roles, blocking a lot of shots as well.”
* The rookies stepped up, as they have been doing again in recent games. Matt Read tallied his 19th goal of the season as a result of his line (Danny Briere, Wayne Simmonds and himself) outworking the Florida defense around Jose Theodore's net. Brayden Schenn scored his 9th goal -- all in the 2012 calendar year -- on a somewhat broken play where Briere tried to pass to Hartnell, who whiffed on a one-timer attempt but the puck went right to Schenn with half the net open. Sean Couturier had his third straight stellar defensive game.
* Despite the blueline missing 4 of its 6 opening night starters and half the projected playoff starters, the remaining 3 regulars plus the three replacements (Andreas Lilja, Erik Gustafsson and debuting rookie Brandon Manning) each stepped up to the best of their abilities. Meanwhile, the forwards also pitched in on the effort in their own zone. The Flyers blocked 18 shots to just 6 by Florida.
* The Philly players stuck up for one another. Most notably, Matt Carle went right after Jack Skille and even dropped the gloves (but drew a roughing double minor) after the Florida forward ran into Bryzgalov following a marginal push from Carle.
* Claude Giroux recorded his 23rd multi-point game of the season. He has 55 assists on the season, moving him two helpers past the Canucks' Henrik Sedin for the league lead.
* Jaromir Jagr took one for the team, dressing and playing on the 4th line plus the power play despite the soreness in his hip from getting tangled up with Valtteri Filppula in Tuesday's game. He made it pay off by bagging a goal on Philly's 5-on-3 power play and registering four shots on goal overall in 12:19 of ice time.
* Scott Hartnell continued his career season by scoring a type of goal that is unusual for him; a semi-breakaway where he ripped a shot over goaltender Theodore.
* Eric Wellwood put on a display of explosive speed on the play that resulted in the final Philadelphia tally of the game.
* Although Briere's goalless drought continued, he came within a hit goalpost of a goal, generated three quality shots on net and tallied two helpers. It's only a matter of time before pucks start going in for him again, and I expect that he will get hot before the stretch drive is over and the playoffs begin.
* Brandon "Manndog" Manning had a few good shifts in his NHL debut, showing a deft passing touch and good skating ability. He had a couple shaky shifts in his own of the ice but did OK even there in his 14:59 of ice time. He also happened to be on the ice for Read and Hartnell goals, so he finished +2 in his NHL debut.
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Congratulations go out to Danny Briere for playing in his 800th NHL game. He received a huge ovation from the crowd, which was especially nice to see in light of his scoring struggles the last few months.
Said Briere in recollection of his tough early days in Phoenix, "I remember when I started my career I never thought I’d get to 100. The first 50 were tough. Hopefully there’s a lot more and that was really cool, what the fans did when they announced it.”
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The funniest postgame line of the night was uttered by Jagr. He had a lot of fun with questions about suiting up after leaving Tuesday's game in the second period and being declared doubtful for this tilt by Paul Holmgren the previous day.
With a big smile on his face, Jagr said, "I had to play because there were no other Czechs. All of the Czechs were out and everybody knows, if there are no Czechs in the game, it's kind of a boring game. It's like when you want to make food without salt, you know what I mean? I was pushed."
Turning semi-serious for a moment, Jagr said, "In the morning skate, I felt fine for ten minutes, then the practice was a little bit longer and it started bothering me a little bit. That was the plan to just play less minutes and maybe power play. But I don't mind it! Nobody touched me!"
Jagr skated at 5-on-5 on a line with Wellwood and enforcer Jody Shelley. With his goal in the game, Jagr is now two away from resuming his streak of having scored 20+ goals in every season of his NHL career. He is now four goals away from tying Luc Robitaille for 10th place on the all-time NHL list.
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In the third period of last night's game, Andreas Lilja was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for deliberately snow-plowing and spraying snow on Theodore at a stoppage of play. The Flyers benefited from a similar call earlier this season -- don't remember who the culprit was offhand.
Years ago in the AHL, several players did it early in the season to a rookie Maine Mariners goalie named Pelle Lindbergh. Teammate Glen Cochrane quickly got fed up. The next time someone snowed his goalie, the tough-guy defenseman had the gloves off and pummeled the offender -- breaking the guy's nose -- before Lindbergh could even get up to bark at the guy. Word got around the league immediately, and no one dared do it to Lindbergh again. Old-time hockey, right?
Today, everyone looks at the ref and wants an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called. I'm not totally sure the game is better for it, either.
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When I was driving back from the game, I saw a sign that Broad Street Bullies era Flyer Ross Lonsberry will be making an
autograph-signing appearance in Havertown, PA at the end of this month. I was really happy to see that because "Roscoe", who celebrated his 65th birthday last month, has been
battling cancer.
Lonsberry, who has lived in California for many years, is one of the relatively few Cup era Flyers who did not choose to make his permanent home in the Delaware Valley after his playing days were over in the early 1980s. The very fact that he apparently feels up to traveling cross-country and doing a two-hour public appearance can only be a good sign.
Speaking of Flyers players of the Cup years, Bill Clement -- a current TV analyst on CSN Philly and longtime friend-to-HockeyBuzz (he was an occasional blogger in past years and host of a video breakdown segment on the old FlyerBuzz TV show on CN8 -- has written a semi-autobiographical book entitled "Everyday Leadership: Crossing Gorges on Tightropes to Success."
The book talks in detail about the highs and lows of Clement's personal and professional lives -- he dealt with some severe financial hardships and faced a lot of uncertainty after his active hockey career was over and business ventures failed -- and how he ultimately pulled through and emerged stronger. Clement does a lot of motivational speaking gigs, and he most certainly speaks from hard-earned personal experience. Wayne Gretzky wrote the forward to the book.
For more information on the Clement book,
click here.
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