With eight games remaining in the 2011-12 regular season, the Flyers appear to virtually locked into the fifth playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. The extra point they gained in last night's 2-1 shootout win over the Washington Capitals likely won't make a difference in terms of the Flyers' final placement in the standings.
Nevertheless, the Flyers turned in a quality performance that once again showed they can find other ways to win while the offense is struggling to finish scoring opportunities. The club is rolling steadily toward the finish line of the regular season -- still with enough time to correct some areas of inconsistency -- rather than staggering the way they did down the stretch last year.
Enough has been said about the Flyers' problems with falling behind in the first period. Last night marked the 15th time in the last 20 games that Philly has yielded the first goal of the game. According to NHL.com's
team statistics page, Philly is tied for the second-most wins (18, one fewer than Chicago) and has the NHL's second-highest winning percentage (18-19-3 for .450, trailing only Pittsburgh's 16-14-2 or .500). Even so, no team can afford to chase the game every night and expect to be successful in the long haul.
There was a lot of teasing last night about Ilya Bryzgalov -- who went on to play yet another outstanding game -- yielding a goal on the first shot of the game. But I thought the goal that Alexander Ovechkin (who now has six goals in the last five games) scored was simply a case of a star player scoring a quality goal. Ovechkin is one of the very few players who is strong enough on his skates to get bumped by Nicklas Grossman, spin right off the check, step in front of the net and score a goal.
Sometimes, the momentum of a hockey game can turn in the blink of an eye. Bryzgalov made several outstanding saves to keep the deficit to one goal, getting a little help from the goal posts and some missed nets on wide open chances along the way. Philly closed out the first period by applying a lot of pressure in the Washington zone.
In the second period, the Capitals hit the post in the Philadelphia end of the ice and, seconds later, Jaromir Jagr made a perfect spin pass to catch Claude Giroux in stride. Flying past a stumbling defenseman, Giroux went in alone on Braden Holtby. The young goalie panicked, by coming away out of his net with a diving pokecheck attempt. Giroux casually pulled the puck around him, took another long stride or two toward the vacated net and deposited the disc into it.
The Flyers and Capitals played pretty evenly over the balance of the game, with Washington having a small advantage in shots but the Flyers having somewhat better scoring opportunities. Scott Hartnell and the goal-starved quartet of Jagr, Danny Briere, Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds all had excellent scoring opportunities but just couldn't find the net. Peter Laviolette indicated after the game that he was very pleased with the performance of the Schenn-Briere-Simmonds line and would be keeping the trio together for the time being.
At the other end of the ice, the defense turned in a steady if unspectacular effort and Bryzgalov cleaned up whatever scoring chances the Capitals created. At the 12:58 mark of the middle stanza, Washington's Marcus Johansson was awarded a penalty shot after Matt Carle tripped him on a breakaway. On the ensuing penalty shot, Johansson got in too close to the Flyers' goalie and fell over Bryzgalov's stick, as the puck slid harmlessly away.
The Flyers dominated the latter stages of the game, and especially the overtime. Philly is one of the NHL's best teams in four-on-four situations (11 GF, 2 GA), while the Caps appeared to be trying simply to hold on for a shootout. Washington spent virtually the entire five minutes hemmed deep in their own of the ice.
In the skills competition, the Flyers got a quick jump on Holtby. Matt Read sped in and snapped a quick shot through the five-hole before Holtby could get squared to him. Matt Hendricks then went around a diving Bryzgalov as easily as Giroux evaded Holtby in regulation when the goalie made the first move.
Round two of the shootout saw Holtby stay with Giroux, who appeared to change his mind about whatever move he initially planned to make and then get stuffed near the post. Bryzgalov denied Ovechkin in the bottom half of the second round.
Danny Briere was up next. Rather than attempting his usual slow-down stutter-step, cut and shoot move on the forehand he tried to move in closer. No luck. Bryzgalov needed a save to prolong the shootout. He gave Keith Aucoin nothing to shoot at, and the Washington player missed the net.
Wayne Simmonds, who had not tallied a shootout goal since the preseason but who excels in this area at practice, came into the Washington zone with a lot of speed, and snapped a shot between Holtby's pads. Bryzgalov then stoned Troy Brouwer to nail down the skills competition bonus point from the tie game.
Washington, which was playing without Nicklas Bäckström, Alexander Semin and Tomas Vokoun, had to settle for one point on a night where it had hoped to take full advantage of a game in hand on Buffalo. Now the Capitals are one point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres with an equal number of games remaining. Washington does hold tie-breaker advantages in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
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Former Flyers center Peter Forsberg attended last night's game. He is paid spokesman for Svenska Spel (a state-run betting company in Sweden), and the group is on a trip to see several NHL games. They were in attendance for the Rangers-Red Wings game the previous evening.
Forsberg is the public spokesman for Svenska Spel's "Let Europe Watch" campaign. He tours the U.S. trying to raise support for more afternoon games on the NHL schedule, which would air in prime time in Europe (rather than in the middle of the night). He filmed a mini-documentary for the campaign last fall. You can
watch it here on Youtube (most of it is in English). Much if it is staged for effect -- ala "reality TV" -- but the initiative he's involved in is very real.
Although Forsberg was asked in an interview last night how it feels to be "removed from the game" -- and politely answered the question in terms of being satisfied with retirement -- he still very much involved in hockey. He is the assistant GM for Modo Hockey in Sweden, assisting general manager Markus Näslund in assessing talent and coordinating the big club with its junior development program staff.
Last Sunday, Forsberg and Näslund watched helplessly from the stands in Örnsköldsvik's Fjällräven Center as Modo was eliminated from the Swedish playoffs by Skellefteå AIK. Immediately after the game, he headed for Stockholm to join the Svenska Spel contingent on its trip to the US. I believe last night was Foppa's first time back in the Wells Fargo Center since the day he was traded to Nashville late in the disastrous 2006-07 season.
Apart from Forsberg, there were several other people associated with Modo this season with past Flyers ties. Ulf Samuelsson is their head coach, while Freddy Meyer, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and Joonas Lehtivuori were members of the defense corps.
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