Lotta very unhappy faces among the Flyers coaching and management staff in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon as the Flyers completed a wipeout weekend with consecutive losses.
Five on five, I don't feel the Flyers have played that badly. I also feel if you look at Ilya Bryzgalov's numbers after two games it's not reflected just how good he has played.
I like the fact he openly admitted he has played well and also admitted he is not happy with the penalty killing.
In a shortened training camp without the benefit of exhibitions or even full contact scrimmages, I would have expected the special teams to struggle out of the game and that has been the case with the Flyers.
On the PK units, they are not attacking, they are passive, and worst of all, the Flyers seem all bunched up down low with far too much space up top. Too much shooting room and too man passing lanes for the opposition to pick 'n chose from.
I think B ill Meltzer makes an excellent point about Sean Couturier getting more work on the power play and less on the PK.
But I also want to point out that Buffalo's damaging PPG on Sunday came at 5 on 3 with the Flyers getting the puck up the right side with 3 men who suddenly decided to try and turn it into an offensive chance.
You had Scott Laughton coming out of the box to make it 5 on 4 and you had a bad Flyer change at the bench. Had they just been content to dump it and change, Buffalo's doesn't get that easy breakaway pass seam up the middle to Thomas Vanek.
I dont know if that is Peter Laviolette teaching them to be aggressive or poor judgment from hiis PK guys but the fault there was trying to turn nothing into something down 2 men.
That tied the game 2-2 and the momentum swung back to Buffalo and stayed there.
Next time, the Flyers need to make safe, secure plays and not high-risk ones.
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