Last night's 3-0 debacle in Newark reminded me a bit of games the Flyers played early in the 2006-07 season. They did some things right early in the game, but a couple breakdowns and a little self-created bad luck put them in a hole.
When Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a penalty shot -- after a shorthanded semi-breakaway -- early in the second period, the Flyers did not respond very well. They basically stopped competing in the game and just acted out of frustration. Martin Brodeur only had to make about three non-routine saves the entire game to earn a shutout.
The first period was by far the Flyers' best of the game. They worked hard on the forecheck and responded well after New Jersey capitalized on an early-game breakdown for a Travis Zajac goal. Even so, I thought the announcing team oversold how well the team was playing and how "unlucky" they were in that stanza.
In reality, Philly had the territorial and shot (9-3) edge but they were largely kept to the perimeter with few second-chance opportunities. The Devils got to the loose pucks first around the net, and cleared them to safety. Defensively, there were a couple of worrisome shifts in which the Flyers turned pucks over but subsequently recovered.
The first Devils goal was a coverage breakdown by Philly. For whatever reason, Sean Couturier has been in the middle of a lot of these in the early going of the season, and he's the main guy who got singled out on this one. Even so, it was a collective breakdown. Braydon Coburn practically bumped into Andrej Meszaros on the same side of the ice, leaving all sorts of time and space for Zajac to collect the puck and deposit it past Ilya Bryzgalov.
New Jersey's second goal, scored in the final 25 seconds of the opening period, was yet another penalty killing failure by the Flyers. Ilya Bryzgalov missed a swipe at the puck near the side of his net. David Clarkson put the puck out in the crease where it went off the skate of Ruslan Fedotenko and into the net. Bad luck? Yes, but it's equally true that teams create their own luck, whether it's good or bad. Good things happen when you get the puck to the net, bad things happen when you are back on your heels.
The game was over at 2:44 of the second period when Kovalchuk elevated a nasty backhand shot under the crossbar on his penalty shot opportunity against Bryzgalov. At that point, it was pretty clear that the Flyers were going to fall to 0-3 on the season because the team was unlikely to generate the sort of response that leads to comebacks.
When things are going poorly for a team, it's a popular pastime to single out this or that individual as a culprit. Right now, though, I would have a hard time saying that more than a couple players are shouldering the load. Where does one even start?
The team's top four defensemen have been collectively awful. The second-year (Couturier, Brayden Schenn, Matt Read) players expected to step up this year have played instead like they've regressed -- despite having played during the lockout. The veterans -- Scott Hartnell in the last two games, Max Talbot, and others aren't setting a good tone. No one outside of Claude Giroux is scoring, and he had an awful game last night.
The penalty killing has been atrocious, although they did end going 6-for-7 against the Devils. The power play had seemed to be making progress but regressed again last night.
Right now, the Flyers look too young (and a bit soft) up front and too slow and reactive on the blueline. I have not liked how any of the Flyers' defensemen except Meszaros (who is coming off Achilles tendon repair surgery after back surgery last March). That's a bad combination.
The "we can overcome anything" attitude that the team had a year ago is missing thus far. The team has been lacking the moxie and swagger that Chris Pronger, Jaromir Jagr and even the injured Danny Briere had previously instilled. Briere's injury and Jagr's departure via free agency means that a combined 947 regular season goals worth of NHL offensive experience are not in the Philadlephia lineup. At least Briere will be back soon.
Way down on the list of issues right now is goaltending. Ilya Bryzgalov has not been a miracle-worker and he hasn't played every shot perfectly. What he has done, however, is to erase many breakdowns that have occurred in all three games to date. He's bought the team some time in games to recover and go to the attack.
Are you going to fault Bryzgalov for getting beaten on a breakaway by Thomas Vanek or a penalty shot by Kovalchuk? Those are two world-class snipers and they're going to score most of the time when they successfully execute the move that Vanek made and the backhanded shot Kovalchuk put upstairs.
I put ninety percent of the blame for opposing goals thus far on breakdowns by the Flyers team defense (defensemen and forwards alike). Besides, you aren't going to win many games when you put one, two, and zero regulation goals on the scoreboard.
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