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FLYERBUZZ PODCAST: ENERGY, MOMENTUM AND FLYERS 3rd PERIOD WOES
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The third period is what separates the contenders from the pretenders in the NHL. This is a League of close and often low-scoring games, and the teams with the best third-period goal differentials are inevitably the ones at the top of the standings.
The Flyers have entered the third period of all 11 games this season in position to come away with one or two points from the game if they win the final stanza. They've led four times (2-2-0 in those game), been tied twice (1-1-0) and trailed by a single goal five times (0-5-0) but have been outscored by a combined 14-5 in third periods to date.
The combined 3-3-0 record when leading or tied after two periods is the most troubling part of it. Good teams don't give away points from such games. In fact, the very best teams in the NHL nowadays sometimes go an entire season without losing a single game in regulation when leading after two.
Until or unless the Flyers reverse this, they are pretenders. I can't put it any plainer than that.
In Tuesday night's 3-2 loss against the Anaheim Ducks, the Flyers played arguably their best 20 minutes of hockey in the season. They were up on their skates, forechecking and backchecking with gusto. The passing was crisp. Philly won the majority of the battles, building a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard on the strength of a 15-10 shot advantage, 14-6 hit edge and winning 54 percent of the faceoffs.
Matt Read got Philly off to a flying start at the 3:40 mark, tallying his third goal in as many games. Read had all day to follow up his own rebound near the net, beating Jonas Hiller to make it a 1-0 game. Wayne Simmonds and Nicklas Grossmann received the assists.
Vincent Lecavalier, coming off a hat trick on Saturday, extended the lead to 2-0 with a power play goal at 16:34. Claude Giroux, who has assists in five of the last six games while still looking for his first goal of the season, set up a one-timer opportunity with a cross-ice pass. Simmonds drew his second assist of the period on the play.
The second period was relatively even but there were disturbing signs creeping into the game for Philadelphia. First and foremost, Philly's puck management was abysmal at times. The passing went south. The Ducks started to win more of the puck battles. Perhaps most concerning was the way the Flyers finished the period.
There was a bit of a sagging effect after Anaheim scored to make it a 2-1 game; even though the Flyers still held the lead. On that play, Grossmann (three charged giveaways) turned the puck over at the blueline. A Ryan Geztlaf shot attempt caromed off the end board right out in front to Andrew Cogliano, who beat Steve Mason.
Philadelphia's third period collapse had an air of inevitability to it. Anaheim elevated its game, and Philly didn't respond. The Ducks tied the game just 1:01 into the final stanza, and it was all downhill from there.
Lecavalier lost the puck at the offensive blueline to Kyle Palmieri, who raced off on a breakaway. Palmieri came in with tremendous speed, got Steve Mason (34 saves on 37 shots) to open the five-hole as he moved left, and then slipped the puck through the five-hole to make it a 2-2.
Much like the second period of the Flyers' loss to the Penguins, the Flyers stopped skating and the results were very ugly. The ice was tilted for most of the period, and the Flyers' puck management, support and coverages got progressively worse. They were hanging by a thread, desperate just to try and hang on for a point once Anaheim tied it.
Only Steve Mason's strong goaltending delayed the inevitable. Eventually, the Flyers played with fire one time too many. With 4:09 remaining in regulation, Palmieri put Anaheim ahead to stay.
On this sequence, Lecavalier turned another puck over, this time just over the right side of the defensive blueline. Lecavalier came around the ice looking for a hit, but missing and getting bunched up with Mark Streit. With Streit caught flat-footed at the blueline, the defenseman put the puck directly into Sami Vatanen.
Now the Ducks had an out-numbered attack. Palmieri went toward the net and re-directed Nick Bonino's left slot shot past a helpless Mason, who had no prayer of stopping this one.
The Flyers had a late power play opportunity on a too-many-men on the ice penalty against Anaheim. It went nowhere in a hurry against an Anaheim team that came into the game struggling on the PK and which had already yielded one back in the first period.
Berube pulled Mason for an extra attacker, but there were no additional scoring chances of note. The Flyers ended up getting outshot for the third period by a 16-6 margin and by 37-28 for the game.
Give the Ducks credit for getting better and better as the game moved along but the Flyers response -- or lack thereof -- was unacceptable. Philadelphia fell to 3-8-0 on the season. The Capitals come to town on Friday.
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:
* Apart from the lopsided shots and chances in the latter part of the game, a related stat was the frightening disparity in giveaways: The Flyers had 16 to just six by Anaheim.
* Scott Hartnell led the Flyers with seven shots on goal but not many of them were quality chances. He was also charged with three giveaways in the game, tying Grossmann for the game high.
* Michael Raffl had a pair of tremendous scoring chances in the game while the Flyers were leading but was unable to bury either one; not even coming particularly close to hitting the net. On a positive note, he did get credited with a game-high five hits.
* Lost in the face of the team's utter collapse over the final 25 minutes was an outstanding individual game for Braydon Coburn. This was the "good Cobie" tonight. He used his speed, making quick and effective decisions, playing a little bit physical and even leading a rush or two in his blueline-high 22:41 of ice time over 27 shifts.
* Conversely, I thought that Coburn's partner, Grossmann, had a very uneven game. Apart from the turnovers, he got himself out of position at least twice looking for big hits. On the flip side, he delivered four absolutely crunching hits and three blocked shots (including one that bailed the team out of trouble when outnumbered after a Read turnover).
* A rough game for Kimmo Timonen again after a couple of strong outings. Ditto Luke Schenn.
* Asked to describe the performance of Andrej Meszaros -- back in the lineup after being scratched for the last five games -- Berube said he thought the Slovakian defenseman played well in the first period but dropped off thereafter. He then added that the same could be said about pretty much the whole club.
* The blueline ice time distribution was as follows in descending order: Coburn 22:41, Streit 21:52, Grossmann 21:20, Andrej Meszaros 18:11, Luke Schenn 15:56, Kimmo Timonen 15:17.
* The Ducks had a would-be goal disallowed late in the first period because it was played with a high-stick. Definitely the right call in that situation.
* Another correct call that got made, albeit to the displeasure of Flyers fans: In the second period, Claude Giroux was sent off on a diving unsportsmanlike conduct penalty without referees Wes McCauley and Jean Hebert making it a 4-on-4. By sheer happenstance, HockeyBuzz blogger Paul Stewart touched on that very topic in his blog on Monday. Oddly enough, there's a close personal connection between the Stewart and McCauley families. Wes' late father, NHL referee and director of officiating John McCauley, was Stewart's mentor, closest friend and the namesake of Stewart's first son (named McCauley John Stewart).
* In what was likely his final appearance in Philadelphia, future Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne had to leave the game early in the third period. He got accidentally clipped in the face by Luke Schenn's stick and was bleeding pretty heavily. He did not return.
* In between the first and second periods, Mary Ann Saleski (wife of Broad Street Bullies era Flyer Don Saleski), Johanna Timonen and Nadine Coburn addressed the media about the Flyers Wives Carnival in January.
* The Flyers will take tomorrow off. There will be no practice in Voorhees.
* This game was the first live hockey game attended by my four-year-old son, Benjamin, who sat in the stands with his mom. I had the opportunity to come down from the pressbox to see him after the first and second periods and my little guy was having a blast before sleepiness started to set in and he left for the house. He's already been getting bitten by the hockey bug, and I think this will be the first of many games to come. Actually, he tells his friends in pre-K that his daddy is the "Phillydelphia" Flyers goalie AND the coach!
POSTGAME QUOTEBOOK
STEVE MASON on whether team got worn down in the third period: "“I’m not sure, I thought Anaheim was in our zone for a majority of the period and we just had trouble getting out and we were running around a little bit and when that happens, you’re not going to win hockey games.”
WAYNE SIMMONDS on how to correct the turnovers that end up in the net: " Keep it smart. We’ve got to get it inside our blue [line], we’ve got to get outside their blue [line]. We’ve got to get it in and we start trying to pass across ice and stuff like that. In the first period when we were successful, we were getting it deep and we were on our toes. I felt like we just sat back on our heels halfway through the game."
MATT READ on the team's poor goal differential in third periods:
“Good teams know how to win in the third period and the teams that struggle are the ones who lose games in the third period. I think we’ve got to learn how to win those games and once you learn how to win those games in the third period, you’re going to be a good team, and make the playoffs.”
VINCENT LECAVALIER: "We allowed too many turnovers during the game in general. I think the first half of the game we played very solid. It seemed after that we were a little flat. We had a lot of turnovers that were coming right back into our zone. Obviously they’ve got some good players on that team and they capitalized on that."
CRAIG BERUBE: " It’s tough when you lose the puck and turn it over too much, and you’re not really skating too much and you’re in your own end too much. We didn’t do a very good job with the puck half of the second and third period, and that caused all the problems.”
BERUBE on third-period problems: "I thought maybe we were past that, but we weren’t tonight obviously. I mean we didn’t do much in the third until the power play and we got the goalie out.”
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