Last night's Flyers game in Ottawa was one of those crazy, seesaw nights: Leads of 1-0 and 3-2, deficits of 2-1 and 4-3. Gritty battles won. Defensive gaffes made. Adversity faced and overcome. On the whole, it was a fairly evenly played game, although I would give a slight edge to the Senators.
On the flip side any time a team scores first and also leads after two periods, coming away with less than two points is a disappointment.
In the end, there was a skills competition (AKA a shootout) with a bonus point on the line. For the Flyers, that almost always means settling for one point instead of two. Last night was no exception.
Matt Read, Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier (whose shot ticked off the crossbar) all failed to beat Craig Anderson in the shootout. Steve Mason denied Clarke MacArthur (who scored two goals during the genuine hockey portion of the game) and Bobby Ryan before Jason Spezza scored.
Mason has now given up four goals in back-to-back games. As was the case in the Flyers' implosion in Dallas, I did not think there was a big dropoff in Mason's play. He got victimized by defensive breakdowns, point blank shots, bouncing pucks and at least one deflection. It's sort of the hockey equivalent of when a baseball pitcher who has to battle through giving up four earned runs on a night where a lot of broken bat hits and bad hops come into play.
Nevertheless, I would not be shocked if, with back-to-back games coming up on Wednesday on Chicago and Thursday at home against Montreal, former Blackhawks netminder Ray Emery gets the starting nod against the defending Stanley Cup champions in the final game of the Flyers' six-game road trip. The Flyers are 2-2-1 thus far.
Michael Raffl scored his first NHL goal last night and also made a nice play on the sequence leading up to the Luke Schenn point shot goal (which seemed to deflect in front) that gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead in the second period. Hopefully, that will be an offensive confidence-building effort for the Austrian rookie. Meanwhile, the Flyers actually got a pair of goals from the defense in this game. Kimmo Timonen tied the game at 4-4 after Ottawa re-tied the game and forged ahead in the third period.
The Sens and Flyers traded off closely spaced power play goals in the middle of the second period. Patrick Wiercioch's tally for Ottawa came off a horrific penalty killing breakdown as the Senators won a series of battles. Rather than an penalty killing box, the Flyers ended up with an "L" (three players vertically lined up on the left side, the fourth in the middle and the right side of the ice completely unguarded).
Jakub Voracek got the goal back a little more than two minutes later. His initial shot from the right circle was blocked but came right back to him as he followed through moving to his left. The second attempt found the back of the net. The goal broke a 12-game goalless drought and seven without a point of any kind.
The Flyers' team defense was rather spotty throughout the game. The Senators were able to generate speed through the neutral zone and the coverages sometimes left a bit to be desired. Philly defenseman Mark Streit had an especially bad game-- he's had a pretty bad road trip in general. The Swiss veteran ended up on the wrong side of the puck several times.
On paper at least, the games in Dallas and Ottawa were the most "winnable" matchups for the Flyers on the trip. However, it should also be said that the Stars and Senators could rightfully say the same thing about the prospect of playing the Flyers. For the Flyers to take away just one of four points from those two games -- right on the heels of the explosive comeback win in Detroit -- is a bit of a disappointment.
The biggest test is yet to come. The best team in the NHL awaits the Flyers on Wednesday night, as the team finishes a road trip that has taken them from Nashville to St. Paul to Detroit to (an unusually icy and frigid) Dallas to Ottawa. It is going to take one hell of a concerted team effort for the Flyers to upset the Blackhawks.
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