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Meltzer's Musings: Comeback Well Ran Dry

December 22, 2013, 7:50 AM ET [310 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Flyers Comeback Well Ran Dry

In each of the last four games, the Philadelphia Flyers have yielded the first goal of the game only to come back to tie or lead at some point. In both ends of their home-and-home set with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Philly trailed by multiple goals but caught up to their opponent.

In the third period last night, the comeback well ran dry on the Flyers. After falling behind 2-0 and coming back to tie the game in the second period, Philly found itself chasing the game again in the final stanza.

This time, they couldn't catch up. Columbus prevailed, 6-3.

The pivotal sequence of the game happened in the third period with the Blue Jackets leading by a 3-2 count. At the offensive end of the ice, Vincent Lecavalier was denied by Curtis McIlhinney (33 saves on 36 shots) with a glove save from point blank range. Moments later, Columbus rookie Boone Jenner re-directed a Nikita Nikitin point shot to push Columbus back ahead by two goals at the 5:39 mark.

Ray Emery (23 saves on 28 shots) had another one of those games -- he's had several this season -- where he finished with an ugly stat line but really had little chance to make saves on most everything that ended up in the net.

The first Columbus goal was scored from the low slot. Each of the next three Columbus goals came on point shots with traffic in front; two were deflected in front and the third found its way through a three-man screen in front, with one of the screening players being a Philadelphia defenseman. Columbus got a fifth goal on Emery on a two-on-one rush. The Jackets tacked on an empty-net goal late in regulation.

Ryan Johansen and former Flyers forward R.J. Umberger scored two goals apiece for Columbus, who also got tallies from David Savard and Boone Jooner. Wayne Simmonds notched his first two-goal game of the season for Philly. Sean Couturier tied the game at 2-2 in the second period.

Quite frankly, the Flyers are lucky to have posted even a 4-4-2 record thus far in December. The team's collective defensive play, which had been greatly improved over the course of weeks two through eight of the the regular season, has nosedived this month. The team has allowed four of more regulation goals in seven of the 10 games played in December; and that is simply not conducive to putting winning streaks together.

The Philadelphia goaltending was outstanding through Thanksgiving but hasn't been spectacular in the last few weeks. However, I pin most of the blame for the skyrocketing GAA on multi-player defensive breakdowns and failure to respond properly after yielding a goal. There have been far too many crooked number GA periods this month.

In the specific case of last night's game, all three of the Columbus point shots that ended up in the net should have better covered -- or blocked -- up high in the zone by Philadelphia forwards. At the same time, the defensemen down low in the zone were totally ineffectual at clearing the porch.

That's what I mean by collective breakdowns: The goalie gets the heat for games like these, because all most people is the stat line, but there are many different culprits that contribute to the ugly numbers.

The Flyers' packed late November to early December schedule with lots of travel (seven of 10 on the road) has limited the practice time available to work on correcting some repeated mistakes. There has been a bit of a fatigue factor as well. Is any of that a legitimate excuse? No, it's not.

Every team goes through the same thing. The difference between the consistent winning teams and the .500 ones like the Flyers is that the former find ways to avoid having breakdowns snowball.

Apart from loose defense, power play failure was another major factor in last night's loss. Philly had all sorts of man advantage opportunities in Columbus and came away 0-for-5, with only a couple of high-end scoring chances (most notably, one for Matt Read). The Flyers went 0-for-9 on the power play in the two games against the Blue Jackets.

The Flyers got away with their 0-for-4 in the first game -- plus a shorthanded goal against -- and still managed a five-goal outburst to pull the game out in the third period. That doesn't work too often, however.

The Jackets went 1-for-4 on the power play last night, after going 0-for-2 in the first game in Philadelphia. Umberger's power play deflection forged a 2-0 lead at the 34:29 mark of regulation.

The first Columbus goal came off the line rush. The sequence featured a defensive zone breakdown by the Flyers that looked more like something out of a Keystone Kops movie than an NHL game.

Somehow, on the same sequence, defensemen Braydon Coburn and Hal Gill ended up on the same side of the ice. Forward Zac Rinaldo then delivered a hit to Marian Gaborik (who, in his first game back in the lineup, suffered a fractured clavicle on the play) but then bumped into Gill after sandwiching Gaborik between himself and Coburn. All four players -- the three Flyers plus Gaborik, were now effectively taken out of the play.

Meanwhile, Nick Foligno got the puck behind the net as the most dangerous player on the ice -- Columbus forward Ryan Johansen -- was left open on the opposite slot. The only Flyer in position to defend, forward Michael Raffl, was mesmerized by the puck behind the net, and basically went ice fishing with stick as Foligno passed to Johansen at point blank range.
Johansen made no mistake.



Shortly after Umberger made it 2-0 in the second period on his close-range deflection of a James Wisniewski point shot, the Flyers needed a mere 20 seconds to shave the deficit in half and then tie the game.

The fact that the Flyers once again pulled off a multi-goal comeback to even go into the third period tied is the one positive takeaway from this game. When the Flyers blew their own three-goal lead against Washington, I called them out in this blog space for shrinking in the face of adversity. In the three games since then, lack of comeback fight certainly has not been a problem.

First, just seconds after Brandon Dubinsky hit the crossbar on a rush into the Philly end of the ice, the Flyers countered and Simmonds scored from the deep slot through a Scott Hartnell screen at the other end. Claude Giroux earned an assist on the play to extend his point streak to six games (four goals, 11 points), matching a career high. Time of the goal was 17:40.

Twenty seconds later, Lecavalier made a quick pass from the left wing to Matt Read. McIlhinney stopped the initial shot but Sean Couturier immediately pounced on the rebound and stashed it home for his seventh goal of the season.

The tie didn't last long into the third period. Savard's point shot through heavy traffic made it a 3-2 game for Columbus at 3:36. Two minutes later, shortly after the near-miss Lecavalier chance, Jenner tipped home Nikitin's shot.

Down by two goals, the Flyers started to take a lot of gambles. The result was giving up odd man rushes. Ultimately, that led to Columbus putting the game away.

At the 12:22 mark, Johansen -- who had a nine-game point streak snapped in Thursday's game in Philadelphia -- elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 rush against Braydon Coburn. As Coburn slid, Johansen elevated a beautiful shot under the crossbar for his second score of the game.

With Emery pulled for an extra attacker, the Flyers got back within two goals with 1:41 left in the game. Jakub Voracek put a puck toward the net where an open Simmonds, coming out from behind the net, received the disc and slid it home on the backhand.

Ultimately, the only significance of this goal was that it meant Simmonds has three goals in the last three games after going goalless in his previous 10. It also meant that Voracek was able to extend his point streak to a career-best seven games (six goals, five assists).

Umberger restored the three-goal lead with an empty net goal at 18:43. Coburn made a rather feeble effort to retrieve a zone clear by Columbus, and was rather easily spun around and beaten by Umberger.

Lecavalier returned to the lineup two weeks ahead of his projected timetable to rehabilitate through a non-displaced fracture in his lower back. He started the game on Couturier's wing but ended up taking eight faceoffs and winning seven. Steve Downie was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. His reported timetable is seven to 10 days.

Additionally, Nicklas Grossmann missed last night's game with the flu. He's day-to-day. In Grossmann's absence, Hal Gill made just his fourth appearance of the season.

With the loss, the Flyers slipped one point behind the New Jersey Devils in the Metropolitan Division standings. On Monday, the Flyers will play host to the Minnesota Wild. It will be the Flyers final game before the Christmas break.

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