A TALE OF TWO FLYERS TEAMS
Last night at the Wells Fargo Center, the Philadelphia Flyers showed the schizophrenic characteristics that have made the 2013-14 edition of the team such an enigmatic group. The Flyers' 7-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks had a lot of disturbingly familiar elements.
It was a tale of two markedly different periods for Philly.
The first period saw the Flyers more or less stick to the approach that propelled the team to a four-game winning streak and victories in five of their last six games heading into the Olympic break. Philly outshot San Jose by a 10-5 margin and skated off to intermission with a 2-1 lead.
This was the way the Flyers played when they downed the Sharks in San Jose earlier this month before the break. Even when the Flyers were trailing in that game before a third-period explosion, they played well. They were up on their skates. They won battles for the pucks. Everyone showed commitment. When a mistake happened that ended up in the Philadelphia net, the Flyers did not let it rattle them.
Last night's first period wasn't quite as clean and crisp as the Flyers' win in San Jose. Nevertheless, it was still a very promising opening 20 minutes coming out of the long schedule break.
The second period was the Flyers at their absolute worst. The Sharks ratcheted up their own game and imposed their will on Philly because the Flyers stopped skating and stopped competing once San Jose tied the game at 2-2 and then took the lead. Everything went south with staggering totality. Philly got outscored, 5-0, and both outshot (16-8) and outchanced by a huge margin.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the second period was the way the Flyers simply let the Sharks play through below the dots and inside the circles. There was no price to be paid for San Jose players to get into scoring areas. It rapidly became a lather, rinse and repeat cycle that inevitably ended with the next faceoff being at center ice.
By the time the second period carnage was over, the third period -- in which the Flyers outshot the Sharks 12-8 and each team scored once -- was completely irrelevant. It was garbage time, no more and no less.
How badly did things go awry last night after the promising start?
The Flyers yielded a hat trick to Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture (two goals) also would have had a hat trick if not for a disallowed goal. Meanwhile, Raffi Torres had a two-goal game coming off of knee surgery.
Philadelphia went 0-for-5 on the power play (not unexpected after a long layoff) and yielded their 10th opposition shorthanded goal of the season. San Jose went 1-for-5, with Pavelski's early second period power play goal being the jump-off point for the Sharks' feeding frenzy that followed.
Goaltending was not the Flyers' main problem last night, but they also weren't getting any key saves from Steve Mason (12 saves on 16 shots) before he was pulled following the Sharks' fourth goal. In fairness to Mason, all but the last goal (scored by Couture off a preventable rebound) were tough to nearly impossible to stop. However, Mason had been at the top of his game heading into the break, and that was not the case last night.
Ray Emery met a similar fate in relief of Mason, as he stopped 10 of 13 shots. Emery later had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury, and Mason returned to the net to finish out the game.
It was a lousy way to start the stretch drive. The first period even strength goals scored 22 seconds apart by Andrej Meszaros and Brayden Schenn midway through the frame were a distant memory by the time the final horn sounded. Matt Read's late third-period goal simply sealed the football-like 7-3 score.
The Flyers return to the ice on Saturday afternoon for a 1 p.m. matinee with the New York Rangers.
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A LOOK AT FLYERS' BLOWOUT LOSSES THIS SEASON
As mentioned atop today's blog, last night's 7-3 shellacking by San Jose followed a familiar pattern of the Flyers' previous blowout losses this season. Most of them started out well enough and then fell apart in the second period. Here's a look at three-plus goal losses from November onward.
Nov. 1 vs. WSH (7-0): The blowout game most remembered for Ray Emery's uncontested beatdown of Braden Holtby and fight-related injuries to Steve Downie (hospitalized with a concussion) and Vincent Lecavalier (face) actually started out well for the Flyers. They held the Caps without a shot for most of the first period.
When Nicklas Bäckström opened the scoring at the 17:28 mark, it was just the Caps' second shot of the game. The Flyers sagged and stopped competing. Carnage ensued, including a 5-0 second period.
Dec. 7 @ DAL (5-1): The Flyers spent nine of the first 20 minutes of the game on the penalty kill, including seven consecutive minutes courtesy of Zac Rinaldo jumping Antoine Roussel and drawing a series of penalties specified by the Aggressor Rule. A late first period goal by Andrej Meszaros sent Philly to the locker room with a 1-0 lead. Everything seemed to be well set up for Philly.
The walls caved in during the second period. as the Stars exploded for four goals. The Flyers had no answers for the Stars' deadly top line of Tyler Seguin (natural hat trick, assist), rookie Valeri Nichushkin (goal, three assists) and team captain Jamie Benn.
The third period of this afternoon tilt was rendered meaningless. Ray Emery came in for the third period in the first Flyers game in which Steve Mason yielded more than three goals. Further insult was added to injury when Cody Eakin potted a shorthanded goal in the latter stages of the third period.
Dec. 11 @ CHI (7-2): This was the game that most resembled last night's blowout. Matched against a Western Conference powerhouse, in this case the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks, the Flyers played a strong first period. Philly skated to the intermission with a 1-0 lead on a Jakub Voracek power play goal and a 10-6 advantage in shots.
The second period was the Flyers' undoing, as the Blackhawks exploded for five goals. Not even a Steve Downie power play goal than canceled out a Michal Handzus shorthander and briefly brought the Flyers back within a goal (3-2) helped the Flyers to gain any equilbrium. Time and time again, Emery (12 saves on 18 shots) was hung out to dry as his former Chicago teammates attacked his net at will.
The Hawks tacked on two more goals in the garbage-time third period. Mason came in late to relieve Emery, yielding the game's final goal to ex-Flyer Patrick Sharp.
Dec. 21 @ CBJ (6-3): In this game, the Flyers trailed 2-0 before rallying for late second period goals by Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier spaced 20 seconds apart to tie the game. One would think that would have given the Flyers a big boost heading into the third period. After all, the Flyers had just staged an improbable third period comeback win against the Blue Jackets in the front end of a home-and-home set two nights earlier.
Instead, the Blue Jackets came at the Flyers' with ferocity in the third period and Philly folded their tents. Columbus racked up four unanswered goals.
Jan. 11 vs. TB (6-3): This game was a bit different than the other ones on the list, in that the second period was a high-scoring one on both sides, with Tampa outscoring Philly by a 4-3 margin. The way in which it was all-too-similar to the others on the list was that the Flyers completely abandoned any semblance of team defense after a first period in which the Flyers outshot the Bolts by a 15-7 margin but went to intermission with a 1-0 deficit. Tampa scored the final three goals of the game.
Jan. 23 @ CBJ (5-2): This match was eerily similar to the previous meeting in Columbus. The Flyers trailed early but then came back briefly. This time, Philly scored two goals early in the second period to grab a 2-1 lead on goals by Brayden Schenn and Lecavalier. Thereafter, Columbus elevated its game and Philly did not even come close to matching their speed and work ethic. The Blue Jackets scored four unanswered goals -- two apiece in the latter half of the second period and over the third period -- while generating 23 of their 39 shots over the final 29 minutes of the game.
Jan 25 vs BOS (6-1): The Flyers got moderately outplayed in the first period but were on the brink of escaping the opening period with a manageable 1-0 deficit. However, Jarome Iginla scored on a stoppable shot in the final 18 seconds of the stanza. Whatever air there was in the Philadelphia balloon went out and the club meekly went on to give up multiple goals in all three periods en route to a 6-1 shellacking. When there was a faint glimmer of hope raised by a Claude Giroux power play goal in the third period, Nicklas Grossmann took a high-sticking double minor and the Bruins scored on both halves of the power play.
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CASINO ROYALE FUNDRAISER WITH FLYERS ALUMNI
On Sun. March 9, starting at 5 p.m., Abrams Hebrew Academy will hold its annual Fund Raising Dinner and Casino Royale Night at Congregation Beth El in Yardley, PA. Special guests for the night will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Bill Clement, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
Apart from the dinner and casino event, there will also be a host of items available via auction, including a signed stick by all three members of the Flyers' legendary LCB line (Reggie Leach and Hall of Famers Bob Clarke and Bill Barber), boxes of Bernie Parent's signature cigar line, a handsome Clarke lithograph and many more goodies.
All proceeds go to benefit the school. My nephew, Sammy Sherman, attends Abrams and my sister, Liza, helped to organize the event and line up the Flyers alumni guests. The slogan for the event is "Help Abrams Make Its Goal."
For more information,
click here.
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