FLYERS STILL NOT READY FOR BROADWAY IN 3-1 LOSS
Last night's 3-1 loss at Madison Square Garden was a virtual clone of many other Philadelphia Flyers defeats at the hands of the New York Rangers in recent years. The Flyers generated a decent number of shots (31) in terms of quantity, but there were only a few quality chances. In the meantime, the Rangers won most of the key battles on the walls and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist outplayed his Philadelphia counterpart.
The Rangers put up a picket fence on the Flyers, scoring one goal in each period. That included a first period goal by fourth liner Derek Dorsett and a third period tally by fourth liner Dominic Moore. In the middle frame, star defenseman Ryan McDonagh scored. Philadelphia managed only a late third-period goal by Jakub Voracek to break up Lundqvist's shutout bid.
A few days ago, following the Flyers' win over Western Conference leading St. Louis, I outlined the keys to the
winning process that Philadelphia executed so well in beating the Rangers in early March, followed later by successive wins over Pittsburgh (home and away), Chicago and then the Blues. That process was largely absent in the Flyers' back-to-back losses to Los Angeles and the Rangers.
Specific to yesterday's game, there was an erosion of the Flyers' puck support, decision making and board work from previous games. Whereas, Philly was up on its skates and often able to outnumber the Penguins, Blackhawks and Blues and come away with the puck from scrums, the Flyers lost the battles to the Kings and Rangers that produce extended shifts in the offensive zone and force the other side to expend its energy simply trying to clear the zone or hold for a stoppage.
Last night, the Flyers were doing things characteristic of the club when it loses. They were overskating pucks rather than stopping on them and battling. They were making soft plays from the defensive dots to the offensive blueline. Rather than holding the puck or trying to establish a cycling game, they were making low-percentage passes. Far too often, they let the Rangers push them to the perimeter and settling for low-percentage shot attempts with no traffic in front of the net.
On the few occasions when the Flyers were able to work the puck into prime shooting areas, Lundqvist made the saves. On a first period power play, Wayne Simmonds couldn't jam a puck home from in close. In the second period, Adam Hall had a rebound chance from point blank range that he couldn't finish. Those are plays that have to be finished off in order to beat the Rangers.
Steve Mason (26 saves) was not awful in net for the Flyers. However, unlike the March 1 home win where he was better than Lundqvist, Mason only came up with a pair of potential momentum saves when needed last night. The Moore goal was a fatal blow to the Flyers' hopes last night. The puck was tipped but not really re-directed much (if at all). It just leaked through the Philadelphia goaltender and, in so doing, turned a difficult comeback challenge into an impossible one.
Additionally, Lundqvist was the one who stepped up to make the critical saves at key junctures. Compare Dorsett's goal to Lundqvist's stop on Hall. Both were situations where the goalie had to fend for himself around the net. With a 1-0 lead, the Ranger goalie came up with the tough-to-make save against a grinder from the other side. Mason, although not at fault for the goal, was unable to bail out his team when the Rangers got the coveted opening goal.
As for McDonagh's goal that made it 2-0, the Flyers forwards did a very poor job of containing him from pinching down to a shooting lane in the deep slot. The shot he made was a perfect one under the crossbar. No goalie would have stopped that one.
Mason's best saves of the match came with the Rangers leading 2-0 and the Flyers in desperate need of offense. Mason came up with two or three very tough stops, including one off a careless turnover by Claude Giroux on a low-percent saucer pass attempt inside the Philadelphia blueline.
New York hit a couple posts last night, too. One was never really a dangerous play as Mason had the angle sealed off and the only thing to shoot at was the outside edge of the post along the side of the net. The other one was more of a "good luck" post for Philly.
Scoring first against the Rangers is crucial. New York has the NHL's fifth-best winning percentage (.829, 29-5-1) when they lead first. When the Rangers yield the game's first goal, they are a middle-of-the-pack team (15th overall, .308 winning percentage, 12-24-3). As such, despite the Flyers' vaunted comeback ability, they really hurt themselves by having to play from behind against the Rangers last night.
It is no coincidence that the Flyers scored first in the two home wins against the Rangers this season and trailed first in the two road losses.
When John Tortorella was coaching New York, it was even more crucial to score first because his clubs rarely lost once leading 1-0 and usually struggled to win (although not against the Flyers) if they trailed even 1-0. The Alain Vigneault version of the Rangers are a little more offensive minded, but they have been lights out of late once they get ahead.
The Rangers, who have now won five in a row, deserve full marks for their play last night. They executed their process and got the result. The Flyers wanted to win just as badly, but got outworked. It was as simple -- and frustrating -- as that.
Now three points behind the Rangers in the battle for second place in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers still have two games in hand on the Rangers with the head-to-head season series finished. That's the good news. The bad news is that the Flyers have the tougher remaining schedule, including two more games with the Bruins and a road game against a St. Louis team that has been virtually automatic in their own barn.
The Flyers have no time to feel sorry for themselves. They will look to halt their two-game losing streak when the suddenly reeling Toronto Maple Leafs come to the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night.
If they Flyers execute against Toronto the way they did in the home-and-home sweep of Pittsburgh, they will win. If they are as bad in gap control and looking for shortcuts the way they did for about 30 minutes in their March 8 overtime loss in Toronto, the Flyers will lose.
NOTES AND QUICK HITS
* Kimmo Timonen missed several shifts last nights after hobbling off the ice. As he usually does, he returned to the game.
* The Rangers blocked 21 Flyers shot attempts last night. Many of these were from areas closer to where Philly wanted to be shooting than on the vast majority of the shots that actually got on net. The Rangers conceded Philly the perimeter, took away every over the middle and boxed out the traffic.
* Claude Giroux finished the game without a shot on goal, as he got blocked on two attempts and missed the net on another. In the last two games, he's had six shot attempts blocked and missed the net twice. Credit the LA Kings and Blueshirts for tight checking on the Flyers' most dangerous offensive player. As goes Giroux, so goes Philly.
* Nicklas Grossmann has been wearing a walking boot the last few days. He has been hobbling ever since a painful shot block off his foot in Saturday's game against the Blues. Grossmann took a maintenance day from practice on Tuesday.
* After practice on Tuesday, I asked Jakub Voracek if players have it in their minds before any game at Madison Square Garden to keep things simpler because the ice at MSG is usually bad. He said that he didn't think the ice there was actually all that bad, and he had played on much worse surfaces. Last night, I thought the ice was horrendous. Both teams were in the same boat, of course.
* I was not at MSG last night. I watched the game on television. I had to laugh last night after Pierre McGuire correctly noted that the Rangers were able to execute several early stretch passes against the Flyers last night (a credit to good passing by New York and a sign of some poor gap control by Philly). He then asked Rangers coach Vigneault if it's hard to get his players to "buy in" to doing that.
Huh? Players LOVE making stretch passes and trying to score off the rush. That's like asking a parent if it's hard to convince their kids to eat Halloween candy. The hard part is getting the players to buy in to doing the not-so-fun things that create chances to successfully make such passes.
* The Flyers organization has signed highly skilled but severely undersized University of New Hampshire forward Kevin Goumas to a contract. He will play the rest of the season on an Amateur Tryout Contract with the Phantoms and then a one-year AHL contract (not a two-way) for next season. If he plays well, Goumas is eligible to be signed to an NHL contract next season with the Flyers or another team. In the meantime, he does not count against the Flyers' reserve list.
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