|
Meltzer's Musings: Never a Question of Resiliency, Practice Updates |
|
|
|
|
|
No one who watched the Philadelphia Flyers throughout the 2013-14 regular season would question the team's resiliency in the face off adversity. Therefore, it was not surprising that the Flyers found a way to battle from an early 2-0 deficit yesterday at Madison Square Garden and won the game, 4-2, to knot their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers at one game apiece.
Goals by Jakub Voracek, Jason Akeson (power play), Luke Schenn and Wayne Simmonds (power play, empty net) paced the attack for the Flyers, while Ray Emery battled to make 31 saves. Martin St. Louis and Benoit Pouliot (power play) scored early for New York. Henrik Lundqvist made 21 stops in a losing cause.
New York was the better team in the opening period by a large margin, and it was an encouraging sign when Philly was able to get to the first intermission with a manageable 2-1 deficit. It could have been much worse for Philly.
The Flyers trailed 2-0 before the first period was even midway finished.
At the 4:08 mark, with the Flyers' fourth line caught up ice and matched against New York's top line, the Rangers turned a Philadelphia neutral zone turnover into a counterattacking goal. Emery was forced to move laterally and St. Louis buried a shot to give the Blueshirts a quick lead. Derek Stepan and Rick Nash drew the assists.
In Game One of the series, the Flyers put themselves shorthanded six times while generating only one power play of their own. Yesterday, the power play were six to three in New York's favor. Of the six times that the Flyers had to play shorthanded, four were clear-cut penalties, one was marginal and one (the first of the game) was a bad call. New York also twice got penalized for embellishment/diving, which offset additonal would-be power plays.
Three of the Flyers' six shorthanded situations took place in the first period. New York capitalized on the second -- a Sean Couturier roughing penalty -- to open up a 2-0 lead at the 8:22 mark. As with three of the Rangers' other four goals in the series, this one was scored on a play where Emery wasn't able to move fast enough laterally. Goal scorer Benoit Pouliot did not get all of the puck but the change-up speed shot still ended up in the net.
Thereafter, Emery slammed the door on the Rangers for the rest of the afternoon. Later in the game, he made a spectacular save where he had to move laterally; sniffing out the play to get over in his crease and get a piece of a shot by Nash.
The momentum of the game started to swing when Voracek cut the Flyers' deficit in half at 14:14 of the opening stanza. He got behind the defense to receive an accurate outlet pass from Scott Hartnell.
Skating with speed into the offensive zone, Voracek made a strong cut in from the right circle. Lundqvist committed himself a little early and Voracek slid the puck home to finish off the picturesque rush reminiscent of Jaromir Jagr in his prime or the types of goals that a healthy Mikael Renberg used to score during his Legion of Doom heyday. Hartnell and Claude Giroux received the assists.
Philly got the game to the first intermission down by just one goal. They did so despite the costly turnover, penalty box parade, Emery's struggle on the second goal, and the team's poor performance in the faceoff circle (10-for-26 in the first period, 1-for-6 in the offensive zone). Somehow, the Flyers were still very much in the game.
Now they had to actually outplay the Rangers, which had not been the case in any of the first four periods of the series.
The second period of Game Two was the first that the Flyers won on the scoreboard. Philly generated a pair of goals to turn the 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. It wasn't an entirely clean period for Philly, as they got outshot by a 17-9 margin, played shorthanded twice more and needed Emery to erase several mistakes with difficult saves.
The bottom line, of course, was that Philly took the lead. Playing on the second power play unit, Akeson tied the game at 5:45. Vincent Lecavalier, who played a solid offensive game, ripped a shot at the net from high in the zone. The puck pinballed to a wide-open Akeson at point blank range and the rookie made no mistake. Brayden Schenn drew the other assist on the play.
At 11:18 of the second period, the Flyers took advantage of a delayed penalty on New York. With no chance for a New York counterattack, Luke Schenn joined the rush and went to the net to claim an Adam Hall rebound and stash it past Lundqvist to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Michael Raffl earned his first career postseason point on Schenn's first playoff goal.
Philly got away with some loosey-goosey defensive play over the latter part of the second period. Emery turned in outstanding work to keep the Flyers ahead.
In the third period, the Flyers clamped down on the Rangers. Philly put on a textbook display of how to play smothering team defense with a one-goal lead without sacrificing aggressiveness and forechecking. Philly outshot New York in the final stanza by an 8-7 margin.
With time ticking down to the final 80 seconds, New York made a major gaffe as they tried to get Lundqvist to the bench for an extra attacker. There was miscommunication throughout the play and the Rangers ended up with too many men on the ice.
During the ensuing Philadelphia power play, the Rangers finally got Lundqvist to the bench to make it 5-on-5 manpower. Simmonds made what initially appeared to be a big mistake -- skating the puck in front of his own net with two Rangers converging on him -- but used his strength and determination to retain possession of the puck. In the neutral zone, Simmonds once again protected the puck. Finally he sent into the vacated cage from a distance to seal the win.
Moving ahead to Game 3, there are still many areas where the Flyers can improve. Giroux played a good overall game yesterday -- especially on the defensive side of the puck -- but is still looking for his first shot on goal in the series. The breakouts and forechecking were better in Game 2, courtesy of improved skating, but some of the decision-making still needs to get a little better. Lastly, the Flyers still have a lot of room for improvement in the faceoff circle, which would aid greatly in achieving more puck possession time.
It remains to be seen if Steve Mason will be ready to play in Game 3 and whether he will start as the series shifts to Philadelphia. I will add a post-practice update to today's blog. The Flyers practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, at 11:30 a.m. today.
With the Adirondack Phantoms' season now completed and the Flyers' farm team missing the Calder Cup playoffs, the NHL team may name its Black Aces today. Shayne Gostisbehere, who is not eligible for NHL postseason play, will practice with the Black Aces. I will post the full list of extra players when it becomes available.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»