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Flyers Remain Bedeviled in 6-2 Loss to NJ, Flyers Alumni, Quick Hits

March 17, 2017, 7:08 AM ET [252 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
WRAPUP: FLYERS REMAIN BEDEVILED IN 6-2 LOSS TO NJ

It was not hard to figure out what happened to the Philadelphia Flyers in Newark on Thursday night. Held to just 19 shots on goal for the game, the Flyers fell 6-2 to the New Jersey Devils. It was a disappointing and unacceptable performance, but a distressingly predictable one.

The Devils, regardless of how they are faring against the rest of the league in any given season or portion of a season, habitually give the Flyers fits. Philly tends to play sloppy, impatient, low-energy hockey against the Devils, and often pays the price.

Add in the fact that the Devils, winless in their previous 10 games and losers of six in a row in regulation, had been off since Saturday. On the second half of a back-to-back, the Flyers were playing for the third time in four nights and fourth time in six nights. By its very nature, the contest had "gut check game" written all over it for the Flyers regardless of the opponent's record.

Philadelphia needed to dig deep to come up with a disciplined, efficient and team-oriented effort. Key individual players needed to step up to light a spark and the others needed to follow suit. It didn't happen. The Flyers got outplayed and fully deserved to lose despite scoring the game's first goal for a short-lived 1-0 lead.

For the second time in a week, Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol's handling of the goaltending rotation left him open to second-guessing before the opening faceoff was even dropped. A week ago, his stated rationale for starting an ice-cold Michal Neuvirth over a hot Steve Mason for a critical road game in Toronto was that the team was beginning a jam-packed stretch of games and both goaltenders would need work.

After Neuvirth turned in a so-so performance in Toronto, Hakstol then proceeded to start Mason four times in six nights. Despite Mason having notched a 23-save shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, Hakstol's own stated rationale for giving Neuvirth the Leafs game (as well as previous experience of questionable workload handling) suggested that Neuvirth should get the game on Thursday.

The time to "ride the hot hand" was one week earlier, not with the team having lost in Toronto and then subsequently losing first a regulation heartbreaker in Boston and at home in regulation to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The losses were NOT owed to shoddy goaltending play. Nevertheless, the one win against Pittsburgh -- themselves a weary-legged team on Wednesday -- did not suddenly vault the Flyers back into the chase for the playoffs. There was really no reason not to give impending unrestricted free agent Mason a night off and give the goaltender whom the organization chose to sign to a two-year contract extension a chance to start in Newark.

Mason played OK on Thursday; not great, but not horribly either in stopping 19 of 23 shots before leaving the game early in the third period due to cramping issues. He had little to no chance on two of the four goals he yielded. The final one was a Taylor Hall breakaway goal in which Hall pulled off the "Peter Forsberg postage stamp" move made famous in the 1994 Olympics after which a cramping Mason laid on the ice and then exited the game.

The first New Jersey goal was the most stoppable of the four. A split second after Travis Zajac won an offensive zone faceoff, Kyle Palmieri used Radko Gudas as a partial screen and snapped a wrist shot from the circle past Mason to the long side. The goal at 18:11 of the first period tied the game at 1-1 just 1:11 after the Flyers had scored the game's opening goal.

The Flyers' biggest highlight came at 17:00 of first period. On an odd-man opportunity, Claude Giroux deftly stickhandled to his left across the offensive zone and triggered a nifty triangular passing sequence over to Jakub Voracek and then to trailer Michael Del Zotto. The Flyers' defenseman snapped his fifth goal of the season home past New Jersey goalie Keith Kinkaid (17 saves).

Palmieri's 23rd goal of the season followed shortly thereafter, and the Flyers sagged. Outshot by a 10-6 margin in the first period, Philly was outshot 19-13 (12-9, 7-4) over the final 40 minutes. It wasn't like this was a game where the Flyers had a lot of momentarily open looks get shut down and blocked. The Devils blocked just six shots for the game. Instead, the process by which shot attempts get generated -- gaining puck possession through the neutral zone or getting pucks in deep and forechecking it back into possession -- wasn't there. Even perimeter shots and one-and-done chances grew increasingly sparse.

Adam Henrique gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead at 5:50 of the second period. Ivan Provorov misplayed a puck along the boards in deep, which was claimed by Beau Bennett. Tallying his 17th goal of the season, Henrique skated untouched into the medium right slot, accepted a centering feed and ripped the puck home from point blank range with Joseph Blandisi parked right in front of Mason. This goal was not on Mason or any goaltender. This one was a product of all-around shoddy own-zone play by the entire group of Flyers on the ice, which also included Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn, Dale Weise and Andrew MacDonald as well as Provorov.

The New Jersey lead grew to 3-1 on a Blandisi power play goal at 9:50. Once again setting up shop on Mason's doorstep, Blandisi deflected home a Damon Severson point shot for his second goal of the NHL season.

Philly soon pulled back to within a goal. At the 11:13 mark of the second period, the Flyers capped off an extended puck possession sequence -- one of their few over the final 30 minutes -- as Schenn was left all alone in front to shovel home a Radko Gudas setup after Del Zotto pinched down in the zone to collect the puck and feed it out to Gudas at the point. Schenn's score was his 21st goal of the season.

Entering the third period, the Flyers needed to win the final stanza to come away with at least one point and have a chance at a second. Instead, they quickly fell apart and gave almost no pushback thereafter.

On a shift that earlier saw Hall break a stick and go to the bench to get a new one, Hall re-entered the play in the neutral zone and worked the puck past Shayne Gostisbehere as Travis Zajac chipped the puck up ice. Going in alone on Mason, Hall moved left and pulled off the "Forsberg move" as he pulled the puck to his right and, with one hand, found room under Mason's stick at 1:13.

Mason, who had trouble getting up after the goal, exited the game. Neuvirth came in. He was hung out to try on a lengthy New Jersey possession sequence that ended with a Henrique rebound follow up for his second tally of the game and 18th of the season at 4:08. Neuvirth stopped four shots of the five he saw.

Down 5-2, Hakstol pulled Neuvirth for an extra attacker very early. The Flyers, who struggle to do anything other than yield empty net goals when playing 6-on-5 for short spells at the tail end of the third period, could not be counted on to create any suspense about what would follow. The Flyers soon lost the puck in the offensive zone and yielded a long-distance ENG to Hall for his second goal of the game.

The Devils, who entered the game having scored a measly 153 goals (second-worst in the NHL) on the season, are not just 3-0 in the season series against the Flyers. They have also outscored Philly by a whopping 14-3 margin (4-0, 4-1, 6-2).

The Flyers fell to an atrocious 12-19-4 on the road this season. The team, which is 20-11-4 on home ice, hosts the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night.

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FLYERS ALUMNI REMATCH VS. PENGUINS ALUMNI

On Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Santander Arena in Reading, PA, the Flyers Alumni Team will play a rematch with the Penguins Alumni. The Golden Anniversary Game on Jan. 14 sold out the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers Alumni's lineup for the Reading game is as follows:

John LeClair - Eric Lindros - Paul Holmgren
Brian Propp - Danny Briere - Todd Fedoruk
Bob Kelly - Dan Carcillo - Dave Brown

Joe Watson - Jim Watson
Terry Carkner - Doug Crossman
Brad Marsh - Larry Goodenough

Ray Emery / Brian Boucher

The guest coaches for the Flyers' side are Bernie Parent, Dave Schultz and Bill Clement. Lou Nolan will serve as the public address announcer. Lauren Hart will sing the anthem. The Flyers trainers/ equipment managers will be Dave "Sudsy" Settlemyre, Jim "Turk" Evers and Dave Culp.

Confirmed Penguins Alumni participants:Dennis Owchar, Christian Hanson, Tyler Kennedy, Matt Cooke, Ryan Malone, Phil Bourque, Jean-Sebastien Aubin, Troy Loney, Greg Malone, and Mitch Lamoureux.

Funds raised from the game will jointly benefit the Flyers Alumni Association and Reading Royals Charities. The Flyers Alumni will use the funds toward making good on a $2 million pledge to support the construction of the Edward M. Snider / Flyers Alumni Ice Hockey Rink overseen by the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation.

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QUICK HITS

1) Don't expect any substantive news on the NHL destination of Union College captain Mike Vecchione in the next few days. Union is still alive in the chase for the 2017 Frozen Four, playing Cornell in Friday's ECAC Hockey Semifinal game in Lake Placid, NY. The victor will take on the winner of the Harvard vs. Quinnipiac game. Flyers goaltending prospect Merrick Madsen, a junior, plays for Harvard.

The fact that Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, a Union alum, plans to speak to ex-teammate Vecchione before he makes his decision on the multiple NHL offers that await him is really no indicator about the 24-year-old Vecchione's leanings. Likewise, the fact that he attended the Flyers' Development Camp last summer is by no means a guarantee of signing with Philadelphia.

The 5-foot-10, 194-pound senior racked up 29 goals and 62 points in 36 games this season; by far the best output of his collegiate career and the top points-per-game average of any NCAA player this season. He also played a strong two-way game for Rick Bennett's team.

Veccchione is a worthy Hobey Baker Award candidate this year and has shown a knack for scoring crucial goals; none bigger than the overtime penalty shot goal he scored against Princeton to send Union to Lake Placid. It's been a magical season all around.

The Flyers are also reportedly among the NHL teams with interest in Union junior forward Spencer Foo. However, it is not known if the 23-year-old Foo (24 goals, 59 points) will opt to turn pro this year or wait until he completes his senior year in 2017-18. His 18-year-old brother, Parker Foo, will be an incoming freshman at Union next season.

As with all collegiate free agents and overage junior players, keep expectations realistic when looking at the NHL upsides of Vecchione and Foo. Last year, the amount of hype for Drake Caggiula -- and the local assumption that him having playing for Dave Hakstol in his first three seasons at the University of North Dakota made the Flyers the odds-on favorite to sign the player -- got out of hand. Not as out of hand as the round-the-clock watch on NHL teams tripping over themselves to court Jimmy Vesey (who has gone on to chip in 24 points in 69 games as a rookie for the New York Rangers this season), but out of proportion given that Caggiula always projected as a role player.

Both Vecchione and Foo are good young players who could have a chance to help a team at the pro level. Neither is an NHL franchise player or some miracle worker who will radically alter an organization's outlook simply by his presence. If the Flyers are able to sign one, it would be a nice addition to the pool of forward hopefuls.

2) Philly.com's John Smallwood wrote an article yesterday on Mike Keenan's hiring as the head coach of Beijing-based KHL team KunLun Red Star and the lure of helping China develop a roster for when it hosts the 2022 Olympics.

Smallwood's article was based on a premise of comparing Keenan's many coaching travels to those of former Philadelphia 76ers head coach Larry Brown. I cannot speak to that comparison but I will say that Smallwood provided a nice brief overview of Keenan's previous KHL stint with Metallurg Magnitogorsk (whom he coached to the Gagarin Cup) and how the league has expanded into China as well as incorporating famed Finnish team Jokerit Helsinki and absorbing longtime top Slovakian team Slovan Bratislava into the league.

Keenan was lured to KunLun Red Star by Scott MacPherson, who also brought in longtime NHL star Bobby Carpenter to serve as the Chinese team's head of scouting operations. Scotty was the one primarily responsible for putting together the Flyers Alumni team's recent three-city tour of Russia and is trying to organize a Flyers Alumni trip to China next. Carpenter played for the Flyers Alumni Team as a special guest player throughout the Russia tour and then, after a quick trip back home to Massachusetts, was off to China to begin his new job.

3) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms play a key home game against the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins at the PPL Center on Friday night. A regulation win would bring the Phantoms to within two points of the Pens for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
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