If the Flyers were not a team that is competing for the top spot in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference, last night's 4-2 loss at Madison Square Garden would have one where it would be easier to be philosophical in the aftermath.
The effort was certainly there and the execution wasn't even all that bad but the winning side simply did a little better job at making its own breaks by getting traffic in front and creating deflection opportunities. The biggest area where the Flyers could be faulted last night was their inability to take advantage of a depleted Rangers defense corps and get more traffic on Henrik Lundqvist until the game was 3-0 in the third period.
I thought the Flyers got off to exactly the start they wanted last night, establishing a forecheck from the outset and holding the Rangers without a single shot for nearly half the first period. Unfortunately, they couldn't beat Lundqvist.
Thereafter it became a fairly evenly played game until the Rangers finally broke through in the middle stages of the game. A 1-0 deficit would have been manageable but once it became 2-0, it was pretty clear that the Flyers' chances of winning had just about disappeared. Philly wasn't about to score three goals against a New York team that had shut them out in the previous two games at Madison Square Garden, including in a game played last month.
The most galling New York goals were the third (scored early in the third period to put the final nail in the coffin) and the fourth (a power play goal that restored the three-goal lead and the lone New York tally in which Ilya Bryzgalov had a share of the blame by allowing a big fat rebound).
To their credit, the Flyers battled right to the end of the game, searching in vain for a miracle comeback. They skated off with a scoreless deadlock after the first period and the two goals for each side in the third period offset one another. It was the second period in which the Rangers did sufficiently more than the Flyers to win the hockey game.
Give New York full marks for coming in well prepared and paying the price to win. The season still has a long way to go, and the clubs play each other head-to-head four more times. Philly just needs to be the one that makes its own breaks first, starting with the Winter Classic game a week from Monday.
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I've got to get this off my chest: I am unhappy about the way Bryzgalov seemingly threw his teammates under the bus after last night's game. That's the second time he's done it this season.
In speaking to the beat writers after the game, he
said of the deflection goals that have plagued him, “I don’t know what to do, guys. Maybe we should play tighter defense and box out the guys."
That had to feel like a kick in the gut to the rest of the team, especially the defensemen. The club had played hard in front of him and, as noted earlier, at one juncture held the Rangers without a shot for half a period. Sooner or later, a good team like the Rangers is going to generate some chances. Then it's up to the goalie to make a few tough stops.
I have yet to hear any of Bryzgalov's teammates say after a loss, "I don't know what to do, guys. Maybe Bryz can make the occasional momentum save. Maybe he can track the puck a little better, keep his stick on the ice a little more and close the five hole faster. Maybe he can be a little more than the world's most expensive shooter tutor when we're on the PK. But what do I know? I'm not a goalie, and I probably shouldn't tell him how to do his job."
In between contemplating the vastness of the universe for the HBO cameras, perhaps Bryzalov may want to take a moment to compare the number of times the players in front of him have helped him out in the first half of the season against the number of occasions where he's held the team in a game that otherwise would have gotten out of hand (and last night was not one of those games).
On Christmas Eve day, Ilya Bryzgalov has an overall sub 90 percent save percentage (.895, 58th among NHL goalies) and his .818 penalty killing save percentage ranks 64th among the 71 goalies who have faced an opposition power play this season.
Of course, not all the blame for the pedestrian stats go to Bryzgalov -- that's not the point. I think he's played better than his raw numbers would suggest. He's played OK on the whole. Not horrible, certainly not great either. Frankly, I think Sergei Bobrovsky has come up with tougher saves than Bryzgalov when there have been breakdowns.
My main point here is that the Flyers had won last night, they'd have had the best record in the NHL. Even after last night's setback, they are right in the thick of the race. Bryzgalov's teammates deserve a little better than having him point fingers when things didn't go their way, because it'd be pretty easy to turn the tables.
I'm sure Bryzgalov meant no harm, and would be surprised if anyone would take offense. Words spoken in frustration sound harsher in print than they may have been intended. But Bryzgalov is someone who is often prone to speaking first and thinking later.
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