WRAPUP: FLYERS SALVAGE POINT IN 2-1 OT LOSS IN COLUMBUS
Heading into the Philadelphia Flyers' back-to-back weekend games against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets, the Flyers would gladly have taken three of four possible points. They got it, but the outcome of Sunday's 2-1 overtime loss in Columbus was nevertheless a bit aggravating from a Philadelphia perspective. They didn't get the breaks on this night.
A pair of goals -- one of the Flyers' own and a second by Columbus -- were challenged by the respective coaches. Both involved variations of incidental contact. Both calls went against the Flyers.
On the first, a would-be goal by Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald early in the first period, Flyers forward Michael Raffl jostled with defender Ryan Murray. As Raffl vacated the blue paint, Murray lightly brushed into his own goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky. The puck was still nowhere in the vicinity of the net, as play continued. Bobrovsky moved to his right as the MacDonald shot, which may have deflected, went into the net off the post.
Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella issued what appeared to be a low-percentage challenge of the good-goal ruling on the ice. Stunningly, the goal was overturned by the same on-ice officials . The highly debatable final decision was that Raffl had forced Murray into Bobrovsky and the goalie was impeded from having a reasonable opportunity to make a save.
In the second period, following a pair of miscues by Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, a Denis Savard shot deflected off Gudas and into the net. A moment earlier, Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson initiated skate-to-skate contact with Mason as he moved through the crease. Mason was no more -- or less -- impeded that Bobrovsky was, and once again the initial call on the ice was a good goal.
Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol issued a challenge for goaltender interference. Light skate-to-skate incidental contact overturns goals on about a 50-50 basis around the NHL -- it is that inconsistently interpreted -- but the Flyers had a case for overturn based pretty much on the same level of impediment that caused a reversal on the previous play much less the fact it was from an attacking player who, of his own volition, was in the blue paint and initiated the contact.
Upon review on the glorified iPad tablet they're provided by the scorer's table, the officials ruled that Mason's ability to make a save had not been affected. While this judgment call would not have been especially controversial had the first goal been upheld, it stood out like a sore thumb when the Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead into the final 20 seconds of regulation.
The Flyers had some chances to tie the game. Most notably, Brayden Schenn shanked a point blank tap-in opportunity wide of the post and later missed the net again on an open opportunity in the slot with a lot of net at which to shoot.
The Blue Jackets had some chances for an insurance goal. Most notably, Steve Mason denied a Boone Jenner breakaway and erased a nearly disastrous breakdown by the Flyers in the waning seconds of the middle stanza. Later, the Flyers killed off a too many men on the ice penalty in the third period against what is by far the NHL's top-ranked power play.
Finally, with Mason pulled for an extra attacker, Schenn stashed home a loose puck after Ivan Provorov put a shot at the net at 19:47 of the third period. Philadelphia had one point in the bank and went for a second one in overtime.
However, a Voracek turnover as he forced a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone created a 3-on-2 counterattack for Columbus that was led by defenseman Seth Jones. With all sorts of time and space to measure a shot after taking a pass from Jones, Nick Foligno moved to his right across the slot and sniped a well-placed shot over Mason's glove hand to win the game for the Blue Jackets. It was not an impossible save from that spot and trajectory but by no means was it an easy one.
The real fault lay in an overstayed shift, the bad turnover and a lackluster backcheck that kept the rush outnumbered until the puck was in the net.
A seemingly gassed Voracek, skating half-speed on the back check at the end of a too-long long shift, got nowhere near Foligno, who would have been the Flyers' winger's responsibility.
With a better backcheck, even if Voracek had not been able to arrive to lift Foligno's stick (or even slash down in desperation for a penalty that would have been preferable to an uncontested scoring chance to one of the top Columbus players), he might at least have forced him to hurry his shot. Instead, Voracek barely made it back to his own blueline and got nowhere the eventual goal scorer as Foligno cut across the middle slot and had all the time and space he needed to pick a target and hit it.
Bobrovsky, selected as the game's second star, finished with 23 saves on 24 shots. Mason, who took third-star honors, was credited with 21 saves on 23 shots. On special teams, the Flyers were 0-for-1 on the power play but 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
On the heels of a monster performance against Tampa, rookie defenseman Provorov led the Flyers with 23:47 of ice time. He collected an assist on the game-tying goal, and was credited with two hits and two blocked shots (after a half dozen blocks against Tampa). Overall, the Flyers blocked 22 attempted Columbus shots. MacDonald, Michael Del Zotto and Gudas led the way with four apiece.
As indicated by the sparsity of power plays, there weren't a lot of whistles. The Flyers wanted an interference call on Foligno for a hit on Travis Konency in the first period, and Tortorella barked at one point seemingly over a non-call on a pick set by Dale Weise. In terms of majors, Michael Raffl picked up the fourth fighting major of his career and second this season (12/11 at DET) after he dropped the gloves with Matt Calvert late in the second period. Calvert, who took exception to a hit by Raffl along the walls, won a brief fight in which Raffl tried a haymaker, lost his balance and went down to the ice with Calvert landing a glancing shot as he fell on top.
The Flyers have two games over the next four nights, visiting the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday and then hosting the Vancouver Canucks on a 50th Anniversary Heritage Night (Playoff Heroes Night) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
With the Flyers barely clinging to the lower wildcard spot and staring at a cavernous gap between themselves and their Metro Division rivals ahead of them in the standings, every point is vital in the second half. However, putting aside the unfavorable OT result on this night, the Flyers finally seem to back on the right track.
The Flyers only have one win in their last four games (1-1-2) but they have played much better hockey in those games with the major exception of their collective third-period implosion against the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
There are still breakdowns to clean up and the team needs to start putting pucks in the net with greater regularity again, but at least things are moving back in the right direction again after the bottom had fallen out. The goaltending performances of Michal Neuvirth on Saturday and Mason on Sunday were also encouraging signs. Another positive recent development -- the penalty kill had hit a bump in the road after the 10-game winning streak but appears back on the upswing. In the last four games, the Flyers have played each of the NHL top four teams in terms of power play success and did yield a goal.
Over the next three games, the Flyers probably need five of six possible points. On the other end of a Saturday road matinee in Boston, the Flyers have a five-night break in the schedule.
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QUICK HITS: JANUARY 8, 2017
1) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms shook off a tough start to their three-in-three weekend gauntlet (a 2-1 road loss to the lowly, defensively challenged Hartford Wolf Pack) and bounced back with a pair of home victories: 2-0 over Albany on Saturday and 4-1 over Utica on Sunday.
After notching a 31-save shutout on Saturday, Alex Lyon got the start in net against on Sunday for Scott Gordon's squad. He turned back 22 of 23 shots. Travis Sanheim scored his fifth goal in the last 11 games, sniping a shot off the rush. Rounding out the scoring were fellow defensemen Will O'Neill and T.J. Brennan (empty net) as well as forward Taylor Leier.
The Phantoms, in third place in the brutally tough Atlantic Division, are five points behind the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins with one game in hand. Lehigh Valley is one point behind the Providence Bruins but hold two games in hand.
2) On Friday night, Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov was listed on the game sheet of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens vs. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada game in the Quebec Major Hockey League as a scratch for Chicoutimi and with uniform number 17.
On Saturday, Rubtsov was at the Flyers-Lightning game in the pressbox. Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said that the 18-year-old player, who suffered a broken nose in the medal round of the World Junior Championships, was only there to meet with a doctor. While Rubtsov's organization in Russia, Vityaz Chekhov, has feigned ignorance of any knowledge of the player potentially leaving the organization to play in North America the rest of this season, all of the signs point in that direction.
Rubtsov's agent, Mark Gandler, told CSN Philadelphia's Tim Panaccio that he is still working on securing his client's release from his KHL deal; a vital step because of a non-inteference agreement with the KHL on valid contracts.
Officially, the Flyers are not allowed to have any role in fostering an agreement for Rubtsov's release. There are only two ways out of the contract: Rubtsov must buy his own release from Vityaz (which he cannot afford) or Chicoutimi can do it on his behalf in order to secure his services. The Flyers are not permitted to buy him out of his contract or to directly interfere with the player as long as he has a valid contract with a KHL team.
The Flyers made it perfectly clear, even at the time of the NHL Draft that, given their druthers, they'd prefer Rubtsov to play junior hockey in North America right away although they'd live with it either which way. Rubtsov, like many top players his age, is currently stuck in an unfavorable situation for his short-term development: too advanced to have all that much to gain in the MHL (Russian junior league) but not physically mature or trusted enough to get anything but very sparing ice time in the KHL.
These situations, once they get to the current point, almost always end with the player moving overseas after an agreement is reached. While it is not impossible to fathom that an agreement could not be brokered among Chicoutimi, the agent and Vityaz management, the fact that Rubtsov is in North America (for a medical reason or otherwise), has a uniform number awaiting him for Chicoutimi and has appeared on a game roster (even as a scratch) strongly suggests that he will be in the Q and will not return to the KHL.
2) Flyers wing prospect Oskar Lindblom, who has a pretty good shot at being with the NHL club next season -- if not to start the season, at least within the 2017-18 season if he starts it with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the American Hockey League -- is back in a three-way tie for the SHL scoring lead with 10 goals and 29 points in 32 games. He also leads the league with a plus-17 rating (+29, -12) on the season.
4) Speaking of plus-minus ratings, two big factor in why most of the Flyers' top players have unsightly plus-minus ratings is that Philly has yielded an NHL-worst seven shorthanded goals this season and have given up a lot more empty net goals than they've scored. Plus-minus is really a reflection of a lot of different situations except for one's own power play goals or opposing teams' power play goals.
Keep in mind that a plus is only available at 5-on-5, 4-on-4, 3-on-3, while shorthanded, while the net is empty at either end in a previously even-strength situation and on a delayed penalty on the opposition when not already on a power play.
For instance, Claude Giroux entered Sunday's game as a minus-six overall but that was due mostly to shorthanded goals and empty net goals yielded by the Flyers. He was even at five-on-five entering Sunday's game.
5) In preparation for Saturday's upcoming 50th Anniversary Game between the Flyers Alumni and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Alumni, the Flyers Alumni team will practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Monday. The skate is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.
Alumni planning to skate include Brian Boucher, John LeClair, Brian Propp, Terry Carkner, Orest Kindrachuk, Mark Howe, Bob Kelly, Neil Little, Brad Marsh, Kjell Samuelsson, and Joe Watson.
6) After the upcoming Alumni Weekend, the Flyers and Flyers Alumni will prominently participatie in the 113th Annual Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Banquet (Crown Plaza Hotel, Cherry Hill, NJ) at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2017.
Current Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere will accept honors from the PSWA as Philadelphia's pro athlete of the year and Eric Lindros will receive the Living Legend Award.
Additionally, there will also be extensive attendance by many of the captains and leaders in Flyers history, including Lindros, Bill Barber, Dave Poulin, inaugural team captain Lou Angotti and more.
If you enter online promo code FLYERS50, you will receive $10 off an admission ticket to this special event. For more info, call 267-546-7277 or click
here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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