FLYERS - BLUE JACKETS WRAP: FLYERS HEMORRHAGE ANOTHER POINT, FALL 4-3 IN OT
The Philadelphia received a hollow point on Friday night in a 4-3 overtime road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Plagued throughout much of the game by poor puck management and even worse coverages, the Flyers let a two-goal lead slip away in the third period against a Columbus team that was 0-20-0 this season when trailing after two periods. The Blue Jackets went on to win in OT.
Artem Anisimov scored the winner in overtime. Brandon Dubinsky, Jared Boll and Cam Atkinson scored in regulation for Columbus. Curtis McElhinney was neither horrendous nor particularly impressive in goal -- he looked vulnerable moving laterally -- but stopped 22 of 25 shots to earn the win.
Wayne Simmonds tallied two goals for the Flyers and assisted on a Sean Couturier goal. Ray Emery played much better than his stat line (29 saves on 33 shots) suggests.
Last Sunday's game in Washington was just about the best the Flyers can play defensively as a team. This game was the other extreme. The defensemen and forwards alike were atrocious and basically left Ray Emery (29 saves on 33 shots) to fend for himself for long stretches of the game.
The Flyers got off to a slow start in the first period, but came on later and skated to intermission with a 1-0 lead despite getting outshot 11-7. At the 10:33 mark, Simmonds hit the 20-goal mark for the season. Matt Read collected a Scott Hartnell turnover in the Flyers zone and sprung Simmonds on a 2-on-1, joined by Couturier. Simmonds snapped a shot that beat McElhinney to the glove side.
The second period was a terrible 20 minutes for the Flyers, yet they once again went to intermission with a one-goal lead. Dubinsky and Couturier traded off goals for their respective clubs.
The Flyers barely survived an early period Mark Streit holding penalty -- their only shorthanded situation of the game -- but remained hemmed in their own zone. Finally, the Blue Jackets tied the game on what seemed like an inevitable goal given the way the period was going.
Read fell down as the puck was sent around the wall by Luke Schenn in the defensive zone, and the puck was held in by defenseman Kevin Connauton. With all Flyer eyes on the puck instead of looking for the dangerous man, Dubinsky planted himself in front of the net with separation from both Luke Schenn and Michael Del Zotto. Skating down the left side, Connauton put the puck toward the net and Dubinsky directed it home.
Philadelphia's play picked up over the latter stages of the second period, generating five of the final six shots of the frame (Columbus still led 11-8 for the period). With 2:13 remaining in the period, Simmonds made a nice power move and Couturier batted the airborne puck into the net below the height of the crossbar for his 12th goal of the season. The play was reviewed in the Situation Room in Toronto for a potential high-stick and the on-ice good goal ruling stood.
Time ran out on the second period with a delayed penalty upcoming on the Blue Jackets' Atkinson. As a result, the Flyers had a full two minutes of power play time and a fresh sheet of ice to work on to start the third period. They failed to capitalize.
At 4:32 of the third period, Corey Tropp took a needless goaltender interference penalty for carelessly running into Emery in the goal crease. This time, the Flyers' cashed in to forge a 3-1 lead.
The Flyers top power play unit moved the puck around crisply, with Jakub Voracek making a cross-ice feed to Claude Giroux and the Flyers' captain blasting a one-timer at the net with Simmonds parked on the doorstep. McElhinney made the initial save but Simmonds quickly stashed the rebound between the netminders' pads at the 5:04 mark for his second goal of the game, 21st of the season and 12th power play goal. Giroux and Voracek got the assists.
Even with the two-goal lead, the Flyers continued their frequently sloppy play with and especially without the puck. Rather than putting a stranglehold on the game, they got outworked. Philly was playing with fire and the lead never felt comfortable despite the score at that point and the opponent's record.
At the 8:38 mark of the third period, the Blue Jackets reduced the margin to 3-2. In an all-too-familiar moment -- the Flyers would have three similar breakdowns end up in their net -- they ended up with both of their defensemen (in this case, Nicklas Grossmann and Nick Schultz) flushed to one side of the ice and no one else around as Jared Boll went to the net untouched. Boll got his first goal of the season, steering in the puck as Tropp put it at the net. Mark Letestu got the secondary assist.
The Flyers had opportunities to strengthen their control on the game but simply could not do anything with them, nor could string together back-to-back good shifts. Finally, with 4:40 left in the game, Columbus pulled even at 3-3.
On this goal, the Flyers got caught on a bad line change and the Blue Jackets worked with short ice as they gathered the puck at their own blueline. Emery made a nice initial stop on Hartnell on the doorstep but no help materialized and Atkinson took advantage of the scrambled coverage -- Schultz and Mark Streit both went at Dubinsky -- to claim the rebound and put it in the net to tie the game. Hartnell and Dubinsky got the assists.
Yet again, the Flyers had chances to salvage a win. The Flyers also let a late-period power play opportunity slip away. Then Couturier went one-on-one with McElhinney on a Columbus breakdown but ran out of room.
In the waning seconds of the third period, Voracek got away with what looked like a tripping penalty and then took a needless icing. No harm resulted and the game moved to overtime. Shots in the third period were 9-8 in the Flyers' favor.
The Flyers had one final -- and this time fatal -- breakdown in overtime. All four Flyers players on the ice -- defensemen Luke Schenn and Carlo Colaiacovo and forwards Voracek and Giroux -- ended up in poor position and three players got bunched together as the puck went out up high to James Wisniewski.
The game ended as the Blue Jackets had two wide-open players directly in front of the net and Anisimov buried his third goal of the season from point blank range at the 2:17 mark of overtime.
If one wanted to sugar-coat the outcome, it could be said that the Flyers now have an eight-game point streak (5-0-3). However, if one wants to more accurately represent what's gone on of late in all but the game in Washington, the Flyers have been outplayed in three of the last four games and were unable to protect leads (including multi-goal leads against the New York Islanders and Columbus and third period leads against Montreal and the Blue Jackets) en route to back-to-back overtime losses and last week's shootout loss to the Islanders.
The bottom line is that genuine playoff contenders consistently grab two points when wins are within their grasp -- ugly wins, well-played wins, low-chance and low-scoring wins and everything in between. The Flyers hemorrhaged away another point on Friday night and have left three very attainable points on the table in their last four games, and that's nothing to celebrate.
The Flyers return to action on Sunday night in Buffalo, as they conclude their four-game road trip.
POSTGAME NOTES:
* Prior to the game, the Blue Jackets honored Scott Hartnell for reaching the coveted 1,000-game milestone in his regular season NHL career.
* For the second time in a week, Flyers coach Craig Berube expressed displeasure with the play of the entire Flyers top line. He told the attending beat writers and television media after the game that all three players -- Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn -- need to compete better and harder than they have of late.
* Voracek and Giroux have now been on the ice together for just one Flyers' even strength goal since the Christmas break -- a stretch of 21 games. They have, of course, combined for quite a few power play goals in that time -- including setting up Simmonds' rebound goal in this game -- but they have not been effective together at even strength.
* Pretty much the entire Flyers defense corps had major gaffes at various junctures of the game and the forwards did not help up much either. Nicklas Grossmann had an especially bad game, and he was limited to 15:26 of ice time -- a season low for him with the exception of the Jan. 8 game were he had to leave in the first period with a right shoulder injury.
* The Flyers won 62 percent of the faceoffs in the game, led by Giroux's 12-for-18.
* Due to the death of his grandmother, Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald was not in the lineup for this game.
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PHANTOMS DROP 3-2 HOME DECISION TO BINGHAMTON
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms suffered a 3-2 regulation loss to the Binghamton Senators on Friday night at the PPL Center in Allentown. The Phantoms fell behind early and spent the rest of the evening chasing the game in vain.
After Guillaume Lepine and Matt Puempel stakes the B-Sens to a 2-0 lead in the first period, Nick Cousins scored a power play goal in the final two seconds of the period to trim the Phantoms deficit to 2-1 before intermission. The goal was Cousins' 16th of the season.
The Cousins goal came about after Lehigh Valley got a five-minute power play late in the period when Buddy Robinson got an elbowing major and game misconduct for a cheapshot on Phantoms' rookie defenseman Robert Hà¤gg. Defense partner Steven Delisle jumped to Hà¤gg's defense and fought Robinson, leaving the Binghamton player bloodied. Earlier in the period, Phantoms rookie forward Taylor Leier took exception to a ht from Robinson and earned charging and roughing penalties.
The Senators' Shane Prince scored a power play goal in the final minute of the frame to restore a two-goal lead at 3-1. Phantoms defenseman Brandon Manning narrowed the gap to 3-2 with 12:52 left in the third period but Lehigh Valley was unable to find an equalizer.
Rob Zepp made his return to the Phantoms' net after being forced to leave last Saturday's game in Binghamton in the third period with a right ankle injury sustained in a collision with Puempel. He stopped 29 of 32 shots in a losing cause. Winning goalie Peter Mannino saved 28 of 30 for the Sens.
Jason Akeson assisted on both Phantoms' power play goals. For the season, he has 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) in 30 games since being waived and reassigned to the AHL by the Flyers.
FLYERS PROSPECT UPDATES: FRIDAY GAMES
* QMJHL: 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel collected three assists in Val-d'Or's 5-4 win over Drummondville. He has raised his season point total to 62 points (28 goals, 34 assists) in 47 games. Since January, Aube-Kubel has been on a tear offensively. In his last 15 games, he has racked up 13 goals, 12 assists and 25 points.
* WHL: The Calgary Hitmen sustained a 4-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades. Flyers 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim and partner Jake Bean were minus-two in the game with no points. Sanheim was credited with five shots on goal. Flyers 2014 sixth-round pick Radel Fazleev was even with zero points and one shot on goal. For the season, Sanheim has 50 points (11 goals, 39 assists) in 50 games. Fazleev has 16 goals, 39 points and a plus-13 rating in 53 games.
* WHL: Overager forward Tyrell Goulbourne, the Flyers' third-round pick in the 2013 Draft, entered Friday's game with 35 points and 63 penalty minutes in 45 games. Kelowna played Victoria in a late start-time game on Friday night.
* NCAA (WCHA): Bowling Green freshman defenseman Mark Friedman, the Flyers' 2014 third-round pick, earned a power play assist and was plus-one in Friday's 4-1 win over a weak Ferris State team. For the season to date, Friedman has two goals, 14 assists, 67 penalty minutes and a plus-six rating in 29 games.
* NCAA (NCHC): North Dakota senior forward Michael Parks , the Flyers' fifth-round pick in the 2010 Draft, scored a pair of goals and was plus-one in Friday's 4-2 win over Denver. For the season, Parks has 11 goals, 18 assists, 29 points, 30 penalty minutes and a +14 rating in 29 games. Parks will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Sunday.
* NCAA (ECAC): Cornell junior defenseman Reece Willcox, the Flyers' fifth-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, was plus-one without a point in Friday's 3-2 loss to Dartmouth. For the season, Willcox has dressed in 21 games (he missed two due to injury) and has posted one goal, four points and a plus-two rating.
* NCAA (ECAC): Dressing for just the 10th time this season, freshman Clarkson defenseman Terrance Amorosa scored the lone goal in Friday's 2-1 loss to Princeton. It was the Flyers 2013 fifth-round pick's first collegiate hockey regular season goal. He has two points in his 10 freshman season games to date, along with 10 penalty minutes and a minus-one rating.
* NCAA (Hockey East): Freshman UConn defenseman David Drake finished at minus-five in Friday's 9-0 whipping at the hands of Northeastern. For the season to date, the 20-year-old Drake has five points (one goal, four assists), six penalty minutes and a minus-10 rating in 26 games.
* KHL: Defenseman Valeri Vasiliev, the Flyers' seventh-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, was minus-one with one blocked shot in Torpedo's 3-1 home win over Slovan Bratislava on Friday. In a combined 34 games this season with Avangard and Torpedo, Vasiliev has four points (one goal, three assists), 13 penalty minutes, a plus-eight rating and 41 credited hits.
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FROM FLYERSALUMNI.ORG: VALENTINE'S DAY HISTORY
February 14 has long been a notable calendar date in Flyers history. Perhaps most notably, it was on this date when Flyers rookie forward Al Hill had the greatest NHL debut of any player in league history. Setting a record that may never be matched or broken -- since every player who enters the league only gets one crack at it -- Hill posted five points (two goals, three assists) on the night of Feb. 14, 1977 in a 6-4 win at the Spectrum over the St. Louis Blues.
Not only did Hill set a new NHL debut game scoring record, he also completed a Gordie Howe Hat Trick when he dropped the gloves in the second period with St. Louis' Bob McMillan. If Hill had dropped the gloves with someone else in the game, he'd have become the only player in Flyers history -- I do not know if any player from another team has ever done it -- to record a double Gordie Howe Hat Trick (i.e., at least two goals, two assists and two fights) in the same game.
Today on the Flyers' Alumni website, there is an in-depth retrospective on Hill's magical night. Nowadays, Hill is one of the Flyers' senior pro scouts. He will turn 60 in April. Back in 2008, I conducted an intermission interview with Hill to commemorate his landmark game for an article for the Flyers' official site. Today's piece is an updating of the original.
The Feb. 14 calendar date also marks the 20th anniversary of the true breakthrough for the soon-to-be nicknamed Legion of Doom line. The new line took a few games to develop its famous chemistry. On Feb. 14, 1995, they broke loose in a 5-2 road win in Tampa Bay. John LeClair had a hand in all five Philly goals (hat trick and two assists), Mikael Renberg scored the two goals not scored by LeClair, and Eric Lindros enjoyed a multi-assist game.
On Feb. 14, 2009, rookie Flyers forward Claude Giroux scored just his second NHL goal. The Flyers went on to thrash the New York Islanders, 5-1.
Last but not least, mid-to-late 1990s Flyers blueline stalwart Petr Svoboda -- one of the underrated keys to the team's success when the injury-prone blueliner was able to stay in the lineup -- was born on this date in 1966.
The Feb. 14 installment of the Flyers Alumni site's daily Today in Flyers History feature features an extensive look at Svoboda's Flyers career and post-career role as an agent (among others, he represents current Flyers forward Jakub Voracek and ex-Flyer Jaromir Jagr). There's also a look back at all the aforementioned games, five other memorable games that took place on this day, plus the Flyers' ultimately ill-fated 2011 trade to acquire Kris Versteeg from Toronto.
For all this and much more, click here.