Barring the obvious, that the Canadiens couldn't execute much more than a pass, and that the Flyers had just returned from a brutal road trip, having played and gotten smoked by the Chicago Blackhawks the night before, Philadelphia does deserve some credit for the way they played this game.
The Habs didn't come out of the gate with the intensity you'd expect after the Kings plowed them on Tuesday, but the Flyers did after their no-show in Chicago. The gameplan was pretty simple, but one that opponents of the Canadiens are going to want to bottle moving forward.
The Flyers weren't skating or passing their way through to the Canadiens' zone, they were launching pucks up ice, dumping them slowly into the corners, and putting tremendous pressure on the defenders.
It's the type of attack that can only be escaped with precise execution. It didn't help that several of the Canadiens were several bars down from where they should've been on the intensity meter, but the execution was beyond poor, and the team was stuck chasing the game after the first goal got by a Carey Price who wasn't going to let in anything but perfect shots on this night.
After being hemmed in, in the second period, despite a better effort throughout, Alex Galchenyuk didn't allow himself the opportunity to make a change, and his brain froze as the puck came back into the zone for what proved to be Claude Giroux's game-winning goal.
Good for Galchenyuk, who nearly--singlehandedly--got the Canadiens back in the game. Had Brian Gionta had the presence of mind to attempt bunting a loose puck with the top end of his stick as opposed to using his hand to get it past a helpless Steve Mason, Galchenyuk's goal that inevitably did count would've been the tying goal. Easier said than done, and Gionta's play was just indicative of how off the Canadiens' execution was in this one.
Hypothetical situations aside, the Canadiens had no business winning this game.
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1) I think if we've learned anything about Michel Therrien, it's that most of his moves are calculated. He admitted several years after his famous tirade about his then Pittsburgh Penguins having the "softest d in the league" that it was nothing, if not a calculated decision to motivate his group.
For a few games, Therrien wasn't fully sold on what Eller and Briere were bringing to the lineup, so against the Buffalo Sabres, they played season lows in ice-time.
Against the Kings, things weren't much better.
Therrien took to the airways and called Briere out publicly after Tuesday's game. He reinforced it Wednesday morning at practice, saying he expects more.
The timing wasn't a coincidence. This was right before the Habs needed to bounce back quickly against the Flyers, and Therrien clearly didn't just want this to be a family reunion for Briere.
Therrien gave Briere Pacioretty and Desharnais. As for Eller, he paired him up with Galchenyuk and Gallagher.
This is going to sound sad, but Briere was probably the best member of that line against the Flyers, and I'm sure even he'd admit that it wasn't a very good performance for him. The other two looked like their minds were so far from Philadelphia, it was hard to comprehend.
As for Eller, Galchenyuk and Gallagher, the three of them produced the best quality chances the Canadiens had on the night. Gallagher is suffering from a terrible snakebite. Galchenyuk is probably playing as well as any Habs forward currently is. And Eller had his chances too.
These changes could've provoked something, but it didn't happen last night.
2) Another calculation gone awry, Parros in for Bournival.
It has much less to do with Parros than it does the makeup of the Canadiens. Balance and speed is the bread and butter of this team. Take Bournival out, you lose a bit in both categories.
Parros does give you a physical edge when he's on the ice, but are those five minutes significant enough to impact the other 55?
And I don't want to see Parros fight every time he plays, and some of that is out of his control, but what use does he have if he's not fighting?
Even if he could play a regular shift (he can't), the Canadiens can't step out of their identity to rely on that strategy.
Last night, the Habs needed the full balance and speed that makes them a competitive and dangerous team to play against on a nightly basis.
The gameplan can't consist of playing with 11 forwards for 55 minutes.
3) Obviously, playing with five dmen the rest of the way hurt their chances.
In real time, I thought the hit thrown by Alexei Emelin would surely merit a suspension. The replay told a bit of a different story. Emelin was committed to a hit, and he delivered a bit of an elbow, but it was really tough to tell as to whether or not he actually connected. Downie also shifted himself into an awkward position before contact was made.
I'll leave this up to the majority. I'm not sure where I stand on the play.
I don't believe Emelin was playing particularly well before it happened. He was victimized on the Flyers' first goal of the game.
4) If it wasn't for Price, this could've been another ugly loss. He made outstanding saves before this got to 1-0, and he made unbelievable ones to keep it at 2-0.
5) Brian Gionta's scored a lot of NHL goals with a shot that was never perfect. After surgeries to both biceps, that shot hasn't exactly gotten better. That shot on the 2-on-1 looked like the kind of shot you take in the warmup drills. Brutal. He definitely could've made up for it by knocking in Galchenyuk's trickling shot. It would've required brilliance on the play.
Moving on...