Last night before I went to sleep, I checked in on the Phoenix Coyotes vs. San Jose Sharks game for the Sunday edition of
Daily Drop for Versus.com. Apart from a stellar performance from goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, what I saw was an overachieving Phoenix club that earns its keep by coming out ready to play and working its tail off.
That brings me to the Flyers. After last night's 4-1 loss in New Jersey, I heard commentators actually praising the club for its efforts in the second and third periods of a game that was already a lost cause. Are you kidding me? If that constituted a valiant effort, then this team is in even deeper trouble than I thought. That's saying something, considering the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs have now caught up to the Flyers and only Carolina has fewer points in the entire NHL.
The truth of the matter is that even in the middle period, Jacques Lemaire's Devils had the Flyers right where they wanted them and simply played their game. Not for one second did a Flyers' comeback seem to be in the making, not even when Claude Giroux scored on a right-circle shot that Martin Brodeur should have stopped.
People who have been reading my work for a long time know that I'm not someone who likes to constantly dwell on negatives. It's not hard to pick apart the way the Flyers' special teams have gone down the tubes, bemoan the lack of offense and point fingers at various culprits who are supposed to the team's best players. But painting any sort of rosey picture about this club right now simply isn't reality. At least Peter Laviolette called a spade a spade in his description of last night's game.
"From the drop of the puck, that team jumped us. They were on their toes. They skated better. They won every puck battle. They executed better. ...Even when we were ahead of a [board] battle, we came out on the wrong side of it. They wanted the puck more tonight," he said.
There isn't really very much that Laviolette can do right now. Inside the Flyers' locker room at the SkateZone, there's a slogan that reads "We supply everything but guts." A coach can get his club prepared to play but it's up to the team to come out with hunger and desire. Where is it guys?
I'm aware that the club misses the two-way play of a healthy Simon Gagne, the defensive presence of Blair Betts and forechecking tenacity of Darroll Powe but give me a break. If Betts and Powe are really the catalysts of this team -- and not numbers 17 and 18 -- then the wrong guys are making the big bucks. In all seriousness, though, it's astounding how a club that looked so good leading up the west coast trip could have fallen apart so completely since Betts and Powe went down.
This team has zero capacity to handle the least bit of adversity and that's a reflection of poor leadership in the locker room. There's no other reason why the Flyers should be waking up this morning with eight fewer points than the Phoenix Coyotes. A club like Phoenix lives work ethic and resiliency. The Flyers talk about it.
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According to Tim, Braydon Coburn was in a walking boot and has a sprained foot or ankle, which will likely mean Ole-Kristian Tollefsen gets back in the lineup against the Bruins tomorrow.
Coburn was beaten badly on the rush last night by Niclas Forsberg... um Bergfors... on the Devils' first goal. That started everything rolling downhill for the Flyers last night.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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