Last night's game was one of those nights that can come back to hurt a team when playoff seedings are determined in the spring. The Flyers controlled many aspects of their game against Anaheim -- a team they should beat, especially when Anaheim is on the road and played the night before -- but they ended up with zero points on a night where anything less than a convincing two points would be questioned.
The single biggest factor in the outcome: The Flyers moribund early season powerplay. Anaheim has had all kinds of trouble killing penalties in the early going of the season, and the Flyers failed to capitalize on any of their five opportunities. They moved the puck better than in previous games, but that seemed to be as much a product of Anaheim allowing them to have the perimeter all they wanted than it was a case of better passing. In fact, the Flyers' passing on line rushes was abysmal last night, and cost them numerous scoring chances.
Notes and other observations:
* By far, the Flyers' best line last night was the Scott Hartnell - Danny Briere - Ville Leino unit. They were dangerous almost every time they stepped on the ice, producing a host of scoring chances but cashing in just the one first period Hartnell tally that most everyone thought would be credited to Leino until a single camera angle showed the tip of Hartnell's stick blade poking the poke as he skated by the post.
* As for Leino individually, it was his best performance since the Stanley Cup Final, although it should also be noted that Anaheim was giving up offensive zone operating room to most every Flyers forward. But whether Leino is skating and feeling better (he says he is), it was Anaheim's much maligned defense that made him look like he was more energetic and stronger on the puck or a combination of both, it was a step in the right direction for the Finn.
* Beyond the Briere line, the Flyers' best forwards were Claude Giroux (goal, 6 shots), James van Riemsdyk (4 shots, a nice takeaway) and Andreas Nodl (several nice backchecking plays, two takeaways, solid forechecking work). On the flip side, Mike Richards and Nikolay Zherdev were all but invisible and Jeff Carter had a couple excellent shifts and a near goal where he got legitimately robbed on a tough save by Curtis McElhinney but he also is still struggling get pucks on net, getting five shots blocked and missing the net on another two of the 11 shots he attempted.
* Zherdev's bruised hand does not excuse him giving up on plays, especially when he's getting an opportunity to skate shifts on the first line.
* While the Flyers have dropped three games in a row, I think that Andrej Meszaros has had his three best games as a Flyer so far. In the defensive end, he was very solid (and physical) last night. At the offensive end, however, he and the other Flyers blueliners are going to have to start getting more pucks on net.
* Another tough night on faceoffs for the Flyers, who won 45% of the draws (Saku Koivu going 14-for-23 and Ryan Carter going 7-for-10 for Anaheim were the main reasons). Entering last night, Danny Briere had won just 35.7% of his draws. He was 9 for 17 last night, but everyone else was under 50%.
* Teemu Selanne absolutely destroyed fellow future Hall of Famer Chris Pronger on the rush that led to him feeding Jason Blake for the Ducks' second goal. Selanne beat Pronger cleanly along the wall and threaded the puck through a narrow passing lane to Blake.
Teemu has a history of destroying the Flyers on the rare occasions he's gotten to play them over his 17-plus years in the league. In 19 career games against Philly, the Finnish Flash has punished the Flyers for 16 goals, 11 assists and 27 points.
Here's one from the "what if" files of hockey history: There were three separate occasions where Teemu Selanne could have become a member of the Flyers organization: 1) His draft year of 1988 when Bob Clarke, on recommendation from his scouts, unsuccessfully to move up to draft either Selanne or future Flyer Rod Brind'Amour (the tean ended up with Claude Boivin with the 14th pick of the first round after being unable to jump up). 2) The 1995-96 season when the money-strapped Jet -- whose GM was John Paddock -- were forced to trade Selanne after matching a huge offer sheet Chicago gave to RFA Keith Tkachuk (the trade didn't happen because Bob Clarke -- who ended up trading for Pat Falloon from San Jose, thought the Jets wanted too many prospects and picks and was leery of a knee injury that affected Selanne in 1993-94 and much of the lockout shortened 1994-95 season), and 3) the summer of 2007 when Selanne briefly considered coming East.
* During the first intermission of last night's game, I briefly talked to a scout who regularly attends games in Philadelphia. He told me there is starting to be a book on rookie Sergei Bobrovsky that he goes down early. Teams are testing him from distances and increasingly trying to shoot high on him quickly rather than trying to move laterally on him in close (which is clearly one of his strengths). Last night, Bobrovsky did little to alter the early scouting reports. He stoned a breakaway opportunity and also moved quickly to his right to deny an in-close chance. But he also got beaten early in the game on a long-distance blast by Lubomir Vishnovsky. It was by no means an easy stop -- the shot was a tracer -- but it was unscreened and a shot an NHL goalie needs to stop.
* Someone please explain to me again why the Flyers are paying Jody Shelley so much money to play an average 4:12 per game. Last night, he skated five shifts and played just 2:05. He lost his fight with George Parros, although it was a pretty good battle. Parros eventually got Shelley off balance. No big deal there -- it wasn't lopsided by any means -- but the team is paying him as though he will provide as much or more of what Arron Asham gave the team. He hasn't do so yet.
I don't blame Shelley or Peter Laviolette in this regard. I think the GM over-valued the player. Shelley has been a fourth liner most of his career, only rarely being moved into the type of third-line role he played at the tail end of last season for the Rangers. Could he do well in the former Asham role for the Flyers? Perhaps, but he has been a fourth liner the vast majority of his career, and that's how he's being used.
* I am not going to weep because Dan Carcillo has been a healthy scratch the last couple games. He has not played well in his limited ice time. I do think, however, that he's been thrown under the bus a little bit for something he can't entirely control.
Look, you never want to use injuries or surgery rehab as an excuse for ineffective play. I understand that once you suit up, you are accountable for your play. Nevertheless, in noting that he's only sporadically seen the type of jump and energy from Carcillo that the player needs to be effective, Peter Laviolette should have also publicly defended his player by noting that he's coming off a pair of off-season surgeries (hip and sports hernia repairs) that usually take a few months from which to fully recover. In fact, I have never NOT seen a player struggle for weeks at a time when coming back from the latter surgery in particular.
The player is never supposed to bring it up -- he is expected to say things like "I just need to work harder" and "I feel OK; well enough to do better" -- but there is no reason (apart from the macho no-excuses accepted mantra) for a coach not to say that a player may need some time to fully recover his game after those types of surgeries.
In fact, I would argue that Laviolette would be more likely to keep the emotional Carcillo motivated in a positive way if he said to the media, "Danny had a couple surgeries this past summer, and those can take awhile to get all the way back from, especially for a guy who plays his style. So I'm going to give him some time to work it through and get him back in the lineup when he's ready. Also, we want to give Nodl a chance to show what he can do. He deserves it."
That way, you still have competition for playing time, you reward the guy who is actually playing better but you also keep the guy you are paying a seven figure salary to feeling like he's still valued rather than being put in position to fail and then punished for failing.
****
Twice last night during the game, a familiar two-syllable obscene chant directed at the officials broke out in standard sing-song fashion. It's just part of the hockey culture, and similar things exist everywhere the sport is played. In this instance, the chant arose because Flyers fan disagreed with a goaltender interference penalty called on Scott Hartnell (incidental contact just in front of the crease, and significantly embellished by McElhinney) and, later, because fans were irate over a quick whistle in the offensive end that followed a slow whistle on the play where Ryan Getzlaf scored the game-winner.
I would not even have given it much thought except for the fact that I recently had the pleasure of separately interviewing former NHL referees Kerry Fraser and Paul Stewart. So, of late, I have given more thought than usual to just how tough the job that NHL on-ice officials really is. My appreciation for their work increased further when I had the chance to preview Kerry's new book ("The Final Call"), which is a fascinating look at the game from a perspective that fans, players and coaches rarely consider.
I ended up devoting today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com to that topic.
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