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Meltzer's Musings: 1/19/11 |
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It is in the nature of many Philadelphia sports fans to dwell on the negative rather than the positive. Of late, there has been much consternation over the Flyers' struggles to put away teams when they've held multiple-goal leads in the third period. Certainly, this is an issue that requires attention and correction.
But there is also much to be said for the Flyers' resiliency. They bounced back from the collapse in Boston with three straight wins. They were the better team for most of last night's game against Washington and deserved the OT victory they eventually claimed after blowing a 2-0 lead in the third period. Moreover, without the services of Chris Pronger, the Flyers are now 8-3-0 in their last 11 games and have reclaimed the top spot both in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.
As a matter of fact, by virtue of the Colorado Avalanche's OT victory over the Vancouver Canucks last night, the Flyers have moved back into first place overall in the NHL. Both Philly and Vancouver have 65 points but the Flyers have one more win than the Canucks. The Flyers are the first team in the NHL this season to reach the 30-win mark.
How can anyone possibly complain about that? Yes, there's room for improvement in closing out games in the third period, getting the power play on track on a consistent basis and reducing some of the undisciplined penalties that certain players -- especially Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell (who has actually been a little better in that area of late) -- are prone to taking at inopportune times. Yes, there is still a question mark as to whether the combination of Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher can lead the Flyers all the way.
If anything, the fact that the club hasn't totally hit its stride and is still winning regularly (including games against many of their top prospective playoff opponents) suggests just how good this hockey team is.
As a matter of fact, assuming Pronger returns healthy and the rest of the lineup remains reasonably intact, I would go so far as to say that this is the best all-around Flyers team I've seen since 1986-87. The D and forward lines are deeper than the Lindros era or early 2000s.
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Offensive slumps draw more attention, but every player also goes through defensive ups and downs over the course of the season. Over the balance of the 2010-11 season, Ville Leino has easily been one of the Flyers' best defensive forwards as well as one of its top scorers. Leino's defensive prowess has been one of the underrated keys to the success of the Briere line at even strength. His stellar plus-minus rating has not been a fluke or merely a product of all the scoring his line has done.
Over the last 3 or 4 games, however, Leino has hit a bit of a defensive slump. It has been masked because he's still been generating offensive chances, the club has been winning and none of his mistakes ended up in the net. Not until last night, anyway.
Leino had a horrendous giveaway in the third period that led directly to a Washington goal and put the Caps on the comeback trail to force overtime. These things happen, and I fully expect Leino to buckle down again on the defensive side of the puck in the games to come.
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For just the fifth time this season, the Flyers won better than 60 percent of their faceoffs last night (31 for 51, 61 percent). Mike Richards led the way, winning 13 of the 17 faceoffs (76 percent) he took.
It should also be noted that the 51 faceoffs last night were an unusually low total, tying a season low for the number of draws in a game.
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Sergei Bobrovsky played his third straight strong game in goal last night. For much of the game, in fact, I thought he was finally going to get his elusive first NHL shutout. He has very sharp, minimizing rebounds and challenging shooters effectively.
It is going to be interesting to see whether Bobrovsky gets the start against the Senators on Thursday. I have done an incredibly poor job at predicting Peter Laviolette's goalie rotation this year, except when either goaltender gets exceptionally hot and he just keeps rolling with the same guy.
With the exception of his third-period implosion in Boston and one bad goal against the Rangers, Brian Boucher has continued to play well. So you could make a case for either Boosh or Bobrovsky to start the next game. I suspect it will be the rookie in net against Ottawa, but we'll see.
Side note: I don't see why so many people think "Bob's" last name is so difficult to pronounce. If his name were Bobrov (a common Russian surname), it would actually one of the less taxing surnames for Western eyes and tongues. There are also scores of Russian names that end in -sky. Combining the two shouldn't be particularly tough.
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This week's Across the Pond at NHL.com is a round up of recent happenings in Finland's SM-Liiga. The first section looks at the Flyers loaning prospect Joonas Lehtivuori to KalPa Kuopio.
I will post and tweet the link when the article goes online.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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