|
Meltzer's Musings: 3/18/11 |
|
|
|
|
|
Last night's 4-3 shootout loss in Atlanta was one of those glass half-full or half-empty games for the Flyers. Their performance wasn't quite what Peter Laviolette had hoped to see from his team, but the club also showed determination in battling back from three one-goal deficits to earn a point from the game and extend their lead in the Eastern Conference to two points over Washington (with two more wins overall and one less shootout win). Philly still holds two games in hand over the Caps as well.
The positives from last night's game:
* The Flyers have struggled this season to get points from games where they've trailed (even by one goal) heading into the third period. Finding a way to come back late in regulation -- against the same club that rallied late against them the previous weekend -- was a positive sign. Psychologically, at least, losing by shootout isn't nearly as bad as coming up short in OT.
* After a pretty big dropoff in his play after the All-Star Game, Danny Briere has started to gear up for the playoffs. The line switch seems to have helped him refocus. He now has points in each of his last five games (3 G, 5 A, 8 PTS) and his game-tying goal late in regulation last night was huge.
* Braydon Coburn turned in his second straight monster game. I thought the defense as a whole (including rookie Erik Gustafsson in his limited ice time) played well on the whole.
The negatives:
* The Flyers received subpar goaltending from Brian Boucher last night. Boosh let in two bad goals in regulation to dig a hole for the team. The first one, especially, was the type of goal that teams simply can't afford to give up this time of years. In the shootout, he backed up all the way to his goal line on Rob Schremp's successful attempt and then got beaten by Blake Wheeler on a rush where Wheeler actually lost control of the puck, regained it and scored.
* The Thrashers worked hard and played a solid defensive game. But this isn't exactly the vintage New Jersey Devils we're talking about. Philly made life pretty easy on the Thrashers by forcing too many bad passes and letting themselves be contained along the perimeter. The Flyers generated just 12 shots through the first two periods (5 in the first, 7 in the second), which isn't going to get the job done against almost any team. Last Saturday, despite the Flyers' 3-0 lead through two periods, they also managed just 12 shots over that same span.
* The Flyers hurt their own comeback efforts in the third period by taking back-to-back penalties (Briere and Sean O'Donnell). They survived both minors but lost four minutes off the clock in the process.
* Kris Versteeg was once again largely ineffective. Thus far, he has not looked good in his current assignment of centering the third line. At least he was only charged with one giveaway on this night, and wasn't diving or griping at the referees.
*****
With the Flyers playing the Stars in Dallas tomorrow night, I will arrange my two game-day blogs at HockeyBuzz in the same fashion that I did for the first meeting in Philadelphia back on Feb. 5. The Flyers blog will focus on what to look for from the Stars, and the Stars blog will focus on the Flyers.
The status of Dallas' All-Star winger Loui Eriksson is still unknown as of this writing. The team has not yet confirmed whether he sustained a concussion in Tuesday's game against San Jose, but Marc Crawford has conceded that Eriksson has not been feeling well since absorbing a borderline elbow from San Jose defenseman Douglas Murray.
Dallas' third-line center Adam Burish may also miss the game tomorrow (which would be his fourth game out of the lineup with a lower body injury). Burish also missed the first game in Philly after sustained a fractured orbital bone in a fight in Boston the previous night. Prior to last night's 5-0 win over Chicago, Dallas had been 0-8-2 with Burish out of the lineup.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»