It has been very disappointing to watch the Flyers' last two games since their win in Pittsburgh. The team got off to a good start against both Atlanta and New Jersey but then saw their intensity levels drop off until it was too late. The Flyers were especially sloppy last night in Newark. It is hard to fault Brian Boucher for any of the four New Jersey goals last night (including a hat trick by longtime Flyer-killer Patrik Elias).
In last night's 4-2 loss to the Devils, there was too much lazy stickchecking and too many low-percentage decisions with the puck. The execution just wasn't there. There is often a tendency for people to jump on a player who is struggling to finish scoring chances -- in particular, Jeff Carter (who had 2 points, both goals, in the last six games leading into last night) had about a half-dozen good scoring chances last night before finally putting in the goal that made it 2-2 in the third period. But I will always argue that when a player is getting chances, they'll eventually go in. I'm more concerned about offensive players who aren't in the middle of scoring chances.
Peter Laviolette made a good call starting Nikolay Zherdev last night in place of Andreas Nodl. Zherdev typically plays well in his first 1-3 games back from the scratch list, and he had a pretty good game against the Devils.
With Washington playing Buffalo tonight, the Flyers could find themselves out of top spot in the Eastern Conference by the end of the night if the Capitals come away with the Pittsburgh visits the Florida Panthers tonight with a chance to move to within one point of the Flyers. Meanwhile, the Flyers face a 12:30 PM matinee tomorrow -- their third game in four days --- against a New York Rangers team that is fighting for its playoff life and utterly humiliated Philly the last time the clubs met.
This Flyers team seems positively allergic to making life easy on themselves.
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I have not talked previously about the Flyers' lack of shutouts this season. Shutouts are nice, not the be-all and end-all of playing winning hockey. They are just as much a reflection on a team's style of play as they are an indication of a goaltender's skill and performance.
The only real significance I see the fact that the Flyers are the only team in the NHL without a shutout victory this season is that it is a secondary indicator that, even with their upgrades on the blueline, the club is still prone to defensive lapses.
Since I'm sure this stat is about to start getting mentioned on every telecast between tomorrow and the end of the season (unless the Flyers actually do record a shutout), I looked up beforehand the last time the team failed to record a shutout in a season.
In 1988-89, the club went the full season without recording a shutout. That year, after a mediocre regular season, Paul Holmgren's team took a surprise trip to the Wales Conference Finals before losing to Montreal. Before that, the team did not record a shutout in the 1981-82 season.
In Ron Hextall's rookie season in which he won the Vezina and Conn Smythe trophies, he only recorded one regular season shutout before getting a pair of playoff shutouts. Remember, though, this was in the midst of the highest scoring era in league history.
As a matter of fact, Hexy only had one regular season shutout (a 26-save blanking of the New Jersey Devils in a 4-0 win on Jan. 6, 1987) through the first five seasons of his career. He never recorded another playoff shutout again in his career after the two (Games 3 and 6 vs. Rangers) in the 1987 postseason.
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Today's
Daily Drop looks at the career of referee Bill McCreary. The veteran official will work the final game of his NHL career tonight when the Capitals play the Sabres. McCreary made his NHL debut in Washington in November 1984.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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