UPDATE 12:30 EDT
Michael Leighton has cleared waivers. He will practice with the team tomorrow and be eligible to play on Friday and during the playoffs.
The Flyers have also returned Ben Holmstrom to the Phantoms.
*****
I defended the Flyers after their shootout loss against the Rangers on Sunday. There is no defense for the way they played in Ottawa last night. The team's pathetic effort in the 5-2 loss was a disgrace for a hockey club that should have all kinds of motivation to come in and work their tails off to ensure they left the building with two points.
I can deal with a loss, even one in the stretch drive to a non-playoff team. There are games when an opposing team's goalie has an exceptionally good night and the club with the superior record gets a few bad breaks in a low-scoring contest. What I can't abide is when the Flyers get outworked and aren't mentally alert, especially in a game in which they are the only team playing for something significant.
Forget the fact that the Flyers fell out of first place in the East and the Capitals are now in the driver's seat to win the conference. Forget that the Penguins also won, moving within a single point of the Flyers in the Atlantic. If the Flyers need help from elsewhere to win the Eastern Conference and/or Atlantic Division, they don't deserve the honor. More important, if the Flyers play anything like the way they did in three of their four most recent losses, they won't beat any playoff opponent.
Last night, the Flyers didn't move their feet. I know they were playing for the fourth time in six nights. Too bad. Every other team is tired, too, but the good clubs battle through it.
The gap between the Flyers forwards and defensemen last night was so wide that you could drive the team bus through it. Couple that with a lack of skating and what do you get? You get easy breakouts for the other side. You get errant passes and pucks dumped into vacant corners. You get odd-man rushes and breakaways for the other team. You get a lack of forechecking pressure (I remember one third period shift where the Flyers kept Ottawa pinned in deep for about 30 seconds -- that was about it).
Lack of skating and aggressiveness also means that you aren't challenging the passing and shooting lanes on the penalty kill. Ottawa players -- including the dangerous Jason Spezza -- had all kinds of time to wind up and fire pucks on net. Meanwhile, they were also able to set up screens in front of Sergei Bobrovsky with impunity. The result was three PPGs for the Senators. The mere presence of the injured Blair Betts alone would not have turned that around last night.
Another telltale sign of being outworked: The Flyers attempted 62 shots-- 19 got blocked, 14 missed the net, 29 actually got on net. That's 10 more attempted shots than Ottawa, yet the Sens outshot the Flyers, 36-29.
You can't blame Sergei Bobrovsky for what happened last night. He actually kept the Flyers in the game when it was still 1-1 after the club basically sleepwalked through the next two dozen shifts after Mike Richards gave them an early lead. You also can't blame the Flyers' captain for not setting a tone in this one, giving the club a pair of leads it failed to hold (by the way, three of Richads' four two-goal games this season have come against Ottawa).
The Flyers have now lost seven games in a row in Ottawa. The Flyers' last win there was on Nov. 24, 2007 (4-3 W).
******
Regular readers of Meltzer's Musings blogs or the Daily Drop may know that one of my pet peeves in hockey lingo is the use of the term "desperation" in a positive context. What is really meant is a focused sense of urgency.
If you want to see the difference between a team playing with urgency rather desperation, look at last night's Dallas-Columbus game. The Stars came into the game needing a win to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race and somehow managed to balance smart aggression with patience, nursing an early 1-0 lead through the game while limiting the opposition to 23 shots and staying out of the penalty box. Finally, they got two ENGs in the final minute to seal the game. Kari Lehtonen now has three shutouts in the last month after not registering one previously this season.
There's
more on today's Daily Drop at Versus.com.
*****
Over in the Czech Republic, Trinec Steelers forward Martin Ruzicka has had a playoff run for the ages. It took him just 14 games to set a new Extraliga playoff scoring record, shattering the previous mark of 26 points set by Zigmund Palffy. With two more assists yesterday -- including setting up the game winner to break up a scoreless tie with 1:01 left in the third period -- Ruzicka now has 30 points (15 G, 15 A) in 15 playoff games.
Trinec leads HC Vitkovice Steel in the finals, two games to none. Among the 25-year-old Ruzicka's teammates are former Flyers defenseman Lukas Krajicek, along with several former NHL forwards such as Radek Bonk and Vaclav Varada.
See this week's
Across the Pond at NHL.com for more.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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