In the grand scheme of things, I don't think anyone should get too bent out of shape about the Flyers 2-0 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers played virtually a perfect game for 60 minutes and the shorthanded Flyers just didn't have the legs or the horses to win the game.
Before each game, HockeyBuzz's CaptEO and I have a little ritual of exchanging predictions of the final scores and the Flyers goal scorers for the game. We both had it as a decisive Philadelphia loss, and EO even predicted the Flyers would get shut out (although he had it as 4-0 Rangers). I did not think Philly would manage as well as it did defensively, and I had it down as a 6-2 loss.
You never want to use injuries or fatigue as an excuse but the simple truth of the matter is that the Flyers were playing for the third time in four days (although the Rangers were, too) and fourth time in six days.
Over that span, Philadelphia had played without Chris Pronger all week, had the services of Jaromir Jagr for only one-plus period and had also lost James van Riemsdyk and Andreas Lilja midweek. As a result, Peter Laviolette had little choice but to play Claude Giroux and his top four defensemen (Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Matt Carle and Andrej Meszaros) for massive numbers of minutes.
Thus, even before the opening puck dropped at Madison Square Garden, it was pretty clear that the Flyers were going to need a lot of things to go their way in order to win. They needed to strike early, manage their energy wisely to have anything left for the third period and get a virtually flawless game in goal from Sergei Bobrovsky along the way.
Bob played fine. The emotion and effort were there. Even so, the Rangers were clearly the better team pretty much all game. When Henrik Lundqvist thwarted an early breakway attempt by Scott Hartnell with the greatest of ease, it already looked like scoring even a single goal was going to be an uphill climb.
Bobrovsky did a nice job in getting the game to the third period with just a 1-0 deficit. Defensively -- with the exception of New York's second goal that sealed the game-- Philly pretty much did a good job of bending but not breaking. But on a day where the Flyers just couldn't generate any sort of sustained forecheck, that wasn't quite good enough.
In terms of big-picture takeways from the game:
* The Flyers are going to need to do a better job of handling teams that play a 1-3-1 or 1-2-2 system against them. Yesterday, apart from getting hemmed deep in their own zone for much of the game and habitually getting shot attempts blocked, Philly had a miserable time trying to break out of their own zone and navigate the neutral zone.
* Philly had better hope that Pronger gets healthy soon and starts staying healthy for a change. At the current rate, Timonen is going to be out of gas by the start of the stretch drive.
* New York is NOT a team against whom its ever advisable to chase the game. Buoyed by the goaltending Lundqvist, even a 1-0 deficit after two periods can be a mountain to climb.
Since start of 2010-11 season, Rangers are now 36-0-1 (7-0-1 this season) when leading after 2 periods -- that's the best winning percentage in the NHL in that situation. Meanwhile, Philly has won just twice in 30 tries since the start of last season (1-7-0 this season, 1-16-5 last year) when trailing after two periods.
* Bobrovsky deserves immense credit for his play in the last two games. He created his own monster on the Hagelin goal -- and was not helped by his team running around aimlessly in its own zone -- but has otherwise been almost flawless in the last eight periods. In late November, there is no goaltending controversy. However, Iya Bryzgalov had better pick up his play to the point where, come April, there is no doubt as to which goaltender gives Philadelphia the better opportunity to outplay a top opposing netminder.
Coming tomorrow, I will write my November in Review blog.
**********
Please visit our sponsors,
Philly Phaithful and
HockeyTickets.ca.
On Philly Phaithful, take advantage of Black Friday sales. Click the ad in the blog above.
On hockeytickets.ca, use the coupon code "FlyersBuzz" between now and Dec 31 to receive a 10 percent discount on all ticket orders over $150 and also have a chance to win two free lower-level seats to a Flyers regular season hockey game of your choice.
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Flyers Buzz. For more information
click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»