Every time you feel the Flyers have hit rock bottom, they find an even deeper sink hole to fall into.
Every time they talk about being ready to play in a “must” win situation, they seem unprepared.
Every time you hope they can build off a win or a point gained in an overtime or shootout loss, it gets wasted.
How can a team give such a lame performance to open a five-game homestand that will define whether they make the playoffs or not? And against such a hated rival like the Rangers?
The math says the Flyers can still make a playoff push and get the 8th seed but the reality of where they are, what they have been, and where they’re headed say otherwise.
To play such a strong, overall game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday in an overtime loss, then turn in such a lame performance against a team holding the 8th seed they need to catch is unfathomable at this point for the Flyers.
This wasn't a 2-1 loss, it was a 5-2 pounding in which the FLyers rolled over for the Rangers early.
This was a five-game homestand the Flyers needed to collect 8 or 10 points and give themselves a chance.
To open it like they did with a 5-2 loss to a struggling Rangers club is unacceptable.
“We’re here to win hockey games and that was horrible,” said Kimmo Timonen, who on a night when he was honored for playing 1,000 NHL games, was himself terrible on the ice –minus-2.
He felt the team quit when down 3-0.
“We have to find a better effort across the board,” he said. “It comes down to one-on-one battles and we didn’t win many of them today. I think it was all Rangers; they were hungrier and a better team today.
“I think it always comes down to individual preparation; you’re either ready or play or you’re not.
“A lot of people blame coaches, but if we’re out there making plays, like I said you have to be ready to play or not. When you’re not ready to play you’ll lose one-on-one battles a lot.”
This is nothing new to the Flyers. Their lack of compete, their inability to get “up” for big games, they’re failure to pull games out (1-11 when trailing after two periods) is alarming.
“I thought we kind of started off slow and then picked up steam,” Wayne Simmonds said. “After that, it was kind of downhill and we didn’t respond. They scored and kept going and scored 1, 2, and 3 and it took us until that third goal to finally push back. It wasn’t good enough.
“I’ll second that what Kimmo said. The losses are just a result of us not coming to battle shift after shift. To win games in this league that’s what you have to do and it just didn’t happen.”
Even the coach sees it.
“I didn’t like the way we competed on the puck, defensively,” Peter Laviolette said. “It seemed like there was too many times where we just weren’t strong enough on the battles.
“I thought second period mildly got better. 3-0 and we come back a score a goal and not much life in the third period.”
And the Rangers won for the 11th time in the last 12 games. They absolutely own the Flyers two years running now.
“They always just find a way to beat us,” goalie Ilya Bryzgalov said. “I don’t know why the reason, but they always find a way.”
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