The Philadelphia Flyers' wins in the last two games are of little consequence to this lost season. Ranked 22nd of the NHL's 30 teams and 11th in the Eastern Conference with five games remaining on their schedule, the playoffs are not a realistic scenario even though Philly is not yet mathematically eliminated.
However, Philadelphia's 7-3 win in Montreal on Monday and 4-2 home victory over the New York Rangers last night is a reminder of what might have been this year. Across the NHL, there is a high degree of parity. Even in what has been a very disappointing year, the Flyers have won at least once against all of the other 14 teams in the Eastern Conference.
Flyers entered this season with expectations of being playoff team, and they've played like one the last two games. That might hurt the team's position in the draft lottery but there is otherwise nothing at all negative about a club showing some character and pride. That's especially true with all the injuries that have depleted the Philadelphia lineup over the last month.
Last night, the Flyers got a spectacular goaltending performance from Steve Mason (38 saves). Philly killed five penalties with authority, generating better scoring chances shorthanded than the Rangers did on most of their power plays. Philly went 1-for-2 on their own power plays. The Flyers also outscored the Rangers, 3-2, at even strength. Although Philadelphia mustered just 21 shots on Henrik Lundqvist, they attacked with speed and were opportunistic.
Mason was sharp as a katana in this game. He was in a tight rhythm, tracking the puck efficiently and was quick and precise in his movements. Mason's glove hand was particularly good in this game and he continued to show strong puckhandling ability. The netminder had no chance to stop New York's second goal and was screened by his defenseman on the Rangers' first goal.
During the third period, Mason began to experience signs of dehydration in the hot building. He midsection and lower body cramped up on him and he repeatedly stretched and flexed one of his knees while play was at the other end of the ice. He finally slumped down to the ice and play was eventually halted for trainer Jim McCrossin to tend to the goaltender. He stayed in the game and finished out the win.
New York goalie Lundqvist is arguably the best at his position in the NHL. He didn't bring his A game last night but started to look more like himself as the game progressed. On this night, however, he got outplayed by Mason.
Whenever a team plays on back-to-back nights against a rested opponent, energy management is critical. It is typical for the team that had multiple days off to get off to a slow start but then to control the latter part of the game. The Flyers' challenge heading into last night was to grab an early lead and try to build it into a multi-goal advantage before their legs got heavy and the fresher Rangers took over the game.
That's exactly what the Flyers did. Philly took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a somewhat broken play in which the Flyers ended up creating their own good look. On the line rush, Danny Briere dished to a pinching Brandon Manning. The second year pro defenseman, playing in his first NHL game of the season, had his shot attempt blocked. However, the puck deflected right to a hard-charging Brayden Schenn in the left slot, and he ripped a shot past Lundqvist.
Late in the first period, Philly extended the lead to 2-0. Sean Couturier made a difficult play look simple, teeing up a Peter Forsberg-esque saucer pass from the left side over to defenseman Erik Gustafsson on the other side of the ice. Gustafsson got rid of his shot quickly and fired a tracer past Lundqvist. While it was a type of play in which Lundqvist customarily stops the puck, it was also very well executed by the Philadelphia skaters.
Couturier, who logged 22:16 of ice time in the game, was a two-way beast for the Flyers in this game. He forechecked with authority and created scoring chances. He was tremendous on the penalty kill and broke up a pair of would-be scoring chances at even strength. The second-year NHLer also came within a hair of scoring shorthanded. Couturier should have been a no-brainer pick for one of the three stars of the night.
Instead, third-star honors ended up going to Flyers enforcer Jay Rosehill. He skated just eight shifts and 5:38 of ice time but did make one valuable contribution to his team. Rosehill engaged in one of the lengthier and more memorable fights of the season. Rosehill chose a good time to fight -- the Rangers had just cut their deficit in half on a Mats Zuccarello goal and the Flyers were in need of an emotional lift -- and he won his fight against former Flyer Arron Asham with authority. Asham gamely kept getting up for more and continued throwing punches but Rosehill won the fight decisively.
Shortly before the Rosehill-Asham bout, Zuccarello used Flyers rookie defenseman Oliver Lauridsen as a screen to snap a shot through Mason. While that one was potentially stoppable, Zuccarello was given a little too much time and space and got himself into a good shooting angle.
Lauridsen had an uneven game in 19:59 of ice time. He had many strong shifts in this game, delivering a pair of heavy hits and blocking a pair of shots. But he did not defend that Zuccarello rush very well and he struggled with the puck on his stick (three of the Flyers' seven giveaways were charged to the big Dane and he also took a needless early game-icing a split second after blocking a shot because he was overanxious to get rid of the puck). A late-game giveaway nearly resulted seconds later in a tying goal for New York but Mason erased it with a great save.
The Flyers' two best defensemen against New York, as has been the case for much the season, were Kimmo Timonen and Luke Schenn. Gustafsson also had another strong night, even apart from his goal. The Swede has played well since being moved up in the rotation to play with Timonen while Schenn anchors the second pairing.
Schenn, who logged over 33 minutes of ice time in Montreal, played his second straight monster game. In 24:39 of ice time last night, Schenn blocked six shots and was credited with two hits (by my own count, he should have been credited with two or three additional ones).
Timonen, chosen the second star of the game, played his usual poised two-way game in 26:16 of ice time. He made numerous strong plays in his own end of the ice and his quick stick blocked three would-be Rangers shots. At the exact midway point of regulation, he scored a power play goal that restored Philly's two-goal lead (and which proved to be the game winner). Giroux won a faceoff cleanly back to him at the top of the circle, and Timonen unleased a cannon of a shot that Lundqvist was unable to react to in time.
The 38-year-old Timonen also had an assist in the game. He ranks 4th in points among all NHL defensemen this season.
In the third period, the Rangers took over the game. That was not unexpected, given their aforementioned fresher legs and precarious hold on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Flyers survived a bad offensive-zone crosschecking penalty by Scott Hartnell early in the third period. In the middle stanza Hartnell was whistled off on a offensive-zone hooking penalty with the Flyers leading by one goal. It was not the sort of game Hartnell (13:36 of ice time, zero shots on goal, two hits) wanted to have to follow up his hat trick in Montreal. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, Hartnell has been habitually prone in his career to losing discipline.
At the 7:28 mark of the third period, New York outworked the Flyers in the attack zone and were rewarded when a deflected puck was claimed by Derek Stepan and snapped past Mason to cut the New York deficit to 3-2.
Mason, who made a ten-bell save shortly after the Stepan goal, slammed the door the rest of the way. His victory was the first by a Flyers' backup goaltender this season.
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Two other important factors in the win last night was the Flyers' performance in the faceoff circle and their shot-blocking. Those are two areas that the Rangers have often controlled when playing against the Flyers, and Philly gave the Blueshirts a dose of their own medicine.
The Flyers went 39-for-69 (57 percent) on draws last night, and scored a goal directly off a faceoff win. Claude Giroux led the way by going 18-for-27 (67 percent). A boon to the Flyers' in the faceoff circle since his trade deadline day waiver claim, veteran checking liner Adam Hall won 55 percent of his draws.
In the shot-blocking department, the Flyers had 19 blocks to 14 by the Rangers. Luke Schenn led all players with six. Dan Girardi had four for the Rangers.
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There was a funny moment shortly before Peter Laviolette's postgame press conference. Presumably figuring the delayed presser would already be over at that point, a suit-and-tie clad Ilya Bryzgalov entered the room to use it as a cut-through. As he walked in front of the podium, he noticed all the reporters and television cameras. He smiled a sheepish grin and laughed, along with every one in the room.
"Hey, Bryz! Do you want to play Lavy and answer questions?" Tim Panaccio called out.
Bryzgalov grinned back at him but didn't answer. He turned and left through the door opposite where he entered.
Laviolette finally emerged a minute or two later and the brief press conference got underway.
One of people gathered in the room phrased a question to Laviolette in this way: "How about that patchwork defense you've got going here?"
In unusually good spirits, Laviolette could not stifle a half-grin of his own.
"They probably wouldn't like to be called that, if I was guessing," he deadpanned.
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