Three games into the Craig Berube Era of Flyers hockey we continue to see the remnants of the Peter Laviolette, John Stevens, Ken Hitchcock, you name it, eras of the past.
The Flyers might want to escape their Bully image but their can’t seem to get out from under themselves with taking penalty after penalty.
This is about the image of a team fighting its way to a Stanley Cup. Hell, if the Flyers were capable of doing that 38 years removed from their last Cup, I doubt if anyone in Philadelphia would care.
What it is about is a team that continues to take bad penalties and it goes back generations.
The Flyers took seven more on Saturday night in Motown and it cost them dearly, once again, as the Detroit Red Wings scored three power play goals on them.
The same Red Wings who came into the game dead last in the NHL in power play efficiency having started the season 0 for 10.
But hey, these days, the Flyers provide the cure for just about any team’s ailments.
A costly high-sticking call from Braydon Coburn led to Pavel Datsyuk’s power play goal early in the third period for what proved to be the game-winner.’
The night before against Phoenix at Wells Fargo Center, winger Zac Rinaldo picked up 4 penalties, and one of them also led to the Coyotes game-winning goal.
So, back-to-back games, the Flyers take a bad penalty and lose the game. They have now taken 45 penalties this season through six games – most in the NHL.
And Berube, who had his share of fighting majors during his long career, but otherwise was not a reckless player who routinely took bad penalties, is upset.
“We got to stop taking penalties, we really do,” Berube said. “It’s been an issue in this organization for too long.
“It’s got to get better and we will get better at it because the style we want to play and the skating, we won’t take that many penalties because we’ll be moving our feet.
“The dumb penalties have to be eliminated all together because they are unacceptable.”
I actually thought the Flyers played a very good 5 on 5 game at Joe Louis Arena and I feel that with each game, they are coming closer to putting together a final, complete effort minus the bugs that have plagued them so far.
Their defensive play has much improved. Up until Saturday, their penalty kill was among their strengths. That said, I felt at least one of those PPGs was on goalie Ray Emery, who is no where near as sharp as he needs be.
Three times on Saturday, Emery stated he needed to “be better” and quite frankly, he does. I’m actually disappointed in him thus far but the good news is, young Steve Mason seems to have his game together.
All Mason has to worry about is his own players cross-checking, pushing, shoving guys into him. It’s happened at least three times so far during the regular season and once in pre-seaspon.
This all goes back to the Flyers having been an undisciplined team under Lavy, unable to check their emotions, and they continue to be that way under Berube.
Unless this changes quickly, the Flyers are going to put themselves so far behind the Eastern Conference leaders, they’re going to again be hard press to make the playoffs.
You don’t want to spend the entire first month of the season just trying to escape 15th or 16th and that’s where we are right now.
It has to get better. Maybe benching guys, taking away their ice time, would be a good idea.
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