FLYERS MAKE ONE GOAL STAND UP AGAINST DEVILS
Coming off of Friday night's 7-0 fiasco against the Ovechkin-less Washington Capitals, the Philadelphia Flyers were in desperate need of restoring a measure of self-confidence in every facet of the game.
It wasn't pretty, but the Flyers managed to hold the New Jersey Devils to a mere 14 shots en route to a 1-0 win last night in Newark. Ray Emery earned the shutout victory. A first-period deflection goal by Brayden Schenn stood as the night's only tally.
Flyers coach Craig Berube jumbled his line combinations, both out of necessity created by the injuries to top line wingers Vincent Lecavalier (day-to-day, facial contusions) and Steve Downie (out indefinitely, concussion) and in order to shake things up on defense. Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson were healthy scratches last night, while Hal Gill made his first regular season appearance as a Flyer and Andrej Meszaros returned to the lineup.
Berube reunited the line of Jakub Voracek and Scott Hartnell flanking Claude Giroux midway through Friday's game, and they stayed together last night. Callup Tye McGinn and enforcer Jay Rosehill dressed to fill the two vacant spots in the lineup caused by the Downie and Lecavalier injuries.
Braydon Coburn was paired on defense with Kimmo Timonen, Nicklas Grossmann worked with Mark Streit and Meszaros and Gill (who have worked together often in practice as the "fourth pairing") were together. Additionally, Timonen went back to the first power play unit and Streit rotated back down to the second unit.
The Flyers offense remained essentially moribund in this game. They mustered just 21 shots on Martin Brodeur and failed to hit the three-goal "magic number" for the 12th time in the 13 regular season games played to date.
Only the goal-starved Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds (four shots on goal, plus a missed net from point blank range on a 3-on-1 rush in the third period) looked like they might score after Schenn opened the scoring. Giroux, still goalless after 13 games, played along the perimeter for much of the game and had one shot on goal. Scott Hartnell, who still has yet to register a point in nine games played the season, was credited with three shots on goal among the five he attempted.
At the 14:29 mark of the first period, Meszaros stepped into a slap shot from the point. Schenn, set up near the net, got his stick on the puck and directed it past Brodeur for an even strength goal. Simmonds earned the secondary assist.
On the flip side of the team's poor offensive output, having a third man play high in the offensive zone and an increased emphasis on defensive coverage support continued to limit opposition odd-man rushes. Where the Flyers get in trouble often is in the puck management department; too many turnovers in their own end of the ice or between the bluelines end up in their net. Last night, the Flyers managed to get through the game without being officially charged with a single giveaway.
In reality, there were a few turnovers that could have been charged as giveaways. Generally speaking, however, the Flyers did a much better job of puck management against New Jersey than they did in the final 25 minutes of the Anaheim game or the final 45 minutes of the fiasco against Washington.
The Devils lack scoring depth even when they have a full lineup. Take the injured Patrik Elias (a late scratch last night) and Travis Zajac out of the lineup and a below-average attack becomes almost completely punchless. Jaromir Jagr was pretty much the only Devils attacker who looked capable of creating scoring opportunities last night.
Nevertheless, the Flyers deserve credit for how hard they worked defensively during the game. They hustled to backcheck, had their sticks and bodies in good position and won the majority of the battles on the walls. Philly also won 61 percent of the faceoffs in the game, including seven of 10 on the penalty kill. Third line center Sean Couturier had an especially strong game in his own end of the ice and in the faceoff circle (11-for-17).
Regardless of the personnel in the New Jersey lineup, the fact that the Flyers held the Devils to 14 shots for the entire game on a night where Philly had to kill off five minor penalties speaks to their own solid work in their own end of the ice.
Matt Read, who entered the game with just 14 career penalties on seven minor penalties interspersed among his first 133 regular season games in the NHL, somehow got called for three minors -- slashing, tripping and charging -- in the first period. Although Kelly Sutherland is generally regarded as one the best active referees in the NHL (he often finishes near the top of player polls in that category), I thought two of the three calls that "Mini Van" and Rob Martell made against Read were either marginal or embellished in order to fish for a call.
In the third period, the Flyers had a bit of good fortune as they attempted to protect their skinny 1-0 lead. Emery saw just three shots in the period but there were a few missed nets -- including one from point blank range by Adam Henrique -- on prime scoring chances for New Jersey. Additionally, two of the three saves he did have to make were on non-routine shots.
Somehow, the official scorers last night only credited the Flyers with seven blocked shots as team, and did not credit Gill (who clearly blocked at least three) or Grossmann (at least two) with any. In reality, I think the Flyers completely or partially blocked about 15 New Jersey shot attempts. At the other end of the ice, New Jersey was credited with only six blocks for the game, which also seemed artificially low compared to what actually happened.
Given the fact that the Flyers have scored just 21 goals in 13 games (1.615 per game), it is rather remarkable that they have entered the third period leading, tied or trailing by just one goal in 12 of the 13 games this season. The exception was Friday's blowout loss to the Capitals, which saw Philly hold Washington without a shot for the first 15 minutes of the game before the wheels completely fell off the wagon.
I don't know that last night's win was necessarily an inspiring one but it was a much-needed two points by any measure. The Devils are a team that gives the Flyers fits even when they've entered the game on an offensive run, so a boring 1-0 win right on the heels of a 7-0 loss is at least a potential stabilizer.
The Flyers are in Carolina on Tuesday night. The team will not practice today, as is the norm after back-to-back games. Practice resumes on Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees before the team departs for Raleigh.
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SHERO MUCH MORE THAN 'BULLIES' COACH
Today on the International Ice Hockey Federation's official Web site, I take an in-depth look at one of the many innovations that the late Fred Shero brought to the NHL: studying and adapting European hockey tactics to fit the small-rink game.
Shero, who will be posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11, was the first NHL coach to make a detailed study of Soviet hockey and even made two trips behind the Iron Curtain in the early-to-mid 1970s to learn more about their training and coaching methods. He was also an early -- and vocal -- advocate for NHL teams to scout and sign more European players, speaking out on the subject as early as 1973.
The more one learns about Shero's forward-thinking approach to coaching and the evolution of the sport in general, the more it becomes clear that his critics who dismissed him as a purveyor of violence and goon tactics could not have been more wrong.
Yes, the Flyers of the mid-1970s fought a lot. But that's not why they won two Stanley Cups, went to a third straight Final and beat the Red Army team (perhaps Shero's proudest personal accomplishment) along the way. The Flyers were winners because they had the most cohesive and hardest-working team in the NHL, with the NHL's best goaltending, best captain and best coaching for the roster that had been assembled.
For more on Shero's contributions in the realm of studying and adapting international hockey to the NHL,
click here.
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