THE PEG _ I was talking to Scott Hartnell after a scrum of reporters abandoned his corner of the dressing room on Friday night.
The Flyers had lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Jets.
“Well, it’s not devastating; you got a point,” I said.
Hartnell looked at me.
“What do you mean, not devastating? We had two points,” he said.
“No, three or four weeks ago, this would have been a devastating point to lose, but this team has turned it around,” I said. “The impact is not the same.”
He agreed with me on that.
Craig Berube’s team took a chartered flight out of Manitoba late Friday feeling stung, but certainly not demoralized or beaten down.
With good reason. This was an excellent road trip for the Flyers _ 5 out of a possible 6 points.
Even better, you can finally start to see some long-term results here. The Flyers are 6-3-2 in their last 11 games. They’re back in the Hunt for April (read: playoffs).
Flyers captain Claude Giroux often doesn’t have anything profound to say after games. He is not analytical like Kimmo Timonen; not blunt like Chris Pronger; not nearly as defensive as Mike Richards.
And yet I felt Giroux nailed it rather succinctly.
“You look at the big picture and this [road trip] was something to be proud of,” he said. “At the same time, we need those points to climb back into the playoffs. We didn’t play well for two periods. We had the lead and sat back too much.”
There are a bunch of reasons why goalie Steve Mason didn’t get a much-deserved victory against the Jets.
He didn’t get it because:
1) A stupid penalty by Steve Downie near the end of the third period;
2) His team sat back in the third period;
3) Special teams failed miserably.
Each of those, taken by themselves, is enough to cost a team a point in regulation. And it did. Downie’s penalty, however, was simply inexcusable given he tempted fate twice on the same shift and got away with it.
Wasn’t going to happen the third time. That’s what bother me most. He’s been around the NHL long enough to know marked men don’t get three chances at borderline offenses without getting nailed at least once.
He also violated one of Berube’s tenants: awareness on the ice of what the situation was and where the game was. 2-1, third period, Flyers lead. Don’t jeopardized that. Downie did.
His hooking call led to a Jets power play goal that sent the game into overtime before the Flyers lost in the shootout, something they have been patently awful at since it came introduced in 2005.
“You gotta play smart,” Downie said. “We had the chance, we had the opportunity. I took a bad penalty.”
At least he owned up to it.
Since his arrival earlier this month, Downie has distinguished himself with a fight, a concussion, a badly bruised eye that requires him to wear a cage, and some penalties sandwiched around occasional inspired play.
I’m not impressed and neither is the fanbase which continues to wonder why the club shipped out its best penalty killer for a forward who is just a couple offensive bars above Zac Rinaldo.
I have to give Mason credit for not unloading after the game about the penalty. Much like when he lost a shutout and ultimately, a game in Carolina back in October, Mason was biting his lip hard in addressing the media on Friday.
You could see the downright frustration and anger etched on his face at not winning the game in regulation, then losing it. I saw the same look in Carolina the night before Peter Laviolette got fired.
“We gotta find ways to close out hockey games going into the third period with a lead,” Mason said. “Time winding down, you have to close things out. We need a better third period.
“In the big picture, it was a good trip. But we could have had the six points and that’s the frustrating thing.”
Mason’s teammates agreed across the board. I thought it was interesting that nearly the entire team boarded the bus early.
Downie was among the final three players to leave the dressing room long afterward and board. Which tells me Downie felt badly at costing his team points.
Instead of staying even in the playoff hunt, the Flyers actually lost ground in the overall standings and are now 4 points out.
“We have to be smarter with our sticks,” Simmonds said. “If you are not skating, you are reaching. And it gets called. That’s what happened to us.”
On Sunday, the Flyers will practice briefly, then get ready for what is about to become a very busy end of November – 7 games in 15 days.
There’s a lot to like about how and where the Flyers have improved since Berube took over. Still, they have a ways to go, especially, at nailing down victories in tight games.
“The third periods this year, in general, are not where they need to be,” Berube said. “Tonight is one of those periods. I didn’t see enough.”
The Flyers remain a work in progress.
Difference now is, you can see actual progress being made.
For more on the Flyers, click on CSNPhilly.com:
THE PEG _ I was talking to Scott Hartnell after a scrum of reporters abandoned his corner of the dressing room on Friday night.
The Flyers had lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Jets.
“Well, it’s not devastating; you got a point,” I said.
Hartnell looked at me.
“What do you mean, not devastating? We had two points,” he said.
“No, three or four weeks ago, this would have been a devastating point to lose, but this team has turned it around,” I said. “The impact is not the same.”
He agreed with me on that.
Craig Berube’s team took a chartered flight out of Manitoba late Friday feeling stung, but certainly not demoralized or beaten down.
With good reason. This was an excellent road trip for the Flyers _ 5 out of a possible 6 points.
Even better, you can finally start to see some long-term results here. The Flyers are 6-3-2 in their last 11 games. They’re back in the Hunt for April (read: playoffs).
Flyers captain Claude Giroux often doesn’t have anything profound to say after games. He is not analytical like Kimmo Timonen; not blunt like Chris Pronger; not nearly as defensive as Mike Richards.
And yet I felt Giroux nailed it rather succinctly.
“You look at the big picture and this [road trip] was something to be proud of,” he said. “At the same time, we need those points to climb back into the playoffs. We didn’t play well for two periods. We had the lead and sat back too much.”
There are a bunch of reasons why goalie Steve Mason didn’t get a much-deserved victory against the Jets.
He didn’t get it because:
1) A stupid penalty by Steve Downie near the end of the third period;
2) His team sat back in the third period;
3) Special teams failed miserably.
Each of those, taken by themselves, is enough to cost a team a point in regulation. And it did. Downie’s penalty, however, was simply inexcusable given he tempted fate twice on the same shift and got away with it.
Wasn’t going to happen the third time. That’s what bother me most. He’s been around the NHL long enough to know marked men don’t get three chances at borderline offenses without getting nailed at least once.
He also violated one of Berube’s tenants: awareness on the ice of what the situation was and where the game was. 2-1, third period, Flyers lead. Don’t jeopardized that. Downie did.
His hooking call led to a Jets power play goal that sent the game into overtime before the Flyers lost in the shootout, something they have been patently awful at since it came introduced in 2005.
“You gotta play smart,” Downie said. “We had the chance, we had the opportunity. I took a bad penalty.”
At least he owned up to it.
Since his arrival earlier this month, Downie has distinguished himself with a fight, a concussion, a badly bruised eye that requires him to wear a cage, and some penalties sandwiched around occasional inspired play.
I’m not impressed and neither is the fanbase which continues to wonder why the club shipped out its best penalty killer for a forward who is just a couple offensive bars above Zac Rinaldo.
I have to give Mason credit for not unloading after the game about the penalty. Much like when he lost a shutout and ultimately, a game in Carolina back in October, Mason was biting his lip hard in addressing the media on Friday.
You could see the downright frustration and anger etched on his face at not winning the game in regulation, then losing it. I saw the same look in Carolina the night before Peter Laviolette got fired.
“We gotta find ways to close out hockey games going into the third period with a lead,” Mason said. “Time winding down, you have to close things out. We need a better third period.
“In the big picture, it was a good trip. But we could have had the six points and that’s the frustrating thing.”
Mason’s teammates agreed across the board. I thought it was interesting that nearly the entire team boarded the bus early.
Downie was among the final three players to leave the dressing room long afterward and board. Which tells me Downie felt badly at costing his team points.
Instead of staying even in the playoff hunt, the Flyers actually lost ground in the overall standings and are now 4 points out.
“We have to be smarter with our sticks,” Simmonds said. “If you are not skating, you are reaching. And it gets called. That’s what happened to us.”
On Sunday, the Flyers will practice briefly, then get ready for what is about to become a very busy end of November – 7 games in 15 days.
There’s a lot to like about how and where the Flyers have improved since Berube took over. Still, they have a ways to go, especially, at nailing down victories in tight games.
“The third periods this year, in general, are not where they need to be,” Berube said. “Tonight is one of those periods. I didn’t see enough.”
The Flyers remain a work in progress.
Difference now is, you can see actual progress being made.
For more on the Flyers, click on CSNPhilly.com:
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