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Meltzer's Musings: Goal Burden Not Only on Giroux, Quick Hits |
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POST-PRACTICE UPDATES (12:30 P.M. EDT)
The Flyers held a 45-minute practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, taking sessions on both ice surfaces at the rink. The second portion of practice was devoted to special teams work.
To the surprise of no one, Steve Mason will be the Flyers' starting goaltender in Game Four of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers. Mason looked sharp at practice today and said afterward that today was his third straight day where he felt free of any pain or discomfort.
Other than Mason returning to the net for the first time since getting injured late in the second period of the team's game in Pittsburgh in the next-to-last game of the regular season, all Flyers lines were the same as in Game 3.
That did not mean, however, that the club is not looking to make some adjustments. During special teams work, the team was noticeably moving, handling, and distributing the puck a little more on the right side (Jakub Voracek's side) rather than always funneling everything through Claude Giroux on the opposite side.
"It’s more about puck movement and opening things up, just doing things quicker," Berube said when asked about whether the team is trying to adjust to the New York overloads on Giroux's side. "It’s about execution. We had a lot of zone time on the power play [in Game Three], but not enough executing pucks on the net."
Added Wayne Simmonds, "If we keep attacking from one angle and they keep taking that away, we have to find a different point of attack. It’s always good to switch things up and we have guys who can run the power play from both sides so why not do it?"
After practice today, I asked Matt Read -- who uncharacteristically leads the team in credited hits through three games -- whether he is consciously trying to play a little more physically in the postseason or if it has been a case of the more opportunities presenting themselves in the course of the three games.
Said Read, "It's the playoffs. It's important for everyone to finish their checks. We want to get on them, take the body when we get the chance and finish the check. That can help over the course of a series. It's not just about one or two plays in a game.You're not always going to create a turnover or get the puck but everyone needs to stay on their check. If there's a chance to hit, you try to take it."
During the course of Game Three, the Flyers had possession of the puck for significantly longer stretches than they did in the first two games. That fact was overshadowed by the lack of Philadelphia goal production, the Rangers' penchant for blocking shots (especially on Flyers power plays) and in Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist outplaying Ray Emery.
I asked Read if the puck possession improvement from Game Two to Game One and from Game Three to Game Two can be built upon to produce more in the cash register for the Flyers.
"I think if you look at last game, we played a good game overall. We were skating better and forechecking better. We still want to get more pucks to the net and get traffic in front," said Read.
Of course, this can be easier said than done. The Flyers need everyone -- starting but not ending with Claude Giroux -- to get into a mentality to shoot the puck and to follow up plays to the net. Failure to do is likely to mean the Flyers will need to win 1-0 or 2-1, and that puts an awful lot of pressure on Mason and the team defense to be almost spotless.
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SCORING BURDEN CAN'T FALL ENTIRELY ON GIROUX
During the 2013-14 regular season, one of the more underrated aspects about the Flyers offensive depth was the frequency in which the Flyers got offensive contributions from the defensemen. Led by Mark Streit's 10 goals, the Philadelphia blueline corps contributed a healthy 33 goals to a Flyers' attack that scored 236 goals as team.
The trend has carried over to the postseason. Andrew MacDonald scored the opening goal in Game One of the Flyers' Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers. Luke Schenn notched the game-winner in the second period of Game Two. Streit scored during a four-on-four late in the first period of Game Three.
That is the good news.
The bad news: The Flyers' forwards, with their group of seven players who scored 20 goals and eight double-digit scores, have also combined for three goals in the series. None were scored by forwards in either of the two games the Flyers have lost in the series. That needs to change immediately if the Flyers are to send the series back to New York tied at two games apiece and eventually go on to win the series.
It is true that, for much of the season, the Flyers have gone as Claude Giroux has gone. He's been checked tightly in the first three games, and has had trouble getting shots on net. While he's been part of a couple nice passing sequences that have led to Philadelphia goals, there have also been times where Giroux has passed up monetarily open shots to try to look for the "perfect" set up that just isn't there.
There is no doubt that the Flyers need Giroux to score a few goals this series. During the regular season, when he went the first 15 games without a goal, the team as a whole scored a pathetic 22 goals. As he got on track and went on to score 28 goals over the final 67 games, the floodgates opened for the entire team and the Flyers ended up finishing in the top one-third of the NHL in goal scoring.
With that said, the onus cannot be entirely on Giroux and linemate Jakub Voracek (who has been the Flyers' best forward in the series thus far) to spark the team offensively. Having Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh on the ice against Giroux, Voracek and Scott Hartnell means that the other Flyers lines see more shifts against the other New York pairings.
The task for the Giroux line would become a little easier if the Flyers' other forward lines could pot a goal or two at even strength. Likewise, while the Flyers' first power play unit is at least some good looks at the net (even if too many shots end up getting blocked or missing the net), the second power play unit has struggled to even get set up in the offensive zone.
The Flyers main secondary scorers on other lines -- starting with Vincent Lecavalier, Brayden Schenn and Matt Read -- have done next to nothing in the offensive zone in stretches where the club really could used a spark.
Read, who has been credited with a team-high 14 hits in the three games to date after having 72 credited hits in 74 regular season games, has been playing an unusually feisty style in the postseason. For a player who has just 30 career regular season penalty minutes in 196 games, Read has been mixing it up in this series much more than ordinarily would. He has remained solid in his own end of the ice.
Those are not bad things, of course, but the smallish Read's game is usually a speed-and-smarts oriented style more than a grind-it-out physical one. Read has had few shifts in the series where his speed and ability to carry the puck in transition have come to the forefront. He did hit the crossbar in the second period of Game Three but, overall, he's had few scoring chances.
Brayden Schenn has been ineffective for most of the three games. The Flyers need him to win more battles and get to the net, whether he's playing wing or center. When he does those things, he is much more noticeable than he's been in this series.
Lecavalier had an opportunity in Game Three to center the second line. The hoped-for spark wasn't there. Lecavalier has basically become a player who is a threat from a stationary position either blasting one-timers from the right circle or if the puck gets to him near the right post. If it involves skating the puck to a scoring area himself, Lecavalier struggles.
I have not even mentioned Wayne Simmonds yet. Apart from his hair-raising empty net goal that sealed Game Two and about five other shifts in the series where he has been able to work the puck into scoring areas, Simmonds has played into a lot of frustration in the series this far. That has been especially true at even strength.
In many games this season, it was Simmonds who had nearly as much impact as Giroux in being the guy to swing momentum by scoring a goal even when seemingly well-marked near the net. Much of that came on the power play, where Simmonds is on the top unit. Regardless of whether its on the second line at even strength or on the power play, Philly certainly use a Simmonds goal or two with Lundqvist in the net.
The Flyers quest for solving the Rangers' stifling defense and Lundqvist may start with the Giroux line. If it ends there, Philly is in deep trouble. Plain and simple, the Flyers need goals from a variety of sources.
THURSDAY QUICK HITS
* The Flyers practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees at 11 a.m. today. I will update today's blog after practice. Barring a setback between now and game time tomorrow night, Steve Mason will undoubtedly start in goal on Friday night.
* With Scott Laughton's Oshawa Generals now out of the OHL playoffs, the Flyers' 2012 first-round pick is likely to join the big club or the Black Aces in practice for the duration of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He will play pro level next season. The only question is whether it will be at the American Hockey League level or the NHL.
* Anthony Stolarz's London Knights team is the host of the Memorial Cup this year, which means an automatic spot for the team in the tournament. With Yann Danis called up as one of the Black Aces and Cal Heeter as the third-string Flyers goaltender, don't look for Stolarz at the pro level until next season.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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