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Flyers: Moving on from disastrous weekend |
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Among the many colorful quotes coined by Fred Shero is this little gem uttered on January 17, 1976: "Losing streaks are born of the things you get away with when you're winning."
At the time, the two-time defending Cup champion Flyers had recently come off a stretch in which the club had won seven games in a row, not including their famous 4-1 win over the Red Army. They had just beaten the lowly Kansas City Scouts, 7-1. But afterwards, Shero said he wasn't happy with how his team had played in the last couple games.
Shero's exact quote to the Philadelphia Bulletin was: "We were a little too concerned with scoring goals tonight. I know the players enjoy it and the fans like it, but these sorts of [winning] streaks worry me. Losing streaks are born of the things you get away with when you're winning. You get into bad habits that eventually catch up with you."
The eccentric sage of a coach knew what he was talking about.
In their next game, the Flyers got shut out by Chicago and won only one of their next seven games (with two ties at the end of the stretch) before they got their ship righted.
Why am I bringing up this story from 32 years ago? Because Shero's words ring as true today as they did back then.
If you've been watching the Flyers play since the All-Star break, the team only really played one strong 60-minute effort (against a fatigued Anaheim club). In their other two wins, against Los Angeles and Atlanta, the Flyers scored just enough goals to overcome some defensive lapses and inconsistent physical play.
The Flyers' outstanding month of January was largely the product of outworking teams, cutting the gap between the forwards and defense, spreading around the scoring and getting clutch goaltending. After the All-Star break, we started seeing:
* too many players who didn't keep their feet moving.
* too big of a gap between the defense and forwards (too many forwards cheating up high) during stretches of most games.
* too many unforced turnovers in the Flyers defensive zone and at the red line and attacking blueline.
* too few strong forechecking shifts strung together consecutively.
* too many penalty killing lapses.
* too many blown coverages for comfort.
* too little five-on-five scoring and less scoring balance (Mike Knuble's hot streak masked the lack of goals from Daniel Briere, Simon Gagne, and Jeff Carter and the cooling off of Mike Richards' line)
* too many of their own shots getting blocked or missing the net.
Of course, these problems didn't show up in all three periods. The Flyers did just enough to win twice by playing about 25 minutes of good hockey and getting away with a few of the mistakes that can swing games.
This past weekend, the Flyers ran into a Rangers team that already had a blueprint for beating them-- contain the rush, force turnovers, combat the Flyers penalty kill by pressuring the perimeter. By the time the Flyers started to establish themselves physically and create some chances, they were down 2-0.
Yesterday, the Flyers ran into a Pittsburgh club that was playing better hockey and has a burgeoning superstar in Malkin playing at an extraordinary level right now.
The result: two losses and a fall from first to third in the Atlantic Division. The good news is that the Flyers' problems are correctable and there were stretches of both games where the Flyers were the better club but couldn't finish chances at key times.
The injuries to Simon Gagne (concussion), Braydon Coburn (upgraded to about two weeks out instead of up to four with a ruptered artery rather than a torn muscle) and Scottie Upshall (ankle sprain) were a tough break.
The bottom line is this. The Flyers' problems right now are correctable if the focus is on all the usual things that go into winning: skating hard, winning the little battles, supporting one another defensively and getting pucks on net with traffic in front.
Cliched? Sure. But it's also true.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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