There are so many little things wrong with the Flyers right now ... enough to assure them of being the only club in the NHL without a victory.
I don't think you can hang this start on either Marty Biron or Antero Niittymaki. And when you get past all the nice things that the players and even coach John Stevens says about what the team is doing well, the bottom is, what the Flyers AREN'T doing is what is killing them.
Which is why I usually go to Kimmo Timonen after games in which a lot went right but something ultimately went wrong. Anyone can lose in the shootout. For all their talent, the Flyers are just plain awful in the shootout. Always have been.
But Timonen latched onto something that Danny Briere said last night after a 7-6 shootout loss to San Jose. Briere said there are too many foreign bodies in and around the blue paint. From what I see 180-feet diagonal to the ice, there are foreign bodies all over Biron. He doesn't have a chance on rebounds.
Here's what Timonen told me last night:
“If you give up six goals a game, you shouldn’t get a point, and that’s the main thing. If you look at all our games, it’s one good shift there and a bad shift there. The key for us is to find a consistent level which hasn’t been there.
“It comes with the territory; we weren’t sharp enough around the net. It’s hard work. They crash the net hard. We have to do the same thing and we haven’t done that.
“I’m sure guys are trying, but it’s not enough. Once we realize we have to find a consistent level and start winning games 1-0, 2-0, and 2-1 and 3-1. This up and down hockey, we won’t win many games ... Once we realize it’s defense first and then offense, that’s the thinking process. We’re scoring enough goals but giving up six, we shouldn’t get a point.”
Today I was wondering about how Biron is handling being suffocated by opposing players. So I asked him and used the word "suffocated."
“Different team crash the net different ways," he replied. "These last couple games, San Jose has really big forwards who hang around the net a lot. [Patrick] Marleau stands in the crease; [Dan] Boyle crashed the net form point. [Joe] Thornton plays behind the net. That makes it look more that way,
“Marleau had the puck in a wide open spot in front of the net [on his goal]. If you backtrack that a bit, he gets tangled with Mike [Richards] and he loses an edge [on his skates] and steps on something. Marleau gets free and scores.
“We’re getting some bad bounces, but we are not creating anything to avoid those, either."
A lot of you have been harping on the faceoffs. I noticed over the weekend how bad the stats were and began asking some questions. The Flyers are dead last in the NHL in winning draws right now which is downright embarrassing, given the talent on the draws.
For more on this topic, here's my story running on Comcast SportsNet.com relating to faceoffs:
BTW: Simon Gagne missed practice with the flu; Danny Briere has what I believe to be a mild groin pull since the club won't say but indications to me point this direction. Both are day-to-day.
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