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Flyers Wrapup: 11-2-08 vs. Oilers |
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Wrapup 4:00 PM
The Flyers are a better skating team than many people give them credit for being, but Edmonton killed the Flyers with their speed today. The Flyers gave away too much skating room in the first and second periods and were forced to chase the game.
"You get behind early, and you play catch up and the game becomes harder than it should be," said John Stevens. "If we played 60 minutes the way we played in the third and we'd have a better fate."
Today was just one of those days for the Flyers' top defense pairing. Ales Hemsky made some tremendous skill plays and hit the blueline with speed, making Braydon Coburn look bad in the process. He and Kimmo Timonen will bounce back. They're the least of the Flyers' defensive problems.
"When we don't skate and we don't forcheck, we're not a good team," Timonen said. "We didn't do that very well today."
As they have in all but one of their losses this season, the Flyers battled hard and played their best hockey when trailing in the third period. But it's very hard to come away with points in those situations.
"Once in awhile, you can come back with a goal or two in the third period but we don't want to rely on it, that's for sure," said Mike Knuble, who scored his sixth goal in five games.
Two additional positives the Flyers can try to take away from this game: They won the faceoff battle for the first time this season (39-for-59, 66%) and they took advantage of the Oilers' shaky penalty killing. But they simply yielded too much skating room defensively and lost their coverages.
"If you look at our first five games and second five games, we had the same number of scoring chances," said Stevens. "But in the second five games, we gave up half the number of chances we gave up in the first five. That was the difference."
Today's game looked very much like the Flyers' early October tilts. The team now has three days to practice for their next game when they take on Ottawa at Scotiabank Place on Thursday.
THIRD PERIOD SYNOPSIS: Oilers 5 - Flyers 4
The Flyers woke up in the third period, but it was too late too late. You can't bear down for only one period and expect to win. Also give the Oilers credit for having their skating legs going today despite playing back-to-back days amidst a long road trip.
At just 20 seconds, the Flyers close the deficit to 5-4. Metropolit and Knuble do the hard work behind the net and Simon Gagne skates in to collect the rebound of a Knuble wraparound try.
Carter's bid to cash in a big fat rebound of an Alberts point shot is stopped by Roloson at 1:45.
Vaananen off for holding at 2:28. It was a legit grab behind the net. The Flyers survive it. At the end of the kill, Timonen has a giveaway and Timonen clears the porch in front. Moments later, Andrew Alberts gets a weak interference penalty at 5:28 on an Edmonton counterattack from their defensive zone.
On the kill of the Alberts penalty, Knuble gives up his body to make a diving block of a point shot. The Flyers kill it off. On the next shift, Edmonton outworks the Flyers on the boards, and Sbisa gets taken off the puck.
The Flyers are finally skating better this period, but why did they wait until they were behind after two periods to start matching Edmonton's effort? Inexusable, no matter what happens the rest of this game.
Scary moment for Philadelphia midway through the period as Martin Biron drops the puck on a routine glove save and the Oilers nearly poke in the loose puck.
Richards springs Hartnell over the middle. Hartnell is stopped by Roloson but draws a hooking penalty on Smid at 10:53. Decent puck movement but no equalizing goal for the Flyers.
After the penalty ends, Scottie Upshall shows a nice burst of speed on the backcheck.
Sliding in the opposite direction, Roloson is able to reach over and grab a deflected shot at 16:39.
Biron off for an extra attacker at 18:35. Timonen forced to take a hooking penalty at 19:00 to prevent an empty-net scoring chance.
Shots were 11 for the Flyers (total of 26) and 5 for Edmonton (total of 28).
SECOND PERIOD SYNOPSIS: Oilers 5 - Flyers 3
The Flyers might as well take off their skates because no is bothering to move their feet anyway. Edmonton is skating around them at will. It's a good thing for the Flyers that Edmonton can't kill penalties.
The Flyers kill off the carryover Lupul penalty in good shape.
Cote tries to stir up his listless team by dropping the gloves with Steve MacIntyre at 3:23. In a very long fight, Cote lands a couple of early lefts but MacIntyre comes on and wins at the end.
It's 3-1 Edmonton at 4:26. Hemsky scorches Coburn again, and beats Biron in almost identical fashion. Gilbert with the assist.
The Flyers gets a powerplay (Smid off for roughing) out of a scrum in front of the Oilers' net at 5:01. Nothing doing on the man advantage, but at 7:18 Sheldon Souray takes another penalty(roughing) 17 seconds after the expiration of the Smid penalty.
On the powerplay, Coburn partially redeems himself by taking a point-to-point feed from Timonen and putting a shot through a Scott Hartnell screen in front. Hartnell also gets the secondary helper at 8:10.
Downie takes a lazy and needless slashing penalty at 9:34 to hurt his team's momentum. Souray promptly overpowers Biron with a one-time blast from the right point at 10:21 to make it a 4-2 game. Assists to Sam Gagner (who teed up a perfect pass to shoot) and Gilbert.
Make it 5-2. Biron leaves out a rebound of a Souray shot and a wide open Dustin Penner collects the puck and stashes it home at 11:52. Hemsky gets the other assist. Marty has only stopped 12 of 17 shots so far today, but the team in front of him is brutal defensively. This is the worst game I've ever seen Coburn and Timonen play as a unit.
Staios off for hooking at 13:27. On the powerplay, Eminger gets a shot blocked from the slot. Later, Roloson clears a puck fungo-bat style out of the zone. The powerplay goes by the wayside.
Edmonton presses the attack in the Flyers zone and narrowly miss another goal.
Souray off for hooking at 17:34. At 18:43. Carter skates off the half-boards and wrists his 9th of the season past Roloson to make it a 5-3 game.
Shots were 13 for Edmonton (24 through two periods), eight for the Flyers (15 through two periods).
FIRST PERIOD SYNOPSIS: Oilers 2 - Flyers 1
The first period saw the Flyers carry over some of the sloppiness from the Islanders game. They paid the price for some loose coverages.
Philly kills two penalties in the early going. The best save came as Andrew Cogliano beats Steve Eminger one-on-one and Martin Biron makes the stop.
The Oil grabs a 1-0 at 9:10. Erik Cole snaps a shot past Biron from the right circle. Assists to Moreau and Strudwick.
One the next shift, Mike Richards draws a hooking minor on Edmonton's Tom Gilbert at 10:25. At 10:52, Mike Knuble taps in a loose puck in a crease scramble after Simon Gagne can't quite finish off a chance on the other side. The powerplay goal, Knuble's sixth in five games ties the score at 1-1. Assists to Gagne and Richards (originally credited to Timonen).
Ales Hemsky scores his first of the year, skating one-on-two against Coburn and Timonen. He speeds past a flat-footed Coburn, dekes to get Biron to commit first and deposits the puck into the net. 2-1 Edmonton at 12:57, Smid and Gilbert get the assists.
On the next shift, Jeff Carter nearly pulls of a similar rush, but Roloson stays with him and makes the save.
Scott Hartnell levels Lubomir Visnovsky at 19:03. On the same play, Joffrey Lupul gets sent off for hooking. The Flyers kill off the first half of the penalty, with 1:07 of carry over time heading into the second.
Shots were 11-7 for Edmonton, faceoffs 8-7 for the Flyers. The Upshall-Carter-Downie forward line and Coburn-Timonen defense pair were out for both Oilers goals. The Flyers were charged with two giveways in the period (both by Downie) to none for Edmonton. Hits were 6-2 Flyers.
Preview (9 AM, EST)
The Flyers (4-3-3) will look to extend their winning streak to five straight games and get November off on a positive note as they take on the Edmonton Oilers (5-4-1) in a Sunday matinee at the Wachovia Center. Philly is coming off a less-than-stellar performance in Thursday's overtime win against the Islanders, while Edmonton snapped a five-game losing streak (0-4-1) with a strong performance in beating Carolina 3-1 on the road.
Early last season, the Oilers gave the Flyers the only blemish on their otherwise successful Western Canada trip at the start of last season. All-time, the Flyers hold a 28-25 regular season edge over the Oilers (20-10 at home) with eight ties. The Oilers, however, have won the last three meetings and are 4-0-1 in the last five games. Neither Martin Biron nor Antero Niittymaki have beaten Edmonton in their careers.
The Flyers' injury list has grown with the addition of Andreas Nodl ("lower body injury"). The club has recalled both Steve Downie and Jared Ross for the game.
Offensively, the Flyers have been firing on all cylinders of late, even in the absence of Daniel Briere (hernia). Jeff Carter has six goals and nine points in his last six games, while Mike Knuble (five goals in his last four games) and ex-Oiler Joffrey Lupul (five goals, six points in the last five matches) have also been red-hot. Team scoring leaders Mike Richards (four goals, 13 points) and Simon Gagne (seven goals, 12 points) have led the way from the outset, along with Carter.
The Flyers have a chance to make some things happen on the powerplay today. Philly's powerplay has been hot and is now up to the 4th-ranked spot in the NHL, while Edmonton had some problems during their recent losing skid and sits near the bottom (25th overall) in the NHL through the first month of the season.
Defensively, the Flyers showed significant improvement against the Devils and Thrashers but regressed in the second and third periods of the Islanders game. Today's likely starter, Biron, carried the team through with some tremendous goaltending.
Edmonton lacks scoring punch. They are last in the NHL with just 21 goals scored (Phoenix also has 21 goals, but has played one fewer game). Ales Hemsky leads the club with eight points (all assists) and Shawn Horcoff tops the squad with four goals. Offensive defenseman Sheldon Souray (two goals, six points) remains the trigger man on the powerplay. Despite the Oilers' problems scoring at even strength, the powerplay still ranks in the middle of the pack (13th overall).
LINES AND SCRATCHES
Gagne - Metropolit - Knuble
Hartnell - Richards - Lupul
Upshall - Carter - Downie/Asham
Cote - Ross/Downie - Asham/Downie
Coburn - Timonen
Sbisa - Vaananen
Alberts - Eminger
Biron
[Niittymaki]
Scratches: Kukkonen (healthy), Nodl (lower body injury), Powe (concussion) Briere (IR, hernia), Jones (IR, hip), Parent (IR, shoulder), Hatcher (LTIR, knee).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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