If you were among the Delaware Valley residents who called it a night and went to sleep before the end of the Philadelphia-Edmonton game last night, you have company. The Philadelphia Flyers hockey team did the same thing.
Last night's 2-0 Oilers victory was in equal parts the product of Edmonton elevating its game and playing well (especially defensively) and the Flyers' failure to respond at all over the final 40 minutes of the game. The speedy Oilers kept their feet moving all night. The Flyers didn't.
Edmonton won the majority of the battles in periods two and three and supported the puck from the opening faceoff. The Flyers tried -- and failed -- time after time to finesse the puck up the ice on the rush, and never adjusted. They were kept to the perimeter all night. The handful of quality chances they generated against Devan Dubnyk (35 saves) were turned aside, with few second-chance opportunities.
Ilya Bryzgalov did his part last night, coming up with numerous tough stops among the 28 saves he made. While Jordan Eberle's deep-slot goal off a Braydon Coburn turnover (the puck went off Matt Read's directly to Eberle) was potentially stoppable, it was a good shot by a talented player.
Besides, when you get zero goals of support, it's kind of silly to say the goalie was responsible for the loss. The Eberle goal was a "momentum" save that wasn't made, but with the way the Flyers were playing from the start of the second period onward, it may not have mattered anyway.
Bryzgalov's play was otherwise flawless. He had no chance on Taylor Hall's power play goal off an end-boards ricochet, and he came up with some outstanding stops to give the Flyers at least the chance to mount a comeback.
The Oilers are a very good power play team and took full advantage of the Flyers' leaky penalty killing (the fourth straight penalty in two games that Philadelphia failed to kill). Philly was lucky to barely survive the two-minute disadvantage caused by Scott Hartnell blowing a fuse and trying to go knee-to-knee on Magnus Pääjärvi.
Hartnell was infuriated by a non-call at the other end of the ice and sought his own revenge at a time when his team was two goals down. He's been much better about picking his spots this season, but that was a terrible penalty to take -- and one that could result in a phone call "hearing" (AKA suspension) from Brendan Shanahan because the Edmonton forward was injured on the play and had to leave the game.
Quite frankly, the Flyers were lucky that it was only a two-minute kneeing penalty at the time of the call on the ice. It was one of numerous iffy (or blown) rulings from the referees and linesman that went in their favor last night to no avail. Edmonton had Philly pinned deep in its own zone for the remainder of the period.
On nights like this, a team's best players need to rise to the occasion. That means the Flyers needed more from Kimmo Timonen's defense pairing. They needed more Claude Giroux and Danny Briere's lines. They needed a big (clean) hit or at least back-to-back good forechecking shifts. None of it was forthcoming.
Edmonton deserves credit for its effort, too. There are two teams playing and one side can't always simply impose its will on the other. Last night, the Oilers provided a glimpse of what its talented young nucleus will be capable of in a year or two as they mature (assuming the right pieces are put in place around them). But the Flyers never really pushed the Oilers; never did the little things that build up toward a win.
It has over a month since the Flyers have won back-to-back games. For the third straight year, they are stumbling rather than surging as the stretch drive approaches. That is unacceptable. The players have to be primarily accountable for that, but when so much personnel has changed and the same things keep happening, Peter Laviolette has to bear some responsibility here, too.
The Calgary Flames, who got blown out by the Oilers on Tuesday and lost to Phoenix last night in overtime, are up next in the third game of the four-game road trip. Having missed a chance last night to move themselves into the eighth spot in the Western Conference, the Flames are sure to be an ill humor. The Flyers should be, too.
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Last night's game marked the sixth straight match in which the Flyers' opponent has scored the first goal of the game. It has now happened in nine of the last 10 games. The club is actually somewhat lucky to be 3-6-1 over that span.
Another distressful sign of the lack of compete that Philadelphia displayed last night: their horrific performance in the faceoff circle (19-for-57, 33%). Danny Briere (3-for-15, 20%) and Brayden Schenn (2-for-10, 20%) were at the bottom of the barrel. But not even the often-dominant Claude Giroux (8-for-17, 47%) had a particularly good night at the dot.
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