BAD HABITS COME TO ROOST
When the Flyers beat the New York Islanders, 6-4, last Saturday night, Craig Berube was not a happy man after the game. The events of the three games that have followed have shown why the coach was simultaneously peeved at and concerned about his club.
Even as the Flyers matched a franchise single-season record with nine wins in games they trailed at some point in the third period -- with all nine wins coming after Thanksgiving, no less -- it was clear to anyone who knows that hockey that what the team was doing was unsustainable.
It's good for any team to have confidence in its ability to come back when it needs to. Even in going 0-2-1 over the last three games, the Flyers came back from a 2-0 deficit to tie Carolina in the third period of Wednesday's game and briefly led 2-1 in the second period last night in Columbus after trailing first in the game.
However, no team in the world can consistently survive the multitude of problems that have been evident in the Flyers' play even during much of their 5-1-0 road trip after Christmas as well as their 2-3-1 road trip after Thanksgiving and their home-and-home splits with Washington and Columbus before Christmas.
For middle of the pack teams like the Flyers, long losing streaks are often born of issues that go uncorrected while the team is keeping its head above water in the win-loss column. Often, a club can outscore its mistakes for awhile, pull off a few comeback wins (not nine of them, mind you) and win ugly for a stretch. Inevitably, unless the problems get corrected, the wins stop coming.
The Flyers have a 5-5-2 record thus far in January. On the bright side, the club has scored three or more regulation goals in eight of the 12 games (5-1-2 record). However, the goal scoring and the comebacks temporarily masked the fact that team has allowed three or more regulation goals in nine of the 12 games (3-4-2 record), including each of the last eight games. That's just not going to cut it.
The Flyers were outshot in Columbus by a 39-28 margin; the fourth time in the last five games Philly has been outshot. More disturbingly, they’ve allowed an average of 36 shots per game in that span. That means other teams are finding way too many open lanes.
Following last night's 5-2 loss in Columbus and Wednesday's deceptively close 3-2 losing score against Columbus, it was no longer possible to ignore that the Flyers have rarely produced even 30 to 40 minutes of even to superior play in most of their games of the last seven weeks, much less anything close to the coveted "60-minute effort" where they control all three periods.
The automatic place that many folks automatically look for blame is the goaltending and the six starters on the defense corps. So let's look at these areas first.
As far as the Flyers' goaltending goes, there has been a bit of a drop off in the play of Steve Mason and Ray Emery since the end of November. It's not necessarily the number of goals they've allowed, it's been more in terms of things such as some puck-tracking and rebound control.
I thought Mason played pretty well against the Hurricanes on Wednesday, actually. Alexander Semin's goal was a perfectly placed shot in which the goal-scorer also used defenseman Andrej Meszaros as a screen. The second goal, Nathan Gerbe's between-the-legs breakaway goal, was equally unstoppable. The rebound allowed on Jiri Tlusty's game-winning goal was from a point shot through heavy traffic. Mason never saw the shot and was actually fortunate to make the initial save. He needed some help on cleaning up the rebound -- or at least someone covering Tlusty -- and got none.
From what I have seen -- and forget the statistics-only arguments and actually pay attention to the games -- there has been a minor but correctable downturn in the goaltending but the crux of the problem most nights has NOT been between the pipes. Rather, it has been a major downturn in team defense from where it was during that Nov. streak of five-plus games of not allowing a single even-strength goal to the opposition.
On the blue line, there is no question that individual members of the Flyers' defense corps have been struggling of late, and that all three of the pairings have had issues in certain games. There have been different goats on different nights, and everyone has had their turn. Some have taken multiple turns.
For example, Nicklas Grossmann -- who has quietly played much better hockey in the last two games despite the team losses-- went through a horrid stretch with and without the puck where almost every mistake he made ended up in the net in games against Tampa, the Rangers and Buffalo. In the last couple games Luke Schenn has been the one getting victimized (and also having some bad puck luck on pucks that bounce off him into the Philly net).
There is also no question that the Flyers could really, really use a strong two-way defenseman with high-end mobility and puck-moving skills to play about 22 minutes a game. Unfortunately, there's no one they can call up who fit all those criteria nor are other teams eager to trade such defensemen.
However, many of the problems that get blamed on the defense being too slow or lacking first-pass ability are things for which the forwards are equally -- and sometimes even more -- to blame. For example, at least three times in the Carolina game, the Flyers executed sloppy line changes; too slowly and with the forwards coming on the ice making themselves unreachable and stationary targets. As a result, the defensemen had nowhere to go with the puck and ended up getting pressured by opposition forecheckers.
That is just one example. There are many others. The Flyers have collectively allowed a host of bad habits to creep back into their games -- things that Berube and his staff spent a lot of time in October and November trying to clean up, and which have reared their ugly heads again. Just to name some of the problems that run through the forward lines as well as the defensemen:
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Players not moving their feet consistently. The Flyers may not have the fastest roster in the NHL under any circumstances, but they manage the game a hell of a lot better at both ends when their feet are moving.
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Terrible gap control and poor puck support. For far too many segments of games, it seems like there are two opposing players around the puck. Too many turnovers are taking place in the defensive and neutral zones. The backchecking by the forwards is spotty. Players cheat out of the defensive zone too early.
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Subpar puck management. Failed clearing attempts create extended shifts in the defensive zone (one such shift was a turning point in last night's game after Philly had taken a lead). Bad outlet passes in skates or wide of the target create abortive breakouts, turnovers or needless icings. Giving up real estate with risky back passes and diagonal passes in the offensive zone creates potential odd-man rushes for the opposition. The Flyers have been guilty of each and every one of these things with alarming frequency.
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Needless, momentum-killing penalties. The Flyers have good PK units, but the team still takes far too many dumb penalties. Of late, some have been ending up as opposing power play goals and changing the course of games.
How do these things get corrected? That usually starts at practice and then fixed in stages in game action. Unfortunately, the game schedule right now is so tightly packed that there is scarcely time to work on these issues at practice. Practices right now are either short ones, optionals or not held at all due to back-to-back games and three-in-four situations.
As such, the Flyers have to try and correct their issues only in games. That's tough to do, but the best teams (and all teams go through these sorts of ups and downs during the season) find ways to manage it and to avoid lengthy losing streaks.
The Flyers have a tough matinee home game tomorrow against the Bruins. They had better get back on the same page with one another defensively as well as offensively, or the result could be an ugly loss.
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Note: My Steve Mason contract blog will run next Monday, since there are back-to-back non-game nights after Saturday's game. The Flyers' Wives Carnival is on Sunday.
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