FLYERS NARROW LOSS A BITTER PILL FOR TEAM
A controversial disallowed goal in the final minute of regulation was the understandable main focal point after the Philadelphia Flyers dropped a 2-1 decision to the New Jersey Devils last night at the Wells Fargo Center. However, there was a variety of other contributing factors to a costly loss in a tightly packed Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference playoff chase.
The Flyers went 0-for-6 on the power play against a New Jersey team that entered the night ranked second in the NHL in that category. They generated good puck movement on their first opportunity and one of their two opportunities in the third period but could not get pucks on net when they needed to.
Philadelphia had 18 shot attempts blocked by the Devils last night. They missed the net on another 18 attempts. Many of these seemed to come on the power play, which made the blocks and misses stand out even more. I will discuss the power play more in depth in the second section of today's blog.
The Flyers had a subpar first period at five-on-five. Head coach Craig Berube charitably described the team's even strength play in the opening stanza as "just OK." After the team put in so much preparation work for -- and said all the right things about -- quick puck retrievals and crisp breakouts to stay out of the Devils' forechecking and cycling game, New Jersey hemmed Philly in deep with regularity in an opening period that saw the Flyers outshot by a 13-6 margin.
Philly got better at even strength as the game progressed. As the match moved along, the breakouts improved. The Flyers were able to generate a little more speed to carry the puck and also won more battles on the walls to keep pucks alive in the offensive zone. The latter was actually how the sequence that led up to the disallowed would-be tying goal began.
Former Flyers right winger Jaromir Jagr scored the game-winning goal at 7:42 of the third period after feeding Travis Zajac for a goal at 7:56 of the first period that gave the Devils an early 1-0 lead. Tuomo Ruutu, who could have wound up as one of the goats of the after taking a pair of minor penalties (including one for checking to the head), had two assists.
Victorious goaltender Martin Brodeur made 30 saves in what could prove to be his final game in Philadelphia. Some of the saves were awkward-looking but many of the others were vintage Brodeur, in which he was right on top of the angle and the puck hit him in the chest or deadened in his pads.
For the Flyers, a seeing-eye goal by Nicklas Grossmann in the opening minute of the second period stood as their only goal of the game. Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux received the assists on the play.
Each of the last four goal scored by the Flyers have come from members of the defense corps. The Flyers have gotten 29 goals this season from defensemen.
Steve Mason (24 saves on 26 shots) did not have one of his better nights, especially early in the game. Glovework is normally one of Mason's biggest strengths, but he was boxing catchable pucks on this night. He also did not look particularly good on either Devils goal.
The Zajac goal came about after a massive breakdown by the Brayden Schenn line and a defense pairing of Mark Streit and Andrew MacDonald. Four different Flyers skaters ended up out of position on the play as Jagr controlled the puck and two Flyers chased after him.
Finally, with Streit ending up above the faceoff dot and MacDonald trying to cover on his partner's side, Zajac slipped behind MacDonald after taking a nice pass from Jagr. Mason committed himself too early and Zajac patiently moved right as he found a shooting spot to score the goal.
Jagr's game-winning goal in the final period came at the end of a long shift spent hemming the Schenn line and defense pairing of Streit and Braydon Coburn deep in their own end of the ice. The ultimate goal was just a little jam play from the side of Mason's net that normally would result either in a stoppage or a loose puck scramble. This one ended up leaking through the short side. That's a stop Mason should have made.
With Mason pulled for an extra attacker as the clock ticked below 50 seconds remaining in regulation, there was a lengthy puck battle along the left side boards. Philadelphia won the battle and got the puck to Kimmo Timonen at the left point. Now there was overload of Devils with an open Jakub Voracek on the right side. Timonen found him, and Voracek put the puck on the net.
Scott Hartnell drove to the net, jockeying for position with defenseman Anton Volchenov as Brodeur attempted to stop the puck. Both Volchenkov and Hartnell made contact with Brodeur. Referee Tom Kowal immediately waved off the goal, ruling that Hartnell had not been pushed into the goaltender and that Hartnell's contact with Brodeur pushed the goalie and the puck into the net, preventing the netminder from having a fair chance at making the save.
Upon seeing numerous replays, I think the call on the ice was incorrect. It looked as if Volchenkov made the first and heavier contact with his own goaltender, as the careening defenseman's skates knocked into Brodeur's pads and caused the puck to go into the net. A fraction of a second after Volchenkov's contact, Hartnell made contact primarily with Brodeur's torso. I thought the Hartnell contact was incidental to the goal being scored.
Kowal saw it differently. He was emphatic about the ruling, which is not a reviewable play by the "Situation Room" in Toronto. Plays that are reviewable are ones that involve boundary lines around the net -- for instance, did the puck entirely cross the goal line or was it played by a stick above the height of the crossbar -- or a distinct kicking motion.
An on-ice ruling on a goaltender being pushed into the net by an opposing player -- which does not HAVE to be ruled a penalty but is sufficient to disallow a goal -- is not among the criteria for a Situation Room review. The reason why Toronto initially wanted a look at the would-be tying goal was that Kowal's spoken rationale for the disallowed goal was inaudible. As soon as the referee's reasoning was clear, the review was aborted.
In fairness to Kowal, he was in good position to see the play. He had only one crack at a tough judgment call that was bound to anger whichever side came out on the unfavorable end.
After the game, Berube called it a 50-50 call that could have gone either way. I agree with him, and also agree that proposals to further expand the Situation Room's powers to almost carte blanche review powers would render on-ice officials unable to do their jobs.
However, I would not mind if the play was reviewable by the referee himself. If he was able to go rinkside and view the video of a tough bang-bang call to either confirm or overturn his own call, I think that would be preferable to having an unseen crew in Toronto in front of television monitors take over the decision making whenever they please.
At any rate, the disallowed goal late in a 2-1 game was a gut-wrenching conclusion for the Flyers. Several players, but especially Voracek, were furious about the ruling. The way I see it, there were too many other missed opportunities on the night that had nothing to do with that final ruling.
Video from CSN Philadelphia
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NEW JERSEY STYMIED FLYERS' POWER PLAY: HERE'S HOW
Last night, the New Jersey Devils showed why they entered the game with the second-ranked penalty kill in the NHL. Although the Flyers' top unit generated excellent puck movement on two of their six power plays (especially the first one), the majority of Philly's 0-for-6 night on the man advantage was dictated by the Devils preventing the Flyers from getting the pucks to their sweet spots on the ice.
The Flyers' umbrella setup on the power play generally works four preferred puck rotations and shoots the puck in one of five different ways. They all are geared toward Claude Giroux being either the set up man or the shooter from inside the left half boards and Wayne Simmonds being the primary net-front presence for rebounds and deflections.
Rotation 1: Giroux is fed for a one-timer attempt from the left circle. Most commonly, it is either Voracek from the right side making a cross-ice pass through an open lane or Timonen funneling it to Giroux from center point.
Variation: Sometimes Giroux will hold the puck on the left wall and patiently try to move to a shooting area and fire through a screen (usually Simmonds) in front.
Rotation 2: Giroux controlls the puck on the left side. He feeds a pass to Timonen at center point. Timonen tries to put a shot on net with Simmonds in front of the net for a deflection or rebound and sometimes Hartnell moving laterally a bit higher in the slot for an initial screen or deflection attempt.
Variation: Timonen is at the left point area when Giroux (half boards) or Simmonds (winding puck back from below the goal line) puts the puck back to him. If he has room to do so, Timonen will move to his right toward the center point and either shoot or else dish to Voracek on a presumably open right side.
Rotation 3: Giroux appears to be taking a look at Timonen or at the net but is actually spotting Voracek moving into his favorite shooting spot from the right circle. Giroux then dishes cross ice and Voracek attempts the off-wing one timer with Simmonds jockeying for rebound position.
Rotation 4: Simmonds stands along the goal line, facing Giroux from about five feet away away from the goal post. Giroux funnels the puck to Simmonds. The righthanded-shooting Simmonds will then try to swing in front of the net for a shot.
Variation: If either Giroux or Hartnell can immediately get open over the middle, Simmonds will make a quick touch-pass attempt as he receives the puck.
Rotation 5 (Rare nowadays): In a puck rotation that was frequently used during Jagr's tenure in Philadelphia playing on the first power unit but became less and less common when Simmonds and Voracek joined the first unit and the setup changed a bit, Hartnell will try to get open inside the PK box, often from just inside the hash marks at about faceoff dot depth from the net. Giroux or the forward stationed on the right side will then try to funnel a quick pass for Hartnell to shoot from inside the penalty killing box.
What the Devils did very successfully last nigh, apart from challenging the Flyers' zone entries, was constantly pressuring Giroux to make the higher-priority puck movements as difficult as possible. Giroux missed the net on a few shots and the Devils penalty killers were also closing off his passing lanes in a hurry.
The Flyers ended up with Rotation 4 -- their least preferred setup, and the only one the Devils willingly conceded-- about three or four different times. As soon as Simmonds would try to move out in front, there was a defenseman converging on him or Brodeur was there for an easy save.
That is what top penalty killing teams do. The Flyers are very good at it, too. You can't cover everything all at once, so you try to force hurried shots and less-preferred setups. The Devils put on a clinic.
Meanwhile, the Flyers second power play unit, in the limited time it received on the ice, generated almost no pressure.
Speaking of puck rotations on the power play, the only two that the second unit ever seem to have any degree of success with are the ones of clearing out the right side for a Vincent Lecavalier shot (with Brayden Schenn going to the net) or Lecavalier rotating the puck to Streit to pull the trigger from the puck.
From a puck movement perspective, the Flyers second unit does not work the ice nearly as well as the first, even when they do get a little more with which to work.
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ODD AND ENDS
* Zac Rinaldo is day-to-day with an upper body injury. Chris VandeVelde was called up from Adirondack and took Rinaldo's lineup spot on the fourth line last night.
* Last night's game was Scott Hartnell's 500th as a Flyer. He is the 31st player in franchise history to reach that milestone.
* In his return to the lineup after a one-game absence, Steve Downie skated 17 shifts and 11:56 of ice time. They were eventful, though.
Early in the first period, Downie received a goaltender interference penalty that was well-sold by Brodeur to Kowal and was probably a bit of a reputation penalty. Later in the game, Downie was on the receiving end of a high stick from Bryce Salvador but was initially the one called for the infraction before the officials correctly reversed the call and penalized Salvador for two minutes. Downie was also the Flyers' player on the receiving end of Ruutu's penalized check to the head.
* The more I see Lecavalier struggle this season -- both in terms of keeping up with the play and in getting on the wrong side of the puck defensively and not getting back -- the more I think his role needs to reduced to that of a fourth line player at even strength who is basically a power play specialist. He is still dangerous when he has the puck in the right circle to shoot or else draws multiple defenders and dishes the puck to an open teammate. Otherwise, he has been ineffective ever since the back injury.
* KYW News Radio reporter Ed Benkin pointed out to me after the game that even low-scoring Flyers defenseman Nick Grossmann now has more goals (one) and the same number of points (12) as former Flyers forward Ville Leino has for the Buffalo Sabres this season. Despite the number of games Leino has missed due to injury and the struggles of the entire Sabres team to score goals, that is a bizarre stat.
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SHERO STATUE TO BE UNVEILED ON SATURDAY, WORK ON SHERO BOOK CONTINUES
Prior to the Flyers' game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon, an eight-foot tall, 1300-pound bronze statue of Hall of Fame coach Fred Shero will be unveiled in a free, open-to-the-public ceremony in front of the Spectrum Grill at XFinity Live on the corner of 11th Street and Pattison Avenue.
Flyers chairman Ed Snider and several members of the Flyers' two Stanley Cup winning teams will be on hand. So will members of the late coach's family, including Penguins general manager Ray Shero. The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m.
Now is as good of a time as any to announce that I will be going full speed ahead on my next book project this summer; a biography of Fred Shero. I have done extensive secondary source research off and on for the last two years but this summer, I will be interviewing many of those who knew him best and beginning the actual writing. My goal is completion within the next year.
There have been comprehensive histories of the Flyers written and book-length biographies of members of the 1970s and 1980s teams. However, there has never been a book-length standalone biography of the Fog and how he changed the game of hockey.
Outsider histories tend to focus only on the fighting and the Broad Street Bullies image of the 1970s. That was, of course, part of the story but it's far from a fair or complete picture of the team and grossly understates the multitude of ways that Shero was a man ahead of his time.
Fred Shero was a hockey innovator in his approach to the game and could fairly be described as ingenious. That does not mean someone is immune from failures and missteps along the wayor that they were never influenced by others. Shero's uniques ways and structured approach to the game deserve in-depth treatment. Additionally, his life story as the introverted son of immigrants in Winnipeg who used his considerable intellect as well as his stoic toughness to make good in life is a fascinating story in my eyes.
Shero had his personal foibles and eccentricities but that is true of many people who go on to accomplish great things. My intention is to write a book that puts the man and his contributions in their deserved context.
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