POST-PRACTICE UPDATES (1:30 p.m. EDT)
The Flyers held a quick practice today at the Skate Zone in Voorhees before they depart for tomorrow's afternoon game in Boston. Not surprisingly, the most commonly asked questions after practice were about how the team could "nip their recent scoring problems in the bud."
Without fail, players and coach Craig Berube alike stressed the need not to deviate from the basic process that has been working in recent weeks. The team has greatly improved its back pressure and own-zone puck management and as long as they continue to limit other team's scoring opportunities, they will be in position to win games.
From my own perspective, I did not think there was anything wrong at all with the quality of scoring chances they had in the last game against Boston or in Tuesday's game in St. Louis. I do think the Flyers gave themselves a little too much credit for their offensive forays last night against Columbus; the quantity of shots were plentiful but the power plays were subpar (lack of goals notwithstanding) and I thought the quality of chances were too sporadic.
In terms of attention to defensive detail, though, the Flyers remained strong. They need to continue playing well on both sides of the puck and to keep their feet moving with strong puck pressure. If they do that, the goals will start coming again.
Whether Steve Mason starts in goal or not, he adheres to the same practice ritual of coming out well ahead of everyone else and working with goaltending coach Jeff Reese. However, Ray Emery's routine tends to be a little different based on the next game. When Emery is starting, he tends to come out on the ice close to when Mason is there. When he's backing up the next game, he comes out later.
Today, Emery was out there early. That was the first hint he might be playing tomorrow, with Mason going on Sunday against Buffalo.
Hint number two was that, when asked after practice about playing tomorrow, Emery could not suppress a bit of a grin as he said, "You'll have to ask Chief."
CSN Philly's Tim Panaccio hammered away at Berube and finally got the head coach to admit Emery was in goal tomorrow. So there you have it.
Of course, Boston won't prepare any differently regardless of who is in goal for the Flyers. Mason played well against the Bruins last time (Patrice Bergeron's goal aside) and Emery was tremendous in shutting out St. Louis before the shootout finale on Tuesday.
Regardless of the choice of goaltender, the Flyers will need a similar effort tomorrow to how they played against the Bruins on March 30.
Steve Downie will be a game-time decision tomorrow. Wayne Simmonds and Andrew MacDonald (who is very banged-up right now) both took maintenance days.
Lastly, the Philadelphia chapter of the PHWA has selected Hal Gill as the Flyers' nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
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FLYERS FIRE BLANKS AGAIN, DROP 2-0 DECISION TO COLUMBUS
One of the things that makes stretch-drive and playoff hockey so intriguing is how perspectives can shift quickly from one day to the next.
Twenty-four hours ago, the Flyers were poised to put some major distance between themselves and the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metropolitan Division standings and, hopefully, narrow the gap with the second-place New York Rangers. Philly was coming off back-to-back games against the top two teams in the NHL and, although they had to settle for one point instead of two from both games, the Flyers deserved to have their heads held high.
Fast forward through last night's game -- a 2-0 home loss to Columbus -- and the bright and sunny outlook suddenly looks gray and cloudy. If the Blue Jackets can manage a win tonight against the banged-up defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, suddenly Columbus is tied in points with the Flyers. The Rangers were unable to nail down a regulation win in Colorado last night and lost in the dreaded post-game skills competition but they still extended their lead over the Flyers to four points.
Yes, after tonight, the Flyers will have a game in hand on Columbus and two on the Rangers. But Philly's remaining schedule includes road games in Boston, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. The Flyers have the toughest remaining schedule of any of three teams, and they can also ill-afford to overlook "trap game" scenarios against Buffalo on Sunday and on the road against the Florida Panthers next week.
Precisely because fortunes can shift so rapidly this time of year, it is crucial for a team to remain on an even keel. Tunnel vision is a necessity.
One of two encouraging things I took away from the aftermath of last night's game is that there was no sense of panic from the Flyers. Nor should there be. A club that has beaten Pittsburgh (twice), Chicago, St. Louis (three of four points) and outplayed Boston in a game that went to a shootout should be confident in itself despite a disappointing loss.
The other encouraging sign: The Flyers have been very good team defense for the last few weeks. When James Wisniewski scored his power play goal in the second period of last night's game, it ended a Flyers shutout streak of 136:02 ( going back to Patrice Bergeron's stoppable goal at the 11:05 mark of the second period vs. Boston).
Even with giving up two goals last night -- the second one being a deflection off the skate of Columbus' Brandon Dubinsky -- the Flyers have yielded just 23 goals in their last 12 games. Compare that to the 21 they gave up in the first five games after the Olympic break, and that is an encouraging sign.
Now for the worrisome part: The Flyers have now been shut out in back-to-back games.
The Flyers haven’t scored a goal in 130:25 of hockey, going back to Vincent Lecavalier's game-tying goal in the final minute of the March 30 game against Boston.
Moreover, after needing 52 shots to get three pucks past Tuukka Rask in the March 30 game, the Flyers came up empty on 31 shots against Ryan Miller in St. Louis on Tuesday and then got blanked by Sergei Bobrovsky on 37 shots last night. Overall, going back to the eight overtime shots the Flyers had in the Boston game, the Flyers are goalless in their last 76 shots on goal.
The Flyers need to be honest with themselves here. After the game, several players and Craig Berube were asked if they thought the QUALITY (not necessarily quantity) of chances on Bobrovsky was sufficient for most of the game. They all said yes.
I disagree.
In the St. Louis game, Miller was severely tested about eight times. That was especially true in the first 10 minutes of the first period, where the Flyers had no fewer than five or six prime scoring opportunities. Chances were sporadic thereafter, but Miller had to make at least one spectacular save apiece in each of the second (Michael Raffl), third (Wayne Simmonds) and overtime (Jakub Voracek) periods.
That was not really the case last night. Bobrovsky had a good view and saving angle on everything fired at him. Many of the potentially better scoring chances either ended up getting blocked down (22 blocks by the Blue Jackets) or the Flyers hesitated a hair too long to enable the defense and goaltender to recover.
That's not to take anything anything away from Bobrovsky, who played flawlessly and deserved his shutout against his former club. However, I think the final score last night if Curtis McElhinney had been in goal for the Blue Jackets would still have been a 2-0 shutout.
Bobrovsky didn't really have to be spectacular last night, despite the 37 shots on net. He had to routinely make the routine saves and make sure not to leave out gift rebounds, and did exactly that. He was tested a bit in the second period, though, and passed with flying colors.
At the other end of the ice, Steve Mason (25 saves) was solid in net but the Wisniewski goal was a stoppable one at a bad time. The Flyers had been outplaying Columbus by a wide margin in the middle stanza -- the only period of the three in which Philly was noticeably the better team around the puck -- but Sean Couturier's late second-period slashing penalty came at a precarious time.
The Flyers had an awful penalty kill with Couturier in the box. Columbus worked the puck around the offensive zone at will and the Flyers were hanging by a thread in need of a stoppage or a zone clear. They got neither. Mason actually had to come up big to prevent the Blue Jackets from scoring a goal sooner than they did. However, Wisniewski's jam-shot that got through Mason's stick and arm from near the left post was a leaky goal.
It is perhaps unfair to need your goaltender to be perfect on all chances that could remotely be stopped, but such is the life of a goalie. Mason has now given up one stoppable goal apiece in each of his last three starts, and that can undo a lot of otherwise strong work -- especially when the team is suddenly struggling for goals after being in an offensive groove.
Goaltending did NOT cost the Flyers the game last night. Mason played well overall. He did well enough to give the team a chance to win. However, Bobrovsky was the better goaltender in the game with roughly the same quality of chances -- and higher quantity of shots -- throughout the game. Dubinsky's third period deflection goal was unstoppable. The puck wickedly changed course once it hit his skate.
Ultimately, the Flyers loss last night can be pinned primarily on three main issues:
1) The Flyers had three first period power plays and not only did not convert any of them, they got outworked on all three and actually spent more time in their defensive zone trying to regain control of the puck as they did set up in the offensive zone.
2) Teams like Columbus and New Jersey that play a simple game with good puck pressure and layered defensive support often frustrate the Flyers. Last night, the Flyers went long segments where they could not set up a forecheck nor carry the puck into prime scoring areas. They can say all they want to about the team having generated a lot of quality chances but the goose egg on the scoreboard at the end of the net told a different story.
3) The Flyers had no zip or energy for much of the third period, which was when they really needed to elevate their game (especially when still trailing 1-0). Columbus smelled a win and got after it with gusto. Getting outskated and outworked in crunch time is never acceptable.
Final thoughts for now: From an offensive standpoint, the Flyers tend to go as Claude Giroux goes. Yes, they have depth in the lineup -- five players have scored 20-plus goals and the team has also gotten 31 goals from the defense corps. But things tend to fall in place around Giroux when he is going well and dry up when he is not setting the tone.
Giroux has gone pointless in each of the last three games, and the Flyers are 0-1-2 in that span. That's the first time that has happened this season since he went pointless in the first five games of this season. The Flyers started out the season 0-7-1 and had just 22 goals in their 15 games -- the span it took for Giroux to finally score his first goal of this season.
The captain is the Flyers' catalyst offensively. He will need a big game in Boston tomorrow afternoon. If so, Philly has a shot at an upset of the Bruins on their home ice. If not, things will really start to get nerve-racking in the final week of the season.
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