FLYERS TO PLAY FOR THIRD IN METRO AFTER LATEST LOSS TO TAMPA
There are certain teams that give the Philadelphia Flyers fits. Philly seems to have perpetual trouble with the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially on the road. The Flyers always seem to be chasing the game against the Bolts, and the Lightning seem to convert a much higher percentage of their scoring chances in games against Philly.
Last night, the Lightning completed a sweep of the regular season series against the Flyers with a 4-2 win. All three Tampa wins this season came in regulation, which make the pill even a little more bitter to swallow for the Flyers. In the three games, Tampa outscored the Flyers by a combined 14-7 margin.
Tyler Johnson got the Lightning on the board first, cashing in on a botched line change just two minutes into the opening period. The score stayed right there until Wayne Simmonds moved out in front of the net to stuff in a Flyers power play goal at 18:39 of the second period.
After a lengthy stretch of being a strong third period club this season, the Flyers have struggled in third periods late in the stretch drive. As with last Saturday's game in Boston, the Flyers were able to get last night's game to the third period with the score tied. Over the final 20 minutes, however, the Lightning outscored the Flyers, 3-1.
Goals by Richard Panik and Eric Brewer put Tampa ahead by two goals before the third period was halfway over. The Flyers got a lucky break at 12:22 as Sean Couturier backhanded a puck from a severe angle and it deflected up and into the net off Tampa forward Ondrej Palat's stick.
Scott Hartnell took a bad penalty late in the third period with the Flyers trailing by a goal. Steven Stamkos' ensuing power play goal shot from a flat angle gave the Bolts some insurance and sealed the deal on the game.
The Flyers didn't play a terrible game last night, but it was not good enough to deserve to win. Philly established a decent forecheck at times but struggled to finish scoring opportunities. Too often, the Flyers missed the net, got blocked or shooting puck right into the chest or pads of Tampa goaltender Anders Lindbäck (34 saves).
At the other end of the ice, Philly suffered about a half-dozen defensive breakdowns over the course of the game, and three of them ended up in the back of their net. Tampa did a better job of getting pucks on net than Philly, which ultimately contributed to the outcome. The Lightning got blocked just nine times and missed the net nine others, compared to 16 blocked attempts and 10 missed nets for the Flyers.
Likewise, the goaltending performance of Ray Emery (27 saves) may have been adequate to win a game against a club like Buffalo or Florida, but was not quite good enough at some key moments of the game. The momentum saves weren't there in crunch time.
As a result of the Flyers' regulation loss combined with the New York Rangers' win over the Buffalo Sabres, the Rangers have clinched second place in the Metropolitan Division and home ice in the first round of the playoffs against either Philadelphia or the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Flyers are now guaranteed to be the road team at the start of the first round of the playoffs. It remains to be seen whether they will play the Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins or Boston Bruins in the first round.
Idle last night, the Blue Jackets play the Lightning tonight. With a win or even an overtime or shootout loss tonight, the Blue Jackets will take over third place in the Metro and at least temporarily push the Flyers down to a wildcard spot.
The Flyers play in Pittsburgh tomorrow afternoon and then conclude the regular season at home against Carolina on Sunday.
***********
GUSTAFSSON STARTS
With a playoff spot already clinched and defenseman Nicklas Grossmann banged up with a foot ailment that has been bothering him for a couple of weeks, head coach Craig Berube opted to sit on Grossmann and start Erik Gustafsson in his place.
Unfortunately, Gustafsson had a rough game. Apart from going minus-two in 14:08 of ice time -- which was by no means solely to blame on Gustafsson -- the player did not make good use of the things he does well.
In order to stay in the lineup, Gustafsson needs to do two things better: 1) Move his feet more consistently to take advantage of his mobility and ability to trigger the rush, 2) Compensate for his lack of physical strength through strong positioning and an active stick.
Gustafsson too often gets manhandled behind and around the Philadelphia net. Last night, Tampa forwards fended the defenseman off a little too easily.
Another problem that starting Gustafsson in the same lineup as Kimmo Timonen and Mark Streit creates is that it potentially makes the Flyers' blueline too undersized to handle trench warfare. A blueline with three of its six members standing less than six-feet tall is one too many. Also, while Andrew MacDonald stands 6-foot-1, he is rather slightly built and does not play a physical style despite his outstanding shot-blocking skill.
Braydon Coburn is big and strong, but is usually more of a skating-reliant defenseman than he is a physical player. Last night, Luke Schenn (who also did not have one of his better games) was the only Flyers defenseman with any sort of a physical presence, and it was not enough.
As a team, the Flyers had only 13 credited hits last night -- their lowest total since Jan. 13 and just the ninth time this season they've had fewer than 20 hits. Additionally, coming up with just nine blocks is not good enough this time of year.
Of course, this is not ALL attributable to Gustafsson starting in Grossmann's place last night. What happened last night was a team-wide failure to be sufficiently physical -- and the absence of suspended Zac Rinaldo no doubt reduced the Flyers hit totals by four to a half-dozen -- and to close off the shooting lanes.
****************
Click below to follow me on Twitter:
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»