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Wrap: Flyers Fail Crucial Test, Lose 4-2 to Toronto |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS FAIL VITAL TEST, LOSE 4-2 IN TORONTO
Mathematically, the Philadelphia Flyers' road game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night was not a must-win for either club. Practically speaking, however, it was.
In what has been a rollercoaster 2016-17 season for the Flyers, the team entered Thursday's game with a chance to tie Toronto in the race for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot and to remain on the heels of the race's frontrunner, the New York Islanders. Instead, the worst-case scenario came to fruition. The Flyers dropped a 4-2 verdict to Toronto, while the Islanders beat the Vancouver Canucks. Additionally, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Minnesota Wild and bypassed the Flyers in the standings.
With 16 games left for every team in the chase, the Flyers are now five points behind the Islanders, four points in back of the Maple Leafs and trail Tampa by one point. Keep in mind that the Flyers have a tiebreaker disadvantage against all three teams and, thus, would have to win outright on points to get into the playoffs.
The Flyers didn't play a terrible overall game against Toronto, but also did not deserve to win. Philadelphia was sloppy with the puck, especially in the second period, failed on the penalty kill (for the second straight game) and reverted to their inability to finish scoring chances.
The first period was a decent one, and Philly grabbed an early lead on a Wayne Simmonds power play deflection of a Shayne Gostisbehere point shot for Simmonds' 28th goal of the season (14th power play goal, tying teammate Brayden Schenn for the NHL lead). Much later, after Toronto scored the next three goals, the Flyers put on a furious late push that was too little and too late to alter the final outcome. Gostisbehere scored his sixth goal of the season before Toronto's Nazem Kadri (28th goal) iced the win with an empty netter.
William Nylander (power play, 18th), Tyler Bozak (16th) and Mitch Marner (power play, 16th) scored for the Maple Leafs before Kadri's empty net goal.
With Steve Mason on a hot streak and the Flyers having had a moderate recent schedule -- no back-to-back games and just one game between Friday and Sunday before a tough 3-in-4 next week -- all logic dictated that Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol would tab Mason for the crucial game in Toronto. Instead, he went with Michal Neuvirth, who had struggled in three of his four most recent starts.
There is no guarantee that Mason would have fared better against the Leafs but he probably deserved the chance. Neuvirth did not cost the Flyers this game. He made some tough saves among the 29 he authored on 32 shots. None of the three goals Neuvirth allowed were outright soft ones as Nylander, Bozak and Marner all made nice shots to score. In particular, the Bozak shot off the long-side post and into the net was one where the shooter deserves credit more than the goalie deserves blame.
On the other hand, the Flyers' goalie was not screened on any of the Toronto goals, nor did any deflect or get scored from what are the usual high-danger areas. Two were scored from above the dots in the right circle and the other was from outside the dots.
The Nylander power play goal was scored from outside the dot, while Marner's power play tally came from above the dot and appeared to slip through the five hole. Bozak's unassisted second period goal, scored moments after he stole the puck from Sean Couturier on an attempted Philadelphia zone exit, came shortly after winning goalie Frederik Andersen (36 saves on 38 shots) erased a golden rebound opportunity for a trailing Michael Del Zotto on a Flyers' rush. At the other end, after Bozak stripped Couturier of the puck, he weaved into the top of the right circle and scored off the far side post.
Again, the goaltending the Flyers received on Thursday did not cost the team the game. However, the Leafs' Andersen (now 6-0-0 in his career against Philadelphia) outplayed his Flyers' counterpart. This was just one of several crucial matchups on Thursday where the Leafs came out ahead.
The Flyers had trouble coping with the Toronto forecheck for much of the game and working their way cleanly up the ice. The 12-6 discrepancy in charged giveaways plus a 14-5 Toronto edge in credited takeaways was a bigger factor in the outcome. Likewise, when a team yields four opposition power play goals over a two-game span, as the Flyers did in Buffalo and Toronto, it has to go down as a team failure.
Before the Marner power play goal, the Flyers nearly knotted the game at 2-2 on a power play of their own. At the 11:50 mark, Andersen robbed Claude Giroux with a sliding stop on a one-timer from the left circle. As the power play expired, Brandon Manning beat Andersen cleanly with a point shot but rang the puck off the crossbar.
Gostisbehere finished with a two-point game. Valtteri Filppula and Jakub Voracek assisted on the late Gostisbehere goal. Claude Giroux, who had six shots on goal, got the secondary assisted on the Simmonds' deflection power play goal at 6:09 of the first period.
Skating on the fourth line, rookie forward Travis Konecny created several scoring opportunities that linemates Chris VandeVelde and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were unable to capitalize. Later in the game, Konecny played some shifts with Couturier and Matt Read.
The Flyers play a Saturday matinee game in Boston. In order to undo the damage caused by Thursday's outcomes, Philly would not only need to win that game but for the Islanders to lose in regulation in St. Louis, the Maple Leafs to lose in regulation in Carolina and for the visiting Florida Panthers to knock off the Lightning in regulation. That would restore the standings to where they were heading into Thursday. Even if all of those things were to play out, another date would drop off the calendar and the Flyers would basically need to run the table on their 3-in-4 next week against the Columbus Blue Jackets (home), Pittsburgh Penguins (home) and New Jersey Devils (away) to brighten their remaining outlook.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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