Flyers Can't Complete Season Sweep Of The B's, Should Probably Stop Losing
Flyers 2, Bruins 3 | (20-18-8)
Well shit. That now makes three 1-goal regulation losses in a row now for the Philadelphia Flyers, who just a week ago were only 2 points out of that 2nd wild card spot in the East. A team that went on a 5-1 run with points in 6 straight games, and now they are stuck in no man’s land again. They’re 7 points out of a wild card spot but also 7 points out of landing the top pick in this upcoming draft. So I don’t even know what to make of this team anymore. All I know is that all 3 of these losses have hurt and each one has hurt more than the last.
Don’t Take Penalties Against The Bruins. Just Don’t Do It.
The Bruins power play was the difference in this game. They’re ranked 2nd in the league for a reason. They get a lot of moving pieces out there and let the shots fly. 2 power play goals in the 1st period that put the Flyers in a 2-0 hole early is just not the way you want to go about winning hockey games. I realize the Flyers have shown a bunch of resiliancy in the month of January already with a bunch of come-from-behind wins in the 3rd period. But when you keep digging yourself hole after hole after hole, eventually that shit is going to catch up to you. But 5v5, I think every line did a a decent enough job with their match up. The Giroux line murdered the possession game (as they should night after night) and the Read-Raffl-Schenn line did as much as they could to keep the Bruins from getting too much pressure on Neuvirth. They may have been a bit off but that’s what you would expect after moving Raffl to center like that. Hell, even the newly formed Weal-Laughton-Umberger line spent some time in the OZ. Aside from the 4th line, who have been garbage for a while now, everyone did their part at 5v5. It’s just those goddamn penalties that will get you against a team like Boston, especially with Couturier out of the lineup.
Speaking Of Coots…
The Flyers are now 1-6-1 with Sean Couturier out of the lineup. There’s just no way that you can argue how important he is to this team. The minutes he eats, the match ups he draws, the production on both ends of the ice that he’s been putting up this year. This has been the year of Sean Couturier and it’s nice to see a guy play his best season immediately coming off a summer in which he got a nice little contract extension. He’s a future Selke Tophy winner and if he’s out of the lineup again on Wednesday against the Capitals, well then you might not even want to watch the game. And now let’s talk about some more injury news.
– Steve Mason is again not practicing today. He didn’t practice yesterday and it was called a “maintenance day” even though he was still suited up and had back up duty during the game. And now again today he’s not practicing and something is obviously up. Mason has been injury prone before and the way the Flyers have handled it in the past has been nothing short of catastrophic. It’s either he’s healthy and he plays, or he’s injured and he can’t go. But enough of this “well he’s a little banged up but he’s good enough to go anyway” type of bullshit because that’s how you end up losing him for weeks at a time.
– Michal Neuvirth was seen leaving the game with a limp last night. Not sure the severity of that. Not sure what it actually means but Neuvirth is obviously banged up a little bit. Mason is obviously banged up a little bit. Couturier is obviously banged up a little bit. I get that every team deals with injury issues but without those 3 being healthy, the Flyers might want to start thinking about how they’ll be drafting with their lottery pick.
Choo Choo, Bitch
It was another 2-goal night for Wayne Train who seems to thrive in these games against Boston. That’s 4 goals in 3 games against the B’s this year and his 14th total on the year. Depending on where this team is in a few weeks, it’ll be very interesting to see what the Flyers end up doing with Simmonds at the deadline. I don’t think there’s a chance that he gets dealt but if the price is high enough, I still wouldn’t put it past him. Because teams could use his presence in front of the net and I have to imagine that there are teams out there desperate enough to make a drastic overpayment for his services.
Quick Sidenote: Boston fans can bitch all they want about if Del Zotto was offside or not on this goal. The game is fast, there are only so many different angles you can look at, there’s no way this goal gets called back in the past 100 years of hockey so quit bitching that it should have been called back last night. And by the way, the only reason Simmonds was able to score here was because of the damn fine offensive work by Del Zotto earlier in that possession. Work, bitch.
RIP Zdeno Chara
Not sure which was worse, that acting or Chara’s -31 Corsi on the night. Either way, can’t believe he actually died out there. Wow. RIP Big Z. When will the services be held?
The Other Guys
– Ryan White’s conditioning is fucking ATROCIOUS. Any time he’s out there for a shift longer than 40 seconds I’m afraid he’s going to have a heart attack. Just watch him get pinned in his own zone on Wednesday and how gassed he looks when he’s chasing. Terrible.
– At this point I just have to believe that RJ Umberger has some sort of dirt on Hakstol to keep him in the lineup for this long. It’s the only reasonable explanation because even though Umberger wasn’t complete cheeks last night, he’s still on a 49-game goalless drought and does nothing to make this team better. All I want to see is a Weal-Laughton-Gagner line. Just give Laughton some guys that he can actually play with out there so we can see if the kid actually has any potential or not. He’s slowly dying with RJ Umberger on his wing.
– Ghost played well. A few turnovers here and there but also a lot of great breakups in the DZ that he was able to turn into offense so he continues to impress me. Thought he and Del Zotto had the best game on the blue line last night, thought Gudas looked decent aside from a few missed checks. We just gotta keep reminding ourselves that in a few short years the Flyers will have one of the best defensive units in the league.