Danny Briere expressed concern last season that the team was giving up too many leads but made up for it by having the attitude that they would be able to score their way out of any hole they dug themselves into.
“I don’t really have an answer for it. It’s scary… It seems we can’t lock up games. A lot of times, we’re able to overcome it because we can score a lot of goals and we can somehow find a way to get another one. But those tight games… It’s something we have to fix before the playoffs come, because we all understand that the games in the playoffs are all closely played, for the most part, and we’re not going to blow teams 6-1, 7-1, like we have been in the regular season.”
In spite of the offseason house-cleaning, the trend continues, as the Flyers bailed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov out in an exhilarating 5-4 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres.
Bryzgalov entered the game with a 0.900 save percentage. Having performed well in the win against the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday, the hope was that he would build off his success and begin to earn the $51 million contract he signed in June. Instead, he allowed 3 goals on 13 shots in the first period.
In his defense, one goal came from Ville Leino, wide open in front of the net, while Zack Kassian’s goal was the result of a redirection. As @raaaachel_4519 wrote on twitter, “All Leino needs to score this year is a perfect pass and a wide open net. Write that down, Buffalo.”
Still, when your goaltender makes what should be a routine save and then immediately looks behind him because he has no idea where the puck is, there is plenty of reason to shake your head in disgust.
Another area of concern is the inconsistency of the penalty kill, as 2 of the 3 Sabres’ goals came on the powerplay. The pieces are there for a successful PK between Matt Read, Sean Couturier and Max Talbot, but the Flyers are currently sitting in 16th place in the NHL with a pedestrian 82.5% penalty kill.
With about half a second remaining in the first period, Jake Voracek fed the puck to Talbot and he proceeded to put the Flyers on the board with his 7th goal of the season.
The Flyers fed off that momentum in the second period with three unanswered goals from Read (his 11th), Scott Hartnell (his 12th) and Jaromir Jagr (his 9th).
The Flyers carried that lead until Drew Stafford, left unattended by Voracek, scored the tying goal with 1:35 remaining. One could also argue that the pass to Stafford from behind the net could have been prevented if Andrej Meszaros had been more physical with his man, but the point is moot; the Flyers couldn’t lock the game up in regulation.
Claude Giroux came to the rescue in overtime, perfectly reading a pass from Marc-Andre Gragnani and scoring the game-winner on the ensuing breakaway. Giroux is now tied for 2nd place in the NHL in scoring with 16 goals and is the league leader in points with 36.
Both Zac Rinaldo and defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon dropped the gloves after earning penalties (Rinaldo for holding the stick and Bourdon for boarding). Bourdon, who has played adequately since his call-up, finished the game with an impressive 16:12 of ice time (though paltry compared to his partner Matt Carle’s 27:44) while rookie defenseman Kevin Marshall finished with just over 10 minutes.
There is no question that the Flyers have depth at scoring. Brayden Schenn, who was originally expected to play tonight, was listed as day-to-day in the afternoon with either a foot injury, an “upper body injury,” both, or perhaps they are one-and-the-same and the medical staff is just that bad at what they do. Regardless, having his talent waiting in the wings is plenty of reason to be feel comfortable in that area.
The defense is another story. The Flyers risked losing Matt Walker through re-entry waivers and have still opted to go with Marshall instead, despite the fact that Walker has played in 313 NHL games compared to Marshall’s 5 (including tonight’s game). If that doesn’t scream, “We are screwed if someone else gets hurt,” I don’t know what else would.
The Flyers return to Philadelphia tomorrow for their first game against the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. Sidney Crosby will not play, having gotten hurt against the Boston Bruins earlier this week and sitting out for precautionary reasons. It shouldn’t make a difference, though. If the Flyers dig themselves into another quick hole, the Penguins won’t give up the lead as easily as the Sabres did.
For the latest Flyers news and updates, you can follow me on twitter (@JoshJanet).
Meszaros has screwed up a lot defensively so far this season, but so did Timmo tonight when he left his man on a Buffalo rush to help a teammate who had the other guy… and guess whose man scored!!
So much play in tight around net and the Flyboys need to turn around and look behind to see who’s sneaking in. Defense MUST tighten up bigtime.
Defense has been shaky at times,but the problem continues to be all of the penalties and the erratic play by Bryz. He doesn’t look confident at all. He isn’t controlling rebounds and he often doesn’t know where the puck is. Also, it would be nice to get some production out of a 2nd line.