No Miracle Comeback for Flyers as Panthers Shut Out 5-0

A day after the Eagles clawed their way back from a monumental deficit against the New York Giants, the Flyers laid a dud against the Florida Panthers. As the last game before having eight days off, the players stressed beforehand how critical it was that they didn’t sleepwalk through this game.

Apparently they don’t like taking their own advice, as they were sloppy all over the ice in the 5-0 shutout. 

Tonight’s game was really just a team-wide defensive breakdown. How much of that has to do with the absence of Chris Pronger is difficult to say, as they fared just fine against the New York Rangers on Saturday. The Panthers aren’t a team with a potent offense, with no players having more than 8 goals coming into tonight’s tilt. The Flyers just gave them all the opportunities.

The first goal was a shot from fourth line center Bill Thomas that banked off defenseman Oskars Bartulis’ shin pad. I wouldn’t throw him to wolves for that deflection, as he was covering his man in the crease. The second goal started as a long pass from Dennis Wideman to Evgeny Dadonov, who beat Matt Carle in a foot race and then blanked goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Panthers continued to extend the lead in the second period as Marty Reasoner fired a wrister at Bob, who couldn’t find the puck fast enough before Shawn Matthias, left wide open, sent it home.
The fourth goal against started as Sean O’Donnell fell down trying to grab a loose puck in the defensive zone. Steve Bernier passed the puck to Mike Santorelli, who was left wide open by a flat-footed Bartulis. Bobrovsky was pulled after the fourth goal in favor of Brian Boucher, but Dmitry Kulikov scored on Boosh with a soft wrister over the shoulder late in the third period to add insult to injury.

I wouldn’t fault Bob or Boosh for tonight’s performance. None of the four goals were really Bob’s fault, but he had to be pulled to wake the team up. Boosh’s one softy was unfortunate, but it really didn’t make any difference by that point.

In his second game back after 19 games off, Bartulis looked rusty. With 16 minutes of ice time, Peter Laviolette certainly relied on him to even out the time on ice for the remaining defensemen, but he missed crucial coverage at times and pinched in too deep at others. Hopefully the time off will allow him to collect his thoughts and simplify his game.

In the previous two shutouts against the Flyers, they were stonewalled by league leading goaltenders Tim Thomas and Carey Price. While Tomas Vokoun is also an excellent goaltender, the Flyers only put 26 shots on net tonight.  The offense didn’t look terrible, but they seemed to be out of synch tonight for one reason or another.

The Flyers don’t take to the ice again until December 28, as they begin their Western Conference road trip against the Vancouver Canucks.