“We were sleeping in the first half of the game… we just weren’t ready to go.”
Kimmo Timonen laid out what happened pretty succinctly in today’s 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils. In their second game of three in four days, the Flyers came out uncoordinated in the first period and allowed the Devils to take the early lead.
The Devils have had a bit of a resurgence of late, with a 4-0-1 record heading into today’s match. Two of those contenders were the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Pittsburgh Penguins, so you have to think that they’re not going to be the doormat they were a few weeks ago.
For the first 20 minutes of the game, the team just did not look mentally prepared to play an afternoon game. They were out of synch, nearly colliding with each other on the ice at times and continuously turning the puck over.
The first goal from defenseman Henrik Tallinder was a shot from about 15 feet out through traffic. Goaltender Brian Boucher can be forgiven for missing that one, but the shot from Patrik Elias was incredibly soft. He just threw it on net and it slid through Boosh’s five-hole. By the end of the period, the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center voiced their frustrations.
“They’ve got high expectations for us, and so do we,” said Boosh. “Look, we weren’t happy with that first period. I guess we deserved to get booed off the ice. I think that was a wake-up call.”
Rather than complain about every player that failed to put it in the effort, I have to laud James Van Riemsdyk. He was the one bright spot on the ice for the entire game. He was driving to the net and throwing his weight around on the forecheck like crazy. His hard work paid off with 19.5 seconds left in the second period, as he re-directed a shot from Claude Giroux past goaltender Johan Hedberg.
The Flyers looked much better in the third period, but Elias drew a cross-checking penalty against Giroux in the last 2:14. He ended up tallying the empty netter that closed the door on any chance of a comeback.
For those who want to throw Boosh under the bus today, he was given the start because of his success against the Devils and to give goaltender Sergei Bobrovsy some rest before tomorrow’s road game. The second goal was terrible, but holding a team to within two goals isn’t. As Scott Hartnell put it, “We had a lot of chances, especially in the last 20 minutes, to get the equalizer, but we just couldn’t do it.”
The general consensus among the players and coaches was that it wasn’t a matter of the team looking ahead to tomorrow’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Boosh said he hadn’t heard anyone talk about it, so I’m inclined to believe it.
The game will be aired on NBC tomorrow afternoon.
