I have heard it. Read it. I even feel it.
After sounding being defeated by the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 4-1 on Saturday night, this is bad place for the Flyers to be in, and it’s only two games into the season. Merely two games, out of what sometimes feel like a life spanning 82 games, and already the grumpy comments have arrived in droves.
Make no mistake, Philly is a tough town to play for, long known to demand the best while expecting the worst, athletes who play for any team in this city should get their thick skins in order. Vincent Lecavalier need not fret over what we think of him as of yet, for if the Flyers could figure out how to clone him five more times, they would have a quality top six forward setting.
That, however, is not the case, and the results are nothing short of dreadful.
I feel like i should say a word about the former Flyer great Daniel Briere playing tonight in a Canadiens sweater, but he posted irrelevant numbers, and there are far greater issues at hand with this club.
We are witnessing a reverse Bryzgalov situation, watching the defensive corps and now shamefully the forward groupings, what was a solid foundation of 2 way success, allow plays to develop in their defensive zone with little or no resistance. Steve Mason played incredibly solid goaltending despite everyone never ever ever EVER forgetting his bad years in Columbus, and tonight it was Ray Emery’s turn to know what playing five against one in the defensive zone feels like. The Flyers looked outright sloppy, and the biggest culprit viewing this game was Andrej Meszaros, who resembled a tall orange pylon while trying (and I use this term extremely loosely) to defend Canadiens from steadily marching in and ragdolling the Razor. During two of the Habs goals, he simply…just…stood there.
The Flyers accrued 32 PIMs, and the fights necessary to fire up the club came way too late. Wayne Simmonds has looked like the poster boy for anger management courses the first two games, more concerned with getting in anyone wearing an opposing teams jersey’s face more than digging in and working for the dirty goals that make him the promising 2 way battler he was developing into. Far too many bad passes, terrible puck possession, playing like they are skating in quicksand, this is the Flyers product currently on ice at the moment.
The referee situation didn’t help matters much, with an obvious goal stolen away because one referee felt Habs goalie Carey Price had possession of the puck, and clearly had anything but. Matt Read stormed in and promptly buried the puck that Price never had control of, but because a referee decided he was going to blow the whistle, that apparently is as good as actually blowing the whistle itself. A horrendous call, compounded by the fact that on the opposite end of the ice, referees were painfully slow to blow plays dead after Emery did have the puck, allowing Canadiens to jab and poke at him a good few times after he had possession. This of course happened more than a few times for comfort, and makes one wonder where in the world the referees heads were at. Officiating has always had issues in the NHL, but the coincidences during games taking place in Montreal have always been a bit hokey.
The uneven penalty calling may have had an effect on the Flyers, making them a bit tentative, and this definitely ruins the potential for quality, fair games. Twice a Montreal player ran into Emery, one crosschecking him in the mask, and yet Emery wound up somehow with a penalty for it. The other time, Gionta plowed him a few minutes later even though the puck was nowhere near either player, and Emery was front of his net.
The blame in my eyes though really rests on the shoulders of coach Peter Laviolette. The constant nonsensical line juggling, the just plain dumb prevent defense goalie yanking in the Leafs game, the simple inability to just let the youth gel and groom chemistry with each other, it’s bad for the team. Lavy may have had the magic in 2010, but it’s crystal clear that magic has long since faded. He hasn’t demonstrated the ability to make his players defensively responsible, scapegoated at one point one of the brightest youngsters the Flyers have in Sean Couturier, and these issues are leaving a bad taste in a lot of fans mouths. Looking back on how Laviolette handled JVR’s progression, it makes more sense his impatience with developing youth, and Couturier is paying for it now.
All in all, the Flyers look ridiculously undisciplined, lethargic, and uninspired. I just don’t see the team playing for Laviolette with the fire needed to become a great team, a contender. Some have blamed Holmgren, but you cant have your cake and eat it, too. We can’t sit here and say the youth have no talent one moment, and the next touting how valuable they are should they be traded. It’s one or the other, not both.
If the trend of one goal a game scoring with no defensive responsibility continues, I truly feel that Peter Laviolette will be looking to win his second cup as a head coach…with another team.
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