Lost Weekend for Disjointed Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers opened their west coast trip with a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wedensday night and all things seemed to be pointing in a positive direction.  But this weekends games against the San Jose Sharks and Phoenix Coyotes were anything but positive for the Flyers as they dropped both games and lost a couple more players to injuries along the way.

Fridays game in San Jose was strange, to say the least.  Defenseman Chris Pronger could not keep his feet on several shifts as it appeared that he had a skate problem.  One of the most glaring instances was when he blew a tire as the puck came to him less than a minute into the second period.  He wiped out into the boards as the puck slid past him inside the Flyers defensive blueline.  Sharks forward Dany Heatley swooped in and took control of the puck, sending it to Joe Thornton, who calmly held onto the disc as Heatley headed to the net.  Thornton waited until the last possible second for a lane to open and he found it with a pass across the Flyer netmouth, where Heatley easily tapped it into the Flyer cage.

The key moment in the game seemed to come in the closing seconds of the second period.  Patrick Marleau took a cross ice feed from defenseman Dan Boyle at the top of the right circle and ripped a one-timer right on Flyer goaltender Ray Emery.  Emery appeared to make the save, but as he thought he had it trapped, the puck trickled through him and just over the goal line for the Sharks go-ahead goal at 3-2 with less than 5 ticks left on the clock.  The goal gave San Jose the lead and all of the momentum heading into the third period.

After the game the Flyers said the ice surface was bad.  There were several Flyer players who appeared to be having difficulty skating, including the usually smooth-skating Claude Giroux.  But the San Jose players didn’t have any trouble as they skated to a 6-3 win.  The Flyers seemed disjointed in not only their skating but also their passing, as they continually turned the puck over as they attempted to make a pass into the San Jose zone.

Add in that Philadelphia’s usually dependable special teams let them down.  The power play was 0-3 and gave up a shorthanded goal, and the penalty killing team allowed 2 San Jose goals in 5 attempts.  The Sharks put together a top line of Dany Heatley-Joe Thornton-Patrick Marleau, and they dominated play whenever they were on the ice.  Heatley had a hat trick, Thornton had 4 assists, as the line combined for a total of 4 goals and 4 assists.

Late in the third period, Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray took forward Darroll Powe heavily into the boards.  Powe was slow to get up and was holding his arm / wrist as he left the ice.

Saturday nights loss to the Coyotes was just as frustrating for Philadelphia.  The Flyers hoped to get back on the winning track as Phoenix came into the game having won only 3 of their last 9 games.  The Flyers didn’t seem to have any problems with their skates, but their flow as a unit once again seemed to be a bit in disarray.  Way too many missed passes; two players both skating away from the puck as each appeared to be thinking the other had it; two Flyer players crashing into each other in front of their own net when they had clear cut possession of the puck, creating an unforced turnover deep in their defensive zone.  It was wasn’t pretty for Philadelphia for two periods.  But because of a beautiful pass from Claude Giroux, springing Scott Hartnell for a breakaway goal, the Flyers entered the third period with a 1-1 tie.

And this is where things really got weird for Philadelphia.

During a Coyotes power play midway through the third period, Phoenix looked to have been offsides when Adrian Aucoin couldn’t keep a bouncing puck from going inches over the blueline.  One of the linesman raised his hand to signify the offsides, the other started to bring his arm up to do the same.  But as he did, he then waived off the offsides and pointed frantically at the blueline.  The players had momentarily relaxed with the offsides call, but then feverishly scrambled to get back into the play as coach John Stevens screamed at the officials that they blew the call.  And of course, the Coyotes ended up scoring a goal as Keith Yandle ended up with the power play marker.  It was a moment that retired linesman Leon Stickle would have been proud of, having blown one of the most-publicized and difference making offsides calls in the history of the sport…and yes, it again was the Flyers that were on the wrong side of the call during those 1980 Stanley Cup Finals.  Stickle’s oversight of a play where the puck came a good 2 feet outside of the Flyer zone came in the deciding 6th game.

To add insult to injury, with the Flyers still trailing 2-1 and Ray Emery pulled for an extra attacker, Shane Doan was credited with a goal on a penalty that never even should have been called.  The puck was passed from behind the net and Doan, along the goal line at side of the net, had his stick lifted by Chris Pronger.  The referee called Pronger for a hook, and after a further conference with all of the officials, awarded Doan with a goal.  Not that the play met the criteria of a player being interfered with while in possession of the puck and with a totally unimpeded path to the net, but it was another call worthy of a crew that should have been listed in the assists on the Yandle power play goal.

Compounding matters for the Flyers is that they lost center Blair Betts to a freak injury in the first period.  The puck was airborne and going over Betts’ head.  In an attempt to move the puck from the Philadlphia defensive zone, Betts jumped into the air and swatted at the puck with his hand.  He immediately dropped his glove and skated over to the Flyer bench, holding his arm very gingerly along the way.  He went right to the dressing room and was diagnosed with a dislocated right shoulder, and will miss at least a month.  It’s Betts’ second shoulder injury of the year, the first keeping him out of 7 games earlier this season.  Betts is a valuable checking center and penalty killer.  It’s no wonder that going into last nights game the Flyers were 10-2 with Betts in the lineup.

Once again special teams were an achilles heel for Philadelphia against the Coyotes.  The power play went 0-5, and the penalty kill gave up 2 goals in 5 Phoenix chances.  For a team that entered the night as the top ranked power play in the league, they really didn’t generate many chances while with the man-advantage.  And the penalty killing unit has now dropped to the #18 spot in the NHL rankings.  John Stevens and his coaching staff have their work ahead of them in righting the ship before they roll into Colorado to play the Avalanche on Monday night.