Flyers Experiencing Power Outage

Usually when you allow only three goals in a three game road trip you would come home with a sweep, maybe two wins at worst.  Not for these suddenly powerless Philadelphia Flyers.

After winning their first game of the trip, a 3-0 victory against an equally punchless Calgary Flames lineup, Philadelphia managed just one more goal over the next two games.  They were shutout by Jeff Deslauriers and the Edmonton Oilers, then dropped a 2-1 decision last night to Anton Khudobin and the Minnesota Wild.  Not exactly your household netminding names, but the Flyers have again gotten themselves into a mode where every goaltender that faces them looks like the second coming of Ken Dryden.  Deslauriers made 33 saves in the shutout and Khudobin, making his very first NHL start, stopped 38 of 39.  Not coincidentally, both goalies were named first star of their respective games.

Philadelphia has played well defensively.  It’s just when they have made any mistakes, whatsoever, the puck has ended up in the back of their net.  In Edmonton, it was a late Darroll Powe penalty in a 0-0 game that led to Ryan Potulny’s power play marker with just 16 seconds left in regulation.  Potulny gained just enough separation from Mike Richards in behind goaltender Michael Leighton to tuck home a fantastic backhand feed from Sam Gagner for the win.  Last night Leighton had two misadventures with the puck that directly led to the only two Wild goals;  the first, he was behind the net with the puck after stopping a Minnesota dump in and waited just long enough to try to dish it off that forechecking winger Owen Nolan disrupted Leighton’s outlet attempt.  The puck deflected right into the slot where Cal Clutterbuck pounced on it and whipped it into the open cage.  The second came midway through the second period with the score tied 1-1.  Eric Belanger drifted a weak shot towards Leighton, who made the easy save.  It appeared that the Flyer goaltender left the rebound for his defenseman to take possession of, but instead it was again Nolan who poked at it and scored the eventual game-winner.  Leighton said in an interview after the game “I let in two soft goals, and, obviously, that hurt us pretty bad. I’ll take the blame for both those goals“.

It’s great to see a player step up and take responsibility, but Leighton should take the least of any blame for the recent Philadelphia woes.  Leighton, after going 8-0-1, has now lost his last three starts.  Last night Daniel Carcillo scored a goal, but it is the lone Flyer tally in support of Leighton in those three starts.  He has had no margin for error, so it only figures that any mistakes made have been catastrophic.

It was just two short seasons ago that the Flyers went to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they eventually lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.  That 2007-08 roster was something special and gave Philadelphia hockey fans hope of bigger things to come as it looked like the core could be held together for years to come.  Players like Joffrey Lupul, R.J. Umberger and Scottie Upshall stepped up and delivered clutch goals time and time again and were vital cogs in the chemistry of the team.  As each of them have been dealt, victims of Paul Holmgren’s continuing salary cap limbo, the team has drifted farther and farther away in the chemistry department.

The roster as a whole looks good on paper.  No way should there be these long stretches of horrific goal scoring droughts, but there have been numerous.  During the 3-13-1 skid from last November through last December, a stretch that nearly cost the team any shot at making the postseason, Philadelphia managed just 30 goals in those 17 games.  The Flyers were able to score more than two goals on only four occasions during those 17 games.

After seemingly working through their issues, it appeared that coach Peter Laviolette had gotten all of the moving parts adjusted to the correct places.  Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, Scott Hartnell, and Jeff Carter broke out of elongated scoring slumps and the team plowed through most of January.  But beginning with a strange and frustrating Sunday afternoon game against Pittsburgh on January 24th in which they lost 2-1, the team has gone 2-4-0 and scored only 10 goals in those six contests.  They once again appear disheveled, and even when they register high shot games, they are making the opponents goaltending look spectacular.  In the Edmonton game, Deslauriers played well.  But the number of times the Flyers top gunners drilled the Oiler crest on the goaltender’s chest was ridiculous.  And last night against Minnesota’s Khudobin is another classic example.  After the first period, Philly had outshot the Wild 17-7, but the scoring chances were even at 4-4.  Philadelphia was just throwing the puck at the net at every opportunity, hoping to rattle the 23-year-old netminder.  What it accomplished was to give Khudobin a feel for the puck and helped him garner first star status.

With the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes over and the New Jersey Devils standing as the victor, there doesn’t appear to be any other help available via trade at this time.  Holmgren explored the possibility of acquiring Kovalchuk, not only one of the premier snipers but also one of the top five players in the world, but Homer balked when Atlanta Thrashers GM Tom Waddell required either Claude Giroux or James van Riemsdyk be included for any package he got in return.  As great as it would have been to pick up a player of Kovalchuk’s pedigree, Holmgren made the correct decision.  Kovalchuk, an unrestricted free agent after this season, wants a contract extension that Philadelphia could not fit into it’s bulging cap limit, so to give up any building blocks like Giroux or JVR for what amounts to a rental player would have been a bad move.

While Holmgren busily looks at his trade options, it looks like the Flyers will have to figure this out with the personnel that they have at this moment.  It will be up to Laviolette to put all of the existing pieces into just the right configuration.  And for their sake, it had better happen soon.  They currently sit in the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference standings, teetering on the edge of non-playoff contention, tied with their rival New York Rangers with 59 points.

Flyers Acquire Leino from Red Wings

Holmgren did make a deal on Saturday, acquiring forward Ville Leino from the Detroit Red Wings.  In exchange, the Flyers sent oft-injured defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and a 2011 fifth round draft pick to Detroit.  Over two seasons with the Red Wings, Leino has scored nine goals and added seven assists in 55 games.  He will get a look on Philadelphia’s third line.  Tollefsen never really made an impact in his short time in Philadelphia.  Signed as an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, OKT played in just 18 games, registering two assists.  He had a plethora of injuries and was not effective when in the lineup.

Taking a Flyer:   The Flyers have four games this week that will be played in two home-and-home series prior to the Olympic break.  The first set is Monday and Wednesday with Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils, the second with the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and Saturday nights.  After that, Philadelphia does not play again until March 2nd in Tampa Bay…Ray Emery missed his second straight game last night with hip tightness and remains day-to-day…Brian Boucher, who has not gotten into game action since December 21st against the Florida Panthers, served as Leighton’s backup.

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