Free Fallin’: Flyers Week in Review (3-21-3-27)

What will the 2009-10 season be remembered for from a Philadelphia Flyers perspective?  There is still time left for the Orange-and-Black to make a move and get into the playoffs.  

But it’s all too obvious that even if they are able to squeak into the eighth and final spot, it will be a rather quick first round exit against the powerhouse Washington Capitals.

Last Sunday saw the Flyers drop a 3-1 home game against the team most likely to catch them for the last playoff spot, the Atlanta Thrashers. 

To further compound matters for Philly, they lost top scorer Jeff Carter to a non-displaced fracture in his left foot after blocking a shot.  Carter was one of the few Flyers to be consistently contributing offensively.

Tuesday’s effort in Ottawa against the Senators was another exercise in futility. 

Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott recorded his second straight shutout as the Senators beat the flyers 2-0.

Flyer-killer Chris Kelly scored midway through the first to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead, which they held heading into the third period. 

Early in the third, Senators’ defenseman Anton Volchenkov hit Simon Gagne from behind and the Philadelphia forward was sent head-first into the boards.

As the referees looked on with apathy, Sen’s captain Daniel Alfredsson scored at the 18 second mark to give Ottawa a stranglehold 2-0 lead.

Gagne, who lost almost the entire 2007-08 season due to post-concussion syndrome, was infuriated with the Volchenkov hit…and the non-call…and the fact that it all led to an opposition goal.

Totally out of character, Gagne jumped Volchenkov.  Gagne was assessed 19 minutes of penalties, the Sens received a seven-minute power play, and the rest was history.

After the game Gagne said:  ”In my head it was dangerous.  I was expecting a penalty on their side.  It was a hit from behind.  It’s not part of the game and it shouldn’t happen.”

Coach Peter Laviolette added:  “That’s a dangerous hit.  The hits from behind are supposed to be called.  [The referee] said he didn’t get a look at it.”

Thursday’s home game against the Minnesota Wild was a perfect sampling of Philadelphia’s season from start to finish. 

The team came out like they would blow the Wild right out of the Wachovia Center.  Goals by defenseman Oskars Bartulis and Gagne early in the first period gave the Flyers a convincing 2-0 lead.

Minnesota looked like they were only interested in playing out the 60 minutes then getting out as quickly as possible up to this point. 

But they had some life breathed into them when Marek Zidlicky blasted home a power play goal early in the second.

The Flyers restored their two-goal lead just past the midway point in the second when Daniel Carcillo redirected a slick feed from Scott Hartnell and put it behind Wild starter Niklas Backstrom.

Leading 3-1 heading into the third period, Philadelphia looked like the team that had other things on their minds. 

Minnesota got physical and took the game to the Flyers, getting to within one when Martin Havlat one-timed a laser past Brian Boucher early in the frame. 

The Wild were able to tie it up at the 13:23 mark.  6′ 8″, 258 pound rookie rearguard John Scott threw the puck towards the net and it deflected off Flyers forward Danny Briere’s and Andrew Brunnette’s sticks and past Boucher.

Incredibly, Minnesota was tied when it looked like they had no interest in putting up a fight early. 

The ice was tilted in the direction of the Philadelphia end for much of the last couple of minutes of regulation play.  Neither team was able to score the deciding goal, so it went to overtime.

On the first shot by either team in the OT, the Wild Kyle Brodziak’s wrister from the left circle was swatted out of the air by Boucher’s catching glove and popped straight up in the air. 

Boucher was unable to the path of the puck and as he scrambled to get back into his crease, the puck bounced off of his left pad and trickled into the net for the game-winning goal.

It was just another ultra-valuable lost point in a season that will have too many to count. 

Saturday brought the Flyers to Pittsburgh to face the Stanley-Cup Champion Penguins. 

Mellon Arena has been a house of horrors for the past several years…beginning, coincidently, with Sidney Crosby’s entry into the league.

Coach Laviolette decided to change things up and jump start his club by starting Johan Backlund over Boucher.

It was Backlund’s first-ever NHL start, and it couldn’t have come at a more critical point in the season.

The game, which was gladly the last regular season game the Flyers will ever play in Mellon Arena, started off better than fine. 

In the game’s first minute, Arron Asham threw a bouncer from the right wing boards that somehow found it’s way through Penguins’ goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury’s pads and into the net.

Once again, Philadelphia led early. 

But from then on, it got worse and worse from an Orange-and-Black persepctive.

Chris Kunitz scored in the final minute of the first to tie the game after one.

Philadelphia lost another goal by Gagne, much as they did in their previous trip to Pittsburgh when an employee of Fox Sports decided not to send a replay to the war room in Toronto that showed a conclusive angle of the puck inches across the goal line until after play resumed.

This time, Gagne jammed home a rebound of a Ville Leino shot.  But referee Dan Marouelli, who originally signaled a good goal, changed the call, citing goaltender interference on Leino.

Gagne said of the call:  “I don’t know if you’re allowed to do that, look at the (scoreboard) replay and change your decision.  I had no idea they were going to take the goal away.”

Not only was the method of changing of the call curious, so was the fact that Leino appeared to do everything possible to stay away from the blue paint of the goal crease.

Fleury came two feet outside the crease and initiated the contact, but the goal was disallowed, nonetheless.

Less than two minutes later, Pascal Dupuis chipped the rebound of a Crosby shot past Backlund.  Instead of Pittsburgh trailing 2-1, they now led by the same score.

And that’s how things stood after two frames.  Backlund re-aggravated a groin injury that kept him out of the Adirondack Phantoms lineup weeks earlier, so Boucher came in to start the third.

Backlund acquitted himself rather well, stopping 22 of the 24 shots he faced on the afternoon.  But he still left trailing the game.

Early in the third, Hartnell hit Claude Giroux in the slot with a beauty of a pass to send the skilled Flyer forward in alone on Fleury.  As he does many times, Fleury dove out to try and pokecheck the puck away from Giroux. 

But Fleury instead let go of the stick, throwing it into the skates of Giroux.  As Giroux made his deke to the backhand, the goaltender’s loose stick threw Giroux off balance and the puck slid harmlessly behind the Penguin net.

Amazingly, no penalty was called on Fleury. 

Shortly after that sequence, Matt Cooke carried the puck behind the Philadelphia net.  He grabbed Flyers defenseman Ryan Parent’s stick, tucked it under his arm, and fell to the ice in an attempt to draw another Philly penalty.

When his ploy failed, Cooke ripped the stick away from Parent and let it slide to the corner boards as play carried on.

And as has been the Flyer’s luck lately, Parent ended up as the only defenseman in front of Boucher as Ruslan Fedetenko slid a pass across the crease right by Parent.  Without a stick to defend, the pass went right by the Flyer defenseman and to, of-all-people, Cooke, who tapped the puck into the empty side of the net.

At 3-1, Philadelphia was done.  The team had arguably faced more than their share of adversity for a month within these three periods. 

But time and time again when faced with hardship this season, it has been a very rare occasion to see the Orange-and-Black fight back and take the reigns to come back.

Fedetenko added the last shot to the jaw with a power play goal late in the period, and the 4-1 Pittsburgh victory was final.

Now losers of five in a row and six of seven contests, Philadelphia was now sitting in eighth place, just two points ahead of the Atlanta Thrashers.

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