NBC on Yahoo SportsFlyers fall to lowly Sabres in 3-2 shootout defeat
How do you explain it?
Coming home off a long road trip, riding a nine-game point streak, within sniffing distance of Boston in the wild card with a big week ahead.
Then the Flyers were handed a loss in regulation by Columbus and two days later, they suffered an unconscionable 3-2 shootout defeat to the worst team in the NHL (see Instant Replay).
How can the Flyers kid themselves into thinking they are a playoff team when they can’t beat the Buffalo Sabres, who have all of three victories since Dec. 27?
Heck, the Sabres have more shootout wins — seven — than victories during the month of January — zero.
Yet the Flyers still gained a point on the Bruins and are six back, but they should be three points behind because they left three points on the ice this week.
It goes back to this essential question: Why do the Flyers play down to inferior teams and raise their game against better clubs?
“It’s rough, it’s annoying,” said Mark Streit. “We seem to have a hard time against teams a little behind in the standings. Those points are crucial. We couldn’t find a way to get it done.”
The Flyers came out flat and sloppy and while they amped things up, they made goalie Michal Neuvirth look like Patrick Roy with 36 saves.
“Last couple games we’re getting enough chances and shots but we’re definitely not scoring enough even-strength goals,” coach Craig Berube said.
His top two players, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, still have struggled at even strength, though Voracek got a power-play goal against Buffalo, giving him 19 overall goals on the season.
Buffalo scored 4:41 into the game off a play that seemed typical Flyers luck. Rasmus Ristolainen shot a dribbler from the point that was deflected by Brian Flynn, who wound up winning the game for Buffalo in the shootout, near the circle and then redirected on a hop by Nicolas Deslauriers for the goal.
Ray Emery literally watched it bounce around and tracked the puck right into the net as it hopped and then slithered behind him for a 1-0 lead.
Emery, by the way, was outstanding in the shootout after a shaky start. He deserved the win on that alone.
“We played well and it’s a game we really want, especially at home,” Emery said. “They got some weird bounces. Their goalie made some saves.”
Ryan White scored his first goal as a Flyer later that first period to tie the game. Yet, the Flyers’ puck-handling that period and throughout periods of play was atrocious.
Their idea of a breakout was throw it up in the air, throw it out, throw it anywhere, but just get it over the blue line.
Recall Emery had all kinds of trouble with rebounds against Columbus. It happened again in this one 38 seconds into the second period when he kicked out Torrey Mitchell’s shot into the slot for Brian Gionta, who had the entire right side of the net for his 500th career point and a 2-1 lead.
Voracek got it into overtime, where the Flyers dominated but still came up empty-handed.
“They’ve been playing pretty good hockey — look at their scores,” soft-peddled Claude Giroux. “All their games are one goal, but it’s not an excuse. We need to find a way to get the two points.
“We want to play good every game. … We did a lot of good things out there. When they had chances, it was in the back of our net.”
You can’t say you’re making a playoff run and lose to bad teams while tossing aside valuable points down the stretch.
“Any team we’re playing right now, we need the points,” Braydon Coburn said. “It doesn’t matter. It’s Buffalo. They got professional players over there. We need to win. It’s crunch time for us.”
But the Flyers aren’t crunching the numbers correctly.
