Flyers willing to pay price to win
Daily News Flyers blog
Flyers willing to pay price to win
ATLANTA -- If you were looking for a particular stat to explain the Flyers’ 3-2 win over the Panthers on Tuesday night, you need to look no further than the blocked shot column.
The Flyers blocked 22 shots, including 9 in the 3rd period, which equaled the number of shots that got through to Brian Boucher. That allowed Boucher to pick up his 6th win in his last 8 starts.
“We did a good job of blocking pucks and keeping them to the outside,” said Jeff Carter, who posted his second two-goal game in his last 4 contests.
It was the most shots the Flyers have blocked in a game since stopping 24 against Dallas on Feb. 5.
Braydon Coburn had a monster night, blocking 5 shots and laying a game-high 8 hits. Kimmo Timonen also blocked 4 shots.
Despite being holed up in their defensive zone for the bulk of the third period, the Flyers allowed Florida to net just 7 shots on goal for the period. Another 8 of those shots missed the net entirely, a testament to the Flyers’ willingness to get sticks on pucks and get in shooting lanes.
Florida never really amounted any high quality scoring chances to put the game in jeopardy.
“That’s always something that we put emphasis on,” Boucher said. “Early in the game, they came at us a bit and got some chances but they didn’t get any shots on goal. We were blocking them or forcing them wide. I thought we did a good job.”
PRONGER FINE: Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren relayed the message that Chris Pronger underwent successful surgery on Tuesday morning in Cleveland to repair a small fracture in his hand.
Holmgren said Pronger’s timetable of 3-to-4 weeks will remain the same.
With Tuesday’s win, the Flyers are 12-5-2 without Pronger, 36, this season. This is Pronger’s third different injury of the season and his second surgery.
BOYNTON OUT? Peter Laviolette said that he wanted to get rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who was re-called from Adirondack on Tuesday, some vital NHL experience before the Flyers head into the playoffs.
Gustafsson will play against Atlanta on Thursday, Laviolette said at Wednesday's media availability. Laviolette said he liked the way Gustafsson played in his NHL debut on Feb. 26.
Laviolette did not say, however, which defenseman would be out of the lineup. All signs point to Nick Boynton.
Boynton played just 5:39 and was a minus-2. Boynton can’t really be blamed for either goal. Not only was the Flyers’ fourth line stuck out on the ice for both goals, but one re-directed past Boucher via Darroll Powe’s shinpad.
Sean O’Donnell played just 9:34 and all four of the Flyers’ top defensemen played north of 23 minutes.
Gustafsson posted 36 points in 59 games with the Phantoms this season.
LINEUP SHUFFLE: Did you notice that Laviolette completely changed the Flyers’ lineup last night, mixing around different line combinations and defense pairings?
He combined three centers to form one line with Danny Briere, Carter and Claude Giroux. That line produced two of the Flyers’ three goals.
Laviolette said his main reason for doing it was to allow the Flyers’ bigger guns to get more ice time. For the most part, the Flyers have rolled 3 lines all season.
“It’s a different look,” Laviolette said. “Every one in a while, you do that. By jamming those first two units with those guys and our top units on the back end, it really allowed us to push up our minutes for those guys.
It also meant breaking up the long-lived line of Briere, Scott Hartnell and Ville Leino, which have been together almost exclusively since the playoffs. They have been broken up off-and-on but always seemed to find their way back together.
“It doesn’t matter who we play with,” Hartnell said. “If we’re playing systems with energy and execution, we’re a tough team to beat.”
STATS OF THE DAY: Thanks his goal against the Panthers, Scott Hartnell now has 20 or more goals in 5 out of the last 6 seasons. Hartnell and Braydon Coburn combined for 15 of the Flyers’ 31 hits against Florida.
For the latest updates, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @DNFlyers
Get exclusive videos and analysis in our new app for iPhone and Android. Download it here.
Frank - don't forget it was the Panthers we played. If we played like we did last night against a playoff type team, they would have lost by 2 or 3. Wins are points but that was a pretty "bad" win.— Digityman- I would sit O'Donnell for a couple . He looks gassed right now. Defintely, Gus should be put in at least to infuse this lineup with some energy and sense of urgency— debbyt
- i'll take the second seed right now cause if the devils get in they can take out the caps, not us.— prominal88
- with the way the devils are playing they might get as high as the 6th seed so don't just assume they'll be 8th.— phillyfan27
- right now the devils are looking unbeatable. dont want to see them in round one. would be a disaster waiting to happen.— jsavino
- Terrible game....you wouldn't have to block shots if you hustled and never gave the team a chance to take them. The Flyers turn over the puck repeatedly in their own zone, forcing an about face for on rushing forwards and a mad scramble for position by tired defensemen. As well as they played two months ago dominating teams they are playing badly now. They are lucky to win anything. One bounce last night and it's another loss to another lowly team. They should be embarrassed. They will not go far without a change of mojo. Something is not right in Denmark....and I'm not afraid to say it.— Mark1npt
- Terrible game? They won for God's sake! Do you know that the Panthers have one of the best team defenses in the league, and the #2 penalty kill in the conference? The only thing the Panthers lack is scoringv- if they had a couple of guys that could put 25-30 in the net, they would be sitting in a comfortable playoff spot right now. I think this was solid victory against a team that has given them fits for some time now, and there are a lot of positives to take awy from it. GO FLYERS! — CTL
- The team is finally recovering from the Flu that destroyed the locer room and now their energy and ability to play 60 minutes is slowly returning. Anyone in panic mode needs to calm down. Another couple games or so and this team will be right back where is was before. The flu that went around was obviously horrible, both Richards and Carter lost 10 pounds while they were sick. You try getting right back to your old energy level and skill after that.— Flyers2822
- From what I've seen lately they should be paying the ticket face value because most of them are watching a lot of hockey.
I don't see them playing a lot.— txflyer - Sounds like some of these fans would have a date with Scarlett Johansson and complain about the color of her shoes.— retzlaff
- Once every two weeks, Coburn plays like Ray Bourque. The rest of the time he plays like Ray Romano.— AreaMan
- Play Boynton and Gustafsson, rest O'D at least every other game. If he's gassed like this in the playoffs, wherever we finish, he's no good to us. We need him and Mezzy back together playing like they were before this slump to have success.— frankiex13
- Play Boynton and Gustafsson, rest O'D at least every other game. If he's gassed like this in the playoffs, wherever we finish, he's no good to us. We need him and Mezzy back together playing like they were before this slump to have success.— frankiex13
- And yes, until we string a few wins together we're still in a slump. Starting to snap out of it, but the Atlanta game was all the proof I need that they are still in need of a wakeup call.— frankiex13
- A win is a WIN. C'mon you've been whining a lot lately. Relax....Good team must beat bad teams.....— z03mbm
- on a related note, Bobrovsky has 2 wins (against 30th place Edmonton, and an overtime win against 27th place Islanders) in his last 7 starts. Leighton won again. Made 20 saves in the second period alone...also named the games first star. Flyers are trying to win in spite of their goaltending, while Adirondack is winning because of theirs.— Hexy4GM
- Hexy: You say in one sentence what takes me a mini-novel! You the man. Nice shutout by Leights the other night, and another win tonight. Can't wait for the playoffs.— snipesmorris
- everyone calm down the flyers are recovering from injuries and the flu. theres no use playing their hearts out against lowly teams. Save the energy for the playoffs... is it really that hard to understand?— theeman1
- I love the posters here. Leighton is winning in the AHL so he should be the playoff goalie. It's the AHL! That's why he's winning! And let's not have first seed because the Devils are so hot. The Devils. Let's duck the Devils. You gotta be kidding me! If you gotta worry about the Devils in the first round, you're not going anywhere anyway. Keep up the great work people.— elrey97
- @elrey97, so you think this team is good enough to win the cup playing the way they are playing? I suppose that you don't know, or understand much about the AHL. Saying that it is easier to win there, is pretty laughable, when you look at the talent pool of the Adirondack team. The Flyers are a great team, but it is very worrisome that Laviolette is using his entire bag of coaching tricks, and none of it is helping this talented team win. They don't just suddenly 'get better' because it is playoff time. The season is a preparation for the playoffs, and this team is looking like they are not prepared at the moment.— Hexy4GM
- Yo frank hows tony seravalli doing?— chesterfield
