Penalties cost Flyers in Tampa Bay
Daily News Flyers blog
Penalties cost Flyers in Tampa Bay
Frank Seravalli
TAMPA, Fla. -- It was bound to happen at some point.
You can't hide from the whistles forever. The Flyers, the NHL's far and away leader in minor penalties through the first 8 days of the season, found out the hard way in Sunday evening's 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the high-powered Lightning offense.
Tampa Bay scored three times - twice on the power play - in a span of 4:21 in the first period to erase a lead Sean Couturier gave the Flyers in the first 59 seconds.
Yes, the Flyers are one of only 3 teams to have played 6 games so far, including Chicago and St. Louis, but they are also the least disciplined. The Flyers have 39 minor penalties called against them - an average of 6.5 per game. Buffalo (5 GP) is second with 30 minor penalties.
St. Louis entered their 6th game on Sunday night with 23 minors; Chicago with 18 (7th fewest).
The Lightning never looked back from that 3-1 lead, pouring it on with two more goals in the third period. Even when it didn't officially count on the scoresheet as a power play goal, Steven Stamkos' third tally of the season came just 12 seconds after Braydon Coburn exited the box midway through the third.
The loss cost the Flyers (2-4-0) a chance to even their record heading home from a back-to-back set in the Sunshine State. It was a polarizing weekend: a 5-1 defeat on the heels of a 7-1 rout across the state against the Panthers on Saturday night.
The penalties made for an unforgiving debut for Michael Leighton, who allowed all 5 goals in his first start of the season. It was Leighton's first NHL start since April 24, 2011, in which he was pulled from a playoff game against Buffalo. Ilya Bryzgalov was given the night off after 5 straight starts, in which he has played well.
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What? No Bryz bashing today? Not going to blame Leaky for that entire loss, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut. Why do all the refs have pms this year? Someone leave a box of pads in their dressing room please.— NYPHILLYPHAN- team is gutless.the lack of response when the bolt went after giroux speaks volumes.winning Teams put up for their stars...the bench should have emptied...oh and claude next time drop the gloves and show your teammates up!— munkeygoalie1
- When is Laviolette going to start getting some criticism on this site?
The defense and goaltending has been very sloppy the past two years and in last years playoffs they continually got behind early in games, looking very unprepared.
Look at the Devils, and see what a great defensive coach can do with a revolving roster...— astroqueen0 - Today's Flyers are more typical of what you will get this season. Not the Barkann and Macnow slurping team you saw against the Panthers.— Drew777
- anyone thinking Leights was remotely responsible for this loss is ludicrous and didn't watch it. 4th goal was all Leighton, but the rest were squarely on the D, especially Couts on the PK, and one bad deflection. He was flat out putrid. But, I don't blame him, I blame Lavy. The first goal he was blindly covering SS, which I get, if you were playing man-up dfense on a triangle PK coverage, which clearly was not the case since the other Pkillers were in a box. Or, the 2nd PK he was totally overaggressive which made our zone box look like a pentagon sans one guy. The kid is 19 and wasn't placed on the PK during the one week lockout for practice...thus, this obviously falls on Lavy. Further, Couts continued first line PK shifts after three PP goals...again, where is the coaching up on Couts from LAVY. I'm sorry, LAVY sucks...period. He also got baited buy Boucher into taking penalties...which a couchpotato scout, like me, could have written up knowing we are first in the league in minors and have the 27th ranked PK. To beat Tampa, all you need to do is stay disciplined and Lavy simply cannot get his guys to play that way...this is flat out coaching. As soon as VLeC dropped the gloves you know the game plan, so where was Lavy's famous TO to say..."if any of you take a stupid penalty, you are benched for the rest of the game" talk. Just bad coaching in this one...sorry.— dave1walsh
- Spot on. Like I said in an earlier post, Couts has been on the ice for 14 of 17 goals scored against the Flyers this year (is there a forward, or even a d man, in the entire NHL who has been on the ice for more goals against?). Not so great for a defensive specialist.
- You can blame this lopsided loss on mostly coaching plus all along poor play, why not play Leighton against a banged Florida team and then Briz.against Tampa a potential cup contender.Some coaching and scouting.— t. cap
- First sign of a novice hockey fan is when they talk about goaltending in a 5-1 loss. It'd be nice if Giroux would chip in a goal here and there. This game was lost when the schedule was printed.— bobbyd24
- I thought they just got Bernie Parent....— Mike Boryla
- Why is Boosh in the minors and Leaky is in the NHL? I'm not blaming Leaky, he sucks and we all know it. I'm blaming homer for being an idiot GM for too many reasons to list in this limited space.— Fly Guy
- Indeed, the focus needs to be on goal scoring. Another big O for on the PP. How good would Bobby Ryan look in orange & black right about now? He's completely dis-interested out here in OC and has no desire to upstage Perry & Getzlaf while they each are playing for a contract next year. Change could be real good for him and help the Flyers get some production going.. Obviously, the million dollar question.. who would go West and frankly, there's not a lot of depth.— Visby00
