Flyers get buried, 10-3
Penguins 10, Flyers 3
Flyers get buried, 10-3
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Well, then. Maybe this is happening a little earlier than we thought, given how the first three games of the series went, but it was going to happen sometime this spring, and now it has. We have arrived at the point in the proceedings where the coach earns his money.
The Flyers’ Peter Laviolette has an exciting, young group in his dressing room -- many of them new to the team and many of them involved in their first playoff experience -- and that young group has just been knocked off of the wave it was riding and made to swallow a bucketload of seawater besides.
Penguins 10, Flyers 3.
And now we will find out some things.
The care and feeding of the ego of starting goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov is one bit of business for the coach in the next daty. Laviolette yanked Bryz at 3:07 of the second period, after Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang ripped a shot past him on the power play that gave the Penguins a 5-3 lead. Whatever the message being sent -- Bryzgalov was bad but not godawful, which admittedly might be a difference without a distinction -- is known only to the coach. As it turned out, backup Sergei Bobrovsky was even worse.
But smoothing over things in goal isn’t the half of Laviolette’s task. They all can mouth the words that this was just one game, and that we still have a three-games-to-one lead in the series, and that the pressure is still on the Penguins, and blah blah blah. Saying it is one thing, though. Believing it is another.
Laviolette needs to make them believe it.
A lot of these guys do not have a road map. This is a new group, with new leaders and lots of new followers, and Wednesday night really was a horror show. The goaltending was bad, yes, but the Penguins fell behind, got ahead, fell behind again after a bunch of penalties left them shorthanded seemingly forever, and then pulled ahead again. There was enough fight in that group to assure an interesting Game 5 on Friday night at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
But that was only part of it -- because the Flyers completely turtled beneath the avalanche. There is no pretending. They weren’t going to win the game, but they were the ones who stopped skating. They were the ones who took the dumb, undisciplined penalties. “Unglued” might be too strong a word but “overwhelmed” would not be.
Ten is a very big number. It has resuscitated the Penguins, and nobody can argue that it has not. That said, the Flyers still have the home-ice advantage. They still need only one more and the Penguins still need three. This is still supposed to be their series, even after everything. And there is no question that all of the right things will be said in the coming hours and days.
But, in the end, they will just be words.
The Flyers have coughed up a 3-1 seeries lead before and lost to the NJ devils (the famous Eric Lindros saga from 1999)...hope this 10 goal blow out doesnt cost the Flyers the series and Lavy his job....— kadhia- no need to worry boys, we have a road games advantage - 2 out of next 3 games in pittsburgh.— Gideon68
- Sometimes a loss like this is better than a 1 goal loss. Gotta wonder if they tanked on purpose though. Still up 3-1 so no worries folks. The Flyers will fly to that cesspool cross state, eat some ribs, and wrap it up in front of 20,000 bandwagon troll fans. Go Flyers!— Fly Guy
- Its come back time, be afraid be very afraid Flyers fans..... And to psychockey you must have not watched the game because Neal was no out there he was suspended for the game.— Daburgh3643
- Ouch! Didn't expect this. Reminds me of the overconfidence Sixers the year Kareem got hurt and they thought they would cruise against the Lakers. I think the Flyers relaxed because 3 Pens were out. Lesson learned by a young team. That being said giving up 10 goals is an outright embarrassment. Regroup and win it on the road.— delcodanno
- WE CAN BEAT YOU, FLYERS SCUM— msgeis
- TROLL, TROLL, TROLL, TROLL .... — Daddio
- This is definitely better than a 1-goal heartbreaker. A sweep would've been nice, but this game should serve as a wakeup call more than anything. Go Flyers!!— kjuggs77
- Oh Great Hockey God in the sky please don't let us get our orange butts kicked again . Gotta say that was the worst goaltending I've ever seen in a playoff game. I'd put a detective on Bryzgalov just to make sure he didn't get a suitcase full of cash for this stinker.— GlenJer
- pulling bryz was the fatal move of this game. This game is all about mental state and that just shook everything up. They got complacent with Bob and got stupid with penalties.
Wake up Flyers. Finish the mission.— CortesDiddy - Exposed. Is Ron Hextall available for Friday?? Better hope Pens don't win. If they do, this series is over. Philly won't be able to handle the presure.— steelfan
- We needed some jam in the building tonight. What's the problem now?— Corey301
- That game was so bad the Flyers were awarded 2 second round draft picks for it!— NYPHILLYPHAN
- awful display, want to get on early before the bandwagon bombers from both cities started, again no excuse for this display, perfect chance for some revenge and no noe does a thing. Terrible goaltending left out to dry— pittsvilleflyer
- BTW, talk about bandwagon fans.— steelfan
