Lavy rips Flyers after loss to lowly Oilers
EDMONTON, Alberta _ Flyers coach Peter Laviolette sharply criticized his fading team after its 2-0 loss to lowly Edmonton on Thursday.
Lavy rips Flyers after loss to lowly Oilers
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
EDMONTON, Alberta _ Flyers coach Peter Laviolette sharply criticized his fading team after its 2-0 loss to lowly Edmonton on Thursday.
Laviolette was especially upset about a second period performance that he called "disgraceful" and “horsebleep.”
“You’d like to think that it serves as a wake-up call, because we’re in a playoff race,” he bristled. “Tonight is unacceptable. We eased our way into the first period, the second period was horsebleep.”
In the second period, the Flyers were outscored, 2-0, and outshot, 15-6.
Horsebleep.
The Flyers, who were coming off a dramatic 5-4 overtime victory in Winnipeg, have not won two straight in six weeks.
“If you take 20 minutes off in a game, it’s tough to win,” winger Scott Hartnell said. “This is crunch time.”
But you wouldn’t know it by the way the Flyers’ have played in the last six weeks. They haven’t won two in a row since Jan. 10 and 12, when they scored one-goal wins over Carolina and the Islanders, respectively. They have won just seven of 18 games (7-8-3) since Jan. 12.
The Flyers allowed another power-play goal last night and lost to a team that is 29th in points out of 30 NHL squads.
Breakaways. The Flyers won just 33 percent of the faceoffs. Brayden Schenn won 2 of 10 draws, and Danny Briere won 3 of 15.....Schenn and Claude Giroux each had five shots......Matt Read, who has one goal in his last 14 games, and Briere had no shots.....Andrej Meszaros led the Flyers with four hits....The Flyers, who have been blanked in their last two visits to Edmonton, are in Calgary on Saturday night, then conclude the four-game trip in San Jose on Tuesday.
* * *
Follow Sam Carchidi on Twitter @BroadStBull.
You’d like the think that it servers as a wake-up call, because we’re in a playoff race,” he said.
Sam do you read what you write before you post it? Not only are you clueless about hockey... you're articles are annoying to read.
— phils2012- I think it's just the slump every team goes through. Right now, out of 30 teams only 8 of them are playing above .500 so I wouldn't hit the panic button yet. But Lavy's right, this team needs a wake-up call in a bad way. I wonder if the alternate captains are holding people accountable the way a captain would. It might be time to name a new captain because if what Pronger's wife said after the carnival is true then he sounds worse off than most people realize. I'm afraid we may have seen the last of Pronger and this team needs a defined leader heading down the stretch.— Fly Guy
- Your statistical analysis is interesting...it makes no sense, but it is interesting. The Flyers have the worst record in the Eastern conference over the past 10 games. In fact, over the past 10 games, only the LA Kings have a worse record in the NHL. At least the Kings recognized their weaknesses and assessed them.
Pronger is a non-issue. Chris Pronger was the captain for all of 12 games. I doubt the players feel lost without him.— Hexy4GM - Outplayed by the 29th place team run by the asst. coach using the backup goalie. Is Laviolette mad because he's starting to worry about his job?— icarus
- The Flyers are always at their very worst between the all-star game and the trade deadline. This happens every year.— stonelamb
- Laviolette, is the 7-11 of NHL coaches.— Drew777
- Laviolette just screams at the Flyers instead of coaching. Yelling "Wake up!" is not coaching. Laviolette better start coaching, or start looking for a coaching job. He has mismanaged the teams goaltenders for 2 seasons. He is stunting the development of young players. He has an aggressive 2-man forecheck that can be fun to watch, but is rarely successful against quality opposition. I just hope that Giroux signed up for Dry Island this year, it would be a shame to lose him too.— Hexy4GM
- Its the CURSE ----- "The curse of Jerry Wolman" and only Ed Snider knows how to have the curse taken off------------And until its taken off, there is no hope for the Flyers..........— popeye
- Lavy has lost the team. Another season where we hear ... "There's always next decade to win a Cup"— shawnmac
- phils2012 crticizes the writer for quoting a quote,Fly Guy says everything is peachy and stonelamb says this is buisiness as usual. Some Flyers fans really crack me up. If they played like this in the first part start of the season we would be looking at no playoffs this year. Keep wearing the rose colored glasses.— RobertB
- Lavy's system is unsustainable and his voice is tired. He can't coach...our PK is awful and our defense is swiss cheese. Playing the motivational mind game simply doesn't last at this level, or any level, without backing it up with x's and o's.— dave1walsh
- Every goaltender looks like a superstar against this team. Oy vai... i— Phillyfan666
- I think Laviolette's career dissipation light just went into overdrive. He has his problems, but he doesn't seem able to motivate his team anymore. Bryzgalov actually was one of the best players last night, so you can't say he is why they lost.
I do think they miss Pronger. He may not have worn the C for very long, but no one can tell me he was not the unofficial Captain last season. He was a well respected voice in the locker room that clearly is lacking.
The D problems aside, they have too many offensive players all in a slump at the same time. Someone has to snap them out of, and do it fast.— NYluvsPhylers - This is what revisionist history becomes. If Pronger was the "unofficial Captain" of last years team, then shouldn't he have taken the blame for last season? Shouldn't he have been run out of town? I mean, generally, that is what teams have done with him after a finals appearance...so perhaps it would have been the right move. — Hexy4GM
@Phillyfan666 - You do realize the Flyers are second in GF overall and have one less than the Nucks and a game in hand? Plz stick to a sport that you can understand.— Crayonic
