Pronger-less Flyers may lose Timonen
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Pronger-less Flyers may lose Timonen
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ With Chris Pronger recovering from a broken foot, the Flyers’ defense is falling to pieces.
In the last two games, the Flyers have been outscored, 11-2.
And after Tuesday's embarrassing 6-2 loss in Vancouver, it was announced the defense had absorbed another blow.
Defenseman Kimmo Timonen suffered a lower-body injury, according to GM Paul Holmgren. He did not say if Timonen will miss time, but he did not play in the final 12 minutes of Tuesday's blowout.
Maybe it was a precautionary measure. Or maybe the Flyers' defense is about to take another hit.
More will be known about Timonen when he is re-examined Wednesday, when the Flyers are practicing in suburban Los Angeles.
Tuesday's 6-2 defeat followed a 5-0 loss to lowly Florida on Dec. 20.
It was a shooting gallery Tuesday for goalies Brian Boucher (four goals in 25:21) and Sergei Bobrovsky (two goals in 34:39) as the Flyers allowed a season-high 49 shots.
Braydon Coburn, Jeff Carter and Timonen were each minus-3, but there was blame to be spread around the whole team.
Danny Briere said the team has played “soft” in the last two games.
The eight-day layoff may have affected the Flyers in the first period, Briere said, "but after that, there's no excuse. We just got outplayed. We didn't compete hard enough. The Flyers are known to be a team that's tough to play against. They're relentless, they're always on you."
Briere paused.
"The last couple games we've been a very soft team. We've been easy to play against and we're not winning any battles," he added. "If we keep playing that way, it won't take long. We'll disappear."
Vancouver won 66 percent of the face-offs.
"Neither game is acceptable," coach Peter Laviolette said. "There has to be a lot more intensity to what we do."
“From the first shift I was out there, we turned pucks over and gave them momentum right off the bat and we couldn’t recover,” Mike Richards said. “After a long break, you want to have the best first period you can and we didn’t.”
Added Richards: “Give them credit. They came out and played well and they were opportunistic. They shot the puck from everywhere.”
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Jody Shelley could be suspended again after drawing a match penalty for punbcing Andrew Alberts in the face late in the game.
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Last nights game was painful to watch. Now with Timonen possibly hurt, looks like the flyers are gonna have a few rough games ahead. Now is the time to put up or shut up. Are they an elite team or an overachieving middle of the pack one. I hope the former.
Now we know who the real leader of this team is,Pronger. 2 blowouts whihout him and timmo hurt,this sucks.— wlgj- I meant, without. Morning after,watched the game had a few beers then went to bed disgusted with this teams lack of effort.— wlgj
- waiting for them to get rid of #5, #17, and #19!!— sawgrass
- Carter deal will be like Iguana deal Ryan deal,brand deal,.Carter and I have NHL package so listen to broadcasts from around league.Carter is "lazy",loses all important draws,is defensive liability,checks no one,and misses open nets like game six for CUP.i do not believe his team mates like him since everytime he scores he has big smile no one makes eye contact.Last night credit for goal where he never touched it but was "closest" to it or would be -4.Shoots first is lousy team mate.Am 63 have watched hockey since 6 team league and have no clue what they see in "pretty boy".— lawrence2465
- Pronger will be sorely missed he's the captain no matter who wears the C.Richards hard nose player but not leader.Changing "set " defensive pairs has hurt and w/o Kimmo could get ugly.— lawrence2465
- Flyers had chance to trade"Jeffy" sixers had chance to trade Iguana,Eagles FINALLY got rid of McChoke,and Howard on phils is horrible.All have huge contracts which unfortunately will drag all phils teams.Who or what do GM's get paid for.— lawrence2465
- lawrence, I like you have been watching this team for decades. I have had season tics since '77.(still have not seen the cup in 33 years).
anyway, I agree with you on igualla, mcnab, howard and jeff carter. carter is, i am sad to say, a "choker". I am still trying to figure out why the flyers gave him an eleven year contract. He will be a lead weight on the Flyer's cap space for ten more years and that could be devastating when the Flyers want to upgrade the team each summer. Carter is great in the meaningless games, terrible in the big ones and I don't think the team will ever be able to get rid of him.— redstaterightwinger - Vancouver looked like best team I've seen all year.Briere played can't think of anyone else— lawrence2465
- lose your top 2 defensemen on ANY team and it has an effect. it doesn't change the fact they are an elite team if they struggle some without them. idiot. defense in hockey is a TEAM game. they would have lost those two games WITH pronger and timmo for a full game with the way they played. @ lawrence, if you're gonna struggle with simple english, don't post every few minutes with unintelligent drivel.— spittooncj
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