Pronger: Flyers need to look in mirror
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Pronger: Flyers need to look in mirror
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Flyers held a team meeting after Thursday's 3-0 loss to Vancouver at the Wachovia Center.
Was it productive?
You'll know at around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, when the Flyers' game ends against visiting Washington.
Maybe by then, the Flyers will have scored a goal.
Maybe by then, the young offensive stars on this team _ namely, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter _ will start resembling the players who combined for 76 goals last season.
Right now, this team is in its worst offensive funk in six-plus seasons.
Thursday marked the first time the Flyers were blanked in consecutive games since February of 2003.
They have not scored in the last eight periods, including Saturday's 1-0 defeat in Atlanta.
Roberto Luongo notched Thursday's shutout, making 38 saves.
"They threw a lot at the net, and I was able to see most of them," Luongo said.
In other words, the Flyers aren't getting enough bodies in front of the net and creating the type of havoc that was Mike Knuble's calling card.
"It was just one of those nights where you feel like the puck keeps hitting you, and some of them I didn’t even see, where it was getting a piece of my arm or somewhere," Luongo said. "It’s nice to have a game like that.”
The Flyers' James van Riemsdyk and Arron Asham clanked shots off posts in the first period. That was as close as the Flyers (13-11-1) came to scoring.
Their power play was 0 for 5 and is 0 for 14 in the last three games _ all losses.
The Flyers, picked to win the Stanley Cup by The Hockey News in the preseason, have lost six of their last seven games and have fallen into 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
After the game, limping defenseman Kimmo Timonen revealed he has been playing with a broken toe for the last four games.
The Flyers have been concealing the injury from the media, which has been asking questions about Timonen's ineffectiveness.
To a man, the Flyers are baffled by their funk.
"If I had the answer, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about this right now," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "I’ve played on enough teams where this has gone on, where usually it’s a couple guys—it’s never the whole team. Right now we’re struggling to score goals."
Pronger said the Flyers need to find "different ways than normal" to score some goals.
"It’s going to take three guys around the net, bouncing it off somebody’s [butt] or somebody’s shin pad. It’s going to take a dirty goal for us to turn this around," he said. "It’s not going to be the tic-tac-toe tap-in backdoor goal that reignites us. We’ve got to get into the gritty areas, get in the high-traffic areas and dig deep. Look at ourselves in the mirror and look at one another and come and play 110 percent.”
If they don't, someone will be held accountable.
And we have a feeling it won't be the guys with the fat contracts.
No quotes from Stevens? How ironic, or maybe not so. It's a shame we missed the "I'm happy with the effort" shtick— duffers
Comment removed.
Look no further than one Edward Snider. He insist's on building nostalgic teams thinking that 1975 style hockey can still win the Cup. The entire hockey-playing world understands this - except for one man. Want to get him to listen? Just boycott anything Flyers.— Atomic Fury- The good news is Stevens thought they played hard.— BobbyD
- Coach Stevens days are numbered....— spizz
Shots 29 to our 38. However, only 18 shots by forwards. Its strange to see a team so unwilling to go to the net that they give the puck to the defense to score goals. 5 shots by Carle, 4 by Parent, 5 by Timo. How did Hartnell only get 1 shot on net?— Inchon- Hartnell and Carter have been all but invisible and should be called out. As for Kimmo, a broken toe might explain poor performance in the last 4 games but it does not explain why he has been awful before that. I am not even sure if Stevens has a system for the Flyers, they almost seem confused on the ice but of course that could be to the constant line juggling!! As much as I hate to admit it, when you see what bringing in a new coach did for the pens, I have to say that whatever Stevens is selling they are not buying or maybe they have lost confidence in him!!!! But I have to say that if Stevens goes, there needs to be a package deal that Holmgren goes with him. He has handicapped this team with the salary cap and no-trade clauses. I look at the players that he has traded off and the majority are thriving on other teams and here we sit wondering why we have stopped scoring.— jacdjc1
- Nice knowing you John Stevens.— fogboy10
- tick tock
- for crying out loud will somebody buy this team a mirror already— ghost78
I see a home and home with Pittsburgh 12/15 and 12/17. If this mess isn't straightened out by then there will be a new coach at the reigns for this series.— potus- All shots are not created equal.— ItsOnLikeDK
- Better clean your glasses potus. The 12/15 game is in Pittsburgh.— MisterHate
- Home and home means one game here one game there. Jacdjc1 = We got Coborun for Zhitnik, essentially traded Forsberg for Upshall, Timonen, Hartnell, and Parent, traded Sanderson and Pitkanen for Smith and Lupul, got Biron for a draft pick, signed Briere who has managed a point per game since coming to Philly, and brought in one of the best defenseman of our generation... who's striving elsewhere? Upshall? He gets ice time on that team because they stink. Of course his production is going to improve. Lupul has had injury struggles over in Anaheim and isn't doing that great. Knuble is a loss we felt but that wasn't Homer's fault. Pitkanen plays for the worst team in hockey and is still inconsistent. Niittymaki is someone we probably should have resigned but oh well. Holmgren's only major blunder as GM has been the amount of rope he's given to Stevens. 3 years of listless play is enough. Bring back Keenan.— DRocco
- DRocco WRONG AGAIN: Holmgrem resign. When you can tell me why you didn't sign Manny Malhotra for $700K-$1.2 (reports vary) who was NUMBER FOUR IN FACE OFF WINS LAST YEAR and now has 6 goals / 5 asists & PLUS 6 for the Sharks this year...then I will stop calling for your resignation.— MichaelZoe
