Flyers must recover from crushing loss fast; some offense would help
BOSTON - With a big save here and a clutch goal there, the Flyers could have collected points in all four games during their pivotal road trip.
BOSTON - With a big save here and a clutch goal there, the Flyers could have collected points in all four games during their pivotal road trip.
Instead, they limped home with a 1-2-1 record, dazed by a late-game miscue that produced an unfathomable 2-1 loss Saturday afternoon in Boston. They fell six points out of the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.
"We're a very resilient bunch," winger Jordan Weal said after scoring the Flyers' lone goal Saturday. "We're going to look forward to Monday to get this one back and get a huge two points. There's 15 games left; there's a lot of points to be had."
There's also a lot of points that have been left on the table.
The Flyers have won just four of their last 20 road games, going 4-13-3 in that span.
On their just-completed road trip, the Flyers steadied their five-on-five play, but their special teams were a disaster, and the main reason they picked up only three out of a possible eight points.
In those four games, the Flyers were just 1 for 14 on the power play. Their penalty kill allowed six goals in 13 chances.
The Flyers lost Saturday's game when Drew Stafford's lob to the net deflected off the stick of Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning and past goalie Steve Mason with 5.6 seconds left. Understandably, the locker room was church-quiet after the stunning turn of events.
It was reminiscent of two years ago. Same place. Same late-game devastation.
Back then, Boston's Brad Marchand tied the game with 14.1 seconds left in regulation and then scored the game-winner in overtime, pushing the Flyers five points behind the Bruins for the final wild-card spot with 16 games remaining. They would have drawn within two points with a regulation win.
The Flyers never recovered, losing eight of their next nine, including a 5-2 defeat the next night in New Jersey. Goodbye, playoffs.
Will this year's painful loss in Boston cause a similar fade from the playoff picture?
"We'll come back from it," said coach Dave Hakstol, whose team was outshot, 12-4, in a passive third period when the Flyers were trying to make sure they secured at least one point. "I mean, it's what we do."
What they don't do is score many goals. They have a combined 14 goals in their last 13 losses.
The Flyers will host Columbus on Monday and Pittsburgh on Wednesday. They are a combined 0-2-1 against those Eastern Conference heavyweights this season.
"We've got a long important stretch in front of us here," Hakstol said. "Like we said, every next game up is your most important right now, and that will be Monday."
Hakstol said the Flyers would put Saturday's loss "in the rearview mirror, park it, and get moving forward."
Manning, meanwhile, will try to rebound from a mistake that cost the Flyers a point, and perhaps two.
"You know what, he and everybody in our room knows what a warrior he is for us, right from the start of the hockey game," Hakstol said, referring to Manning's fight against Matt Beleskey after the Bruins winger leveled Shayne Gostisbehere with a hard, legal check. "You know, that's not going to change in anybody's mind. He's a huge part of our team; he's a character man and he's going to be just fine on Monday night."
Columbus' lineup includes three former Flyers: goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who is 36-13-4 with a 2.07 goals-against average and .930 save percentage, and forwards Sam Gagner (17 goals, 43 points) and Scott Hartnell (13 goals, 34 points).
The Flyers let Gagner go the free-agent route after last season and instead signed Dale Weise to take his spot. Weise has two goals and five points in 50 games and has been a healthy scratch in the last five contests.
Breakaways. Goalie Steve Mason on the team's bad luck Saturday, when it had a goal disallowed because of the ref's "intent to blow the whistle" and had the game-winner deflect off Manning: "I think it all evens out over the course of the year." . . . Claude Giroux has points in three straight games. . . . Rookie Ivan Provorov played a season-high 25 minutes, 18 seconds Saturday.
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