Another shoot-out loss as Flyers fall to Devils

NEWARK, N.J. - The rhythms of a long NHL season suggested Saturday would be a day when both the Flyers and New Jersey Devils had reasons to pick up the beat.

The Flyers skated into the Prudential Center feeling like their pockets had been picked by a referee in Friday's overtime loss to Calgary, controversial because Mike Richards goal in OT was disallowed by a questionable penalty against Chris Pronger.

Meantime, the Devils' faces were redder than their jerseys after Friday's 2-0 loss to the sad-sack Islanders, who hadn't won in 14 games, prompting first-year coach John MacLean to question their effort.

But instead of taking out their frustration on the Devils from the opening face-off, the Flyers lollygagged through the first period and ended up on the losing side of a 2-1 shoot-out.

So on consecutive days against two of the league's weaker clubs, the Flyers started slowly and ended up with just two of a possible four points.

Afterward, some theories were floated through the Flyers locker room. Were they gassed from playing 10 games in 17 days and three in the last four? Did they take Calgary and New Jersey too lightly?

"You could feel it – the atmosphere was just, uh, it was a little light," center Blair Betts said. "There wasn't enough emotion and intensity even before we went on the ice. You kind of felt that against Calgary. It's something we have to fix.

"The schedule has been pretty busy the last couple weeks, but at the same time I think if we were playing one of the top teams in the conference you would have seen a different team. That's my feeling, anyway."

Defenseman Kimmo Timonen didn't buy into the take-them-lightly theory. He suggested it's inevitable that there will be slow starts when so many games are compressed into so few days.

"Not to make excuses, but sometimes when you play a lot of games, sometimes it happens," he said. "I wouldn't say we've been playing sloppy hockey every game. It's only been two games and you don't want that to happen, but I'm sure it's going to change the next couple games."

The Flyers are off until Wednesday, so they'll have time to re-fill their tanks, but a ready explanation for the slow start against the Devils was the double minor against Scott Hartnell for high-sticking Brian Rolston across the face just 1 minute, 52 seconds after the opening face-off. The penalty set the tone for the period. The Devils didn't score on the power play, but they carried the momentum through the period and took a 1-0 lead on Adam Mair's first goal of the season.

It took the Flyers more than eight minutes to squeeze off their first shot against New Jersey goalie Johan Hedberg, who was superb while stopping 40 shots. Hedberg had to be good because the Flyers controlled play during the second and third periods.

"[Hedberg] was playing good and that's New Jersey hockey," Timonen said. "They play really tight defense in front of their goalie and if there's a rebound they try to clear and they actually did a pretty good job of it. But I would say for the last 35, 36 minutes there was only one team on the ice."

Danny Briere scored the Flyers goal on a power play at 8:38 of the third period, and Hedberg and Flyers goalie Brian Boucher both stood firm through the rest of play. Travis Zajac, the fourth Devils shooter in the shoot-out, got the winning goal.

As for the slow starts the last two games, coach Peter Laviolette had no explanation.

"I'm not sure, but it makes it more difficult to win hockey games," he said. "The start [Friday] and the start today, they weren't strong. We put ourselves in a hole. Today I thought we progressed and got better as the game went on and fought for a point in the third period."