Simmonds lifts Flyers to shootout win over Coyotes

THE FLAVOR barely had enough time to seep out of Craig Berube's chewing gum by the time he summoned Steve Mason off the bench.

Six minutes had not yet ticked off the scoreboard at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers were already in a two-goal hole Tuesday night, with raucous boos and swaths of empty seats welcoming them back from the All-Star break. Starter Ray Emery lasted just four shots, Berube's confidence and patience in him on display for all to see.

The Flyers ended up clawing back for a 4-3 shootout win against an Arizona Coyotes team that is one of only six in the NHL with fewer points than them. They could thank sieve-like Mike Smith for that, the Coyotes' netminder who is enduring the worst season of any starting goaltender in the league. Arizona inexplicably traded backup Devan Dubnyk last week to increase Smith's workload.

More questionable was the Flyers' handling of Mason Tuesday night.

Let the record show that Mason allowed only one goal on 23 shots. He stopped all three shots in the shootout. He did not appear to be hobbled or injured in any way.

He still should not have been in net.

"I think some of us were surprised he was even backing up today," R.J. Umberger said.

Tuesday night was Mason's first appearance since Jan. 10, when he hobbled off against the Bruins in the first period with an apparent right knee injury. He was slow to get up in each of the previous two games that week and even missed a practice to undergo an MRI for his ailment.

After the 4-day All-Star break would have been the perfect time to ease Mason back into action, you know, if he had a chance to practice.

"He came in today and said he was ready to back up," Berube said. "If he's ready to back up, I'm going to have him dress."

So, if Mason was ready to back up, why would he not have started?

"I wasn't really too sure about starting 'Mase,' " Berube said. "Not in that situation. Not enough practice time. Ray was off for 4 or 5 days, too, but he finished off playing a game and playing well."

Mason played an NHL game for the first time in 17 days despite only facing shots from teammates in Tuesday's morning skate. He missed Monday's practice with an illness. He acknowledged he did not face a shot from Jan. 10 until Monday morning from an assistant coach, when he skated by himself because he was too sick to be around teammates.

"I didn't do a whole lot [over the break]," Mason said. "I did rehab here and then our training staff needed some time off, too. I took a couple days to go to New York City with my girlfriend, but I spent the majority of my time hugging the toilet there."

The Flyers were so unsure that Mason would be available for the game that they kept 33-year-old rookie Rob Zepp on the roster just in case. He was in the building.

Instead, the goaltender with a questionable injury history who had only watched pucks on television over the last 2-1/2 weeks was summoned off the bench cold. Probably his only saving grace was Berube's itchy trigger finger, that he wasn't that cold following warmups.

"It wasn't until I started getting a good sweat going around overtime that I started to feel normal,'' Mason said. "I kind of had tunnel vision for the majority of the game, where I was just locked in on the puck rather than the play developing around it, which as a goaltender isn't a good thing. You want to see what's going on over the whole ice."

Mason, of course, is a proud hockey player and wants to play. The Flyers, of course, are a proud organization desperate to win. The risk-reward scenario in this case just did not add up for a delusional franchise that is double digits away from the playoffs.

Given the Mount Everest facing the Flyers, who don't have it in their makeup to declare the playoffs a summit unreachable this season, would it have been such a travesty to have Zepp serve as Emery's backup for one more night (against the Coyotes, no less) until Mason could get a real practice under his belt?

Instead, after addressing the media, Mason limped down the hallway toward the showers with a huge ice bag wrapped around his right knee. It was the same knee that he alluded earlier "desperate measures" — surgery, perhaps? — were pondered about while he was out.

"I think the organization did everything they could to make sure that long-term, they did what's best for me," Mason said.

But when pressed for more details on his vague answers, Mason froze.

"Talk to [general manager Ron Hextall] or [trainer] Jimmy McCrossin," Mason said. "I don't want to comment more than that."

The Flyers have won two shootouts in a row ... Zac Rinaldo served the first of his eight-game suspension. He did not appeal the NHL's decision ... Arizona was without forwards Mikkel Boedker (ruptured spleen) and Joe Vitale, who left the game with an upper-body injury ... Coyotes defenseman Connor Murphy scored his seventh NHL goal with his father, Flyers assistant coach Gord, watching from the bench.