Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Posted: 2:01 p.m.
By Tim PanaccioCSNPhilly.com
When Peter Laviolettes Flyers hit the All-Star break, they had 71 points. That was the 50-game marknine games past the midway point.
From that point forward, the Flyers scratched out just 35 points over their final 32 games.
How do you make a city starved for a championship believe that the Flyers are ready to challenge for the Stanley Cup?
Wheres the evidence that the Flyers of April are the Flyers of November, who overtook the Pittsburgh Penguins and everyone else in the league, then more or less forgot about them?
All of Flyerdom wants to believe this club will avenge last Junes Cup Final loss to Chicago, but the evidence strongly suggest an early spring playoff exit.
So whats to think the Flyers can flip a switch thats been off since winter?
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Better still, what is the belief that team captain Mike Richards, whose emotional detachment from the game has been evident for a while, will inspire the players hes supposed to inspire in the room, including himself?
Richards mysterious absence from Wednesday's practice created a buzz. Players dont take maintenance days off one day before the playoffs unless they are nursing an injury.
But Laviolette doesnt question Richards as a leader.
Your leaders are your best players and you need to make sure they are in the forefront, Laviolette said. Im confident that they will be.
Looking back at his career, hes been a guy thats performed well in the spotlight. Playoffs, Olympic team, junior teams, Memorial Cup teams, American Hockey League teams. Big games can bring out the best in big players.
What the Flyers need right now is a jolt of big-time performance where this team recognizes the time has arrived to put up or shut up.
When Scott Hartnell tells you that most of his teammates cared about just one thing this seasongetting back to the playoffs and nothing elsehe was saying that this team held something in reserve.
Well, its time for the Flyers to show people what theyve been saving all these months when they gained the No. 1 seed, got bored and kissed away what they had earned with hard work in the first half, and settled for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
Now heres the rub: Lavys crew will likely have to do it without the services of Chris Pronger. Barring a miracle on Broad Street, Pronger wont be ready until at least Game 3 because he still lacks strength in his right hand. Hes still not taking shots.
The Flyers were a decent 16-9-7 without Mr. Warmth in the lineup this season, but that belies the fact that the defense is nowhere near as strong as it was when Pronger was healthy and pairs played as if in unison.
Even before that injury we were on a slippery slope, Pronger said. Probably since Christmas weve been inconsistent. We havent finished games off. Havent played a full 60 minutes.
As the season started to wind down, we started to see that unfold and it started to cost us some points. Hopefully, weve learned from that and able to use that in the playoffs.
If the Flyers are to go far this spring they need to tighten up defensively throughout the lineup.
Years ago, this reporter asked Scotty Bowman about the Red Wings secret.
Chris Osgood was never a great goaltender, Bowman replied. But he made the saves he was supposed to make. He was consistently good every night. Thats all you need to win the Cup: consistency.
Osgood had tremendous defensive depth in front of him and didnt have to face a barrage of tough saves every game.
The Flyers had the deepest 1-6 defense in the NHL at seasons start. By the end, it showed flaws that need to be corrected in front of rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Turnovers at their blue line and not running around in our own end is a key, Sean ODonnell said. I really believe that less is more in your own end. If you are trying to do someone elses job, your guy ends up being the dangerous one.
If something is going to happen, it will happen. Just collapse back into the middle and take a deep breath and go out from there. When you start running around, trying to do someone elses job, something bad happens.
Buffalo yearned for a match-up against the Flyers even though the Sabres only won two of four games this season and all-world goalie Ryan Miller had a very pedestrian 3.62 goals-against average against the Flyers.
Miller figures to rise better than that in this series.
Theyre the team that went to the finals last year, Miller said of the Flyers. Theyre the team that is picked by everybody to win it all this year, at least win the East.
They got a ton of talent. Were going to have to make them earn every little thing they get. The second you hand them things its going to tough on us.
Stronger defense in front of the goalie is just one aspect that needs immediate improvement by the Flyers.
The other is the power play.
Many of the Flyers one-goal losses in the second half of the season could have been averted with a decent power play. It finished a horrendous 19th (16.6 percent) in the NHL, going just 5 for 41 over the final 14 games.
Special teams often decide a playoff series. Whats to believe the Flyers power play will actually matter after plummeting from eighth to 19th in five months?
I believe in my teammates, Danny Briere said. We work at it, we spent a lot of time finding out what we can do better. Its not like we were bad all yearits been up and down all year. Im believing its going to be ready.
Its also going to have to be ready to defend against Buffalo in transition. People probably dont realize this, but the Sabres averaged almost three goals a (2.93) game. Over their final 45 games, when they were among the hottest teams in the league, that number climbed to 3.22.
Sure the Flyers scored better than three goals a game the entire season, but theyre not used to seeing teams that strike quickly off transition, which Buffalo showed them in the final regular season matchup.
They have speed, theyre a transition team, they activate their defense a lot to the rush and into the play which makes it a little harder to defense, Laviolette said. They have a good goaltender. They pose different challenges.
Unlike the Flyers who have three lines to contend with, if you shut down the Sabres top line of Tim Connolly centering Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville, youve got a legit chance to win.
One is a 30-goal scorer and the other is a 35-goal scorer and I dont know what the situation overall is, but Pominville and Vanek are probably the two guys we really have to key on, ODonnell said.
This is the one area that should separate the Flyers from Buffalo and every one else in postseason: overall depth. Laviolette admits he doesnt feel the Sabres have a true shutdown pair of defensemen.
They seem to do it by committee, he said. Their top four get out as a group.
Which is why the Flyers need to use their strength in numbers from Brieres line to Claude Girouxs unit to Richards line. Wear the Sabres down.
And that was something this team seemed reluctant to do in the final weeksgo to their strengths of playing dump n chase and being physical on the boards.
That has been a strength of us all year, Laviolette said. If you focus on one line, it could be the other line. If you focus on Claude Girouxs line you have Danny Briere and his line in the playoffs and they were outstanding last year.
We have good balance and it makes it a little more difficult to say this defenseman or these two defensemen or this one line we shut down. Theres a good balance on us.
Only if the Flyers use it to their advantage in the series.
Prediction: Flyers in six.
The Olean Times Herald contributed to this storyE-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
Related: Flyers notes: Richards misses practiceTall task awaits rookie Bobrovsky in postseason