Saturday, April 30, 2011
Posted: 5:53 p.m.Updated: 7:39 p.m.
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com
BOX SCORE
Dispassionate, emotionless play. Porous defense. Tired legs.
Sounds like February, doesnt it?
Those were the whispers the Flyers offered after their ghastly 7-3 blowout loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center. Boston's seven goals are the most the Flyers have ever allowed in Game 1 of a playoff series. They allowed six to Chicago in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year.
Not exactly a reassuring way to open the Eastern Conference semifinal round, eh? Game 2 is Monday night.
NHL
Everythings got to change, everythings got to improve, said coach Peter Laviolette.
So many things went wrong for the Flyers, you couldnt find anything that went right.
They outhit us in our own building, said team captain Mike Richards. We've got to be a little more physical and turn more pucks over and hopefully, capitalize on chances we get.
Most of Bostons goals were uncontested, within 10 feet of the net.
It wasnt very goodespecially in front of our goaltender, Laviolette said. Too many easy goals, too many easy plays. We werent strong enough in front of our goaltender. We come off one of our strongest performances Game 7 vs. Buffalo. We come out and dont have a good game."
Starting goalie Brian Boucher was lifted late in the second period for Sergei Bobrovsky after giving up five goals on 23 shots.
We were pretty loose in our own end, Sean ODonnell said. Out of the eight playoff games, this was our loosest game. The first five goals on Boosh, other than that tip goal, were all on rebound shots, which is not really characteristic of our team. They got a lot of traffic at the net.
David Krejcis line with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton had a strong opening period against Danny Brieres line (Scott HartnellVille Leinno) with a pair of goals and Krejci himself had two markers in the game, after potting just one in the Montreal series.
That was one line matchup the Bruins exploited as Krejcis unit had six points.
Briere said that they didn't "compete" in front of Boucher.
Richards had a tough game. First, he muffed a power play chance in the middle period that could have made a difference, then he shot one off goalie Tim Thomas arm to start the final period with the Flyers trailing, 5-2.
If Richards scores there, who knows?
It was an opportunity for us to get back into the game, Laviolette said. Turning points, I think, are when you are competitively involved in the game and something all of the sudden goes south or doesnt go your way, theres a turning point. The 60 minutes that we play, it was hard to get a turning point anywhere in there.
The Flyers mediocre power play, which showed late life against Buffalo, came up small, going 1 for 5 amid lots of boos.
They even had a 56-second two-man advantage in the third. Though they didnt convert the two-man, Richards scored 5-on-4 to bring them to 5-3 at 13:02, but the Bruins got that goal right back.
They dont give you a whole lot, ODonnell said. Theyre patient. You make a mistake, they make you pay for it.
As expected, the Flyers played a dump-and-chase game that matches their physicality against the Bruins. Except the Bruins won most of the battles.
It was a bad game from us at every levelemotionally, skating-wise, nothing seemed to work, Kimmo Timonen said. It wasnt the goaltending. It was us.
Krejci, who missed the last four games of the 2010 conference semis against the Flyers with a broken wrist, showed he wants to make up for it, scoring on Bostons first attempt just 1:52 into the game.
He intercepted Hortons slapshot as he was going to the net. The puck literally stuck to him as he cut in front of Boucher in the crease and backhanded it past him for a 1-0 lead. That goal might not have happened had Chris Pronger not vacated the slot to the far boardsthe same side as Hortons slapper.
Brieres seventh goal of the playoffs tied it at 11:02 with both teams skating 4-on-4.
Alas, the Flyers gave up a hideous goal in the final minute of the period as both Krejci and Horton picked up their second points.
Dennis Seidenberg dug a puck off Braydon Coburn, then backhanded it into the slot. Boucher stopped Krejcis shot into his chest, but juggled Hortons rebound off his left arm and into the net as the Bruins had a 2-1 lead at intermission.
Thomas then gave the Bruins some oomph at the start of the second period with consecutive pad stops on James van Riemsdyk. Off transition, the Bruins went back up ice as ageless-wonder Mark Recchi got one inside the post off his own rebound to quickly make it 3-1.
Again, porous defense.
The Flyers had back-to-back power plays just seconds apart too, and failed once again to turn the tide of momentum, which belonged to Boston. On the first power play, they had four shots on Thomas, including a gimme goal that Richards muffed at the right post.
They didnt fare as well on their second power play as the Bruins penalty killers did a very nice job of shot- and pass-blocking, not allowing anything near Thomas.
With the energy the Bruins produced off those successive kills, they iced the game shortly after when Krejci notched his second goal of the day at 15:26 to make it a 4-1 rout. Adam McQuaids point shot hit Krejci and redirected high on Boucher, over his left shoulder.
It starts with hard skating to the points and not getting pucks through, Timonen said. The skating, when we skate were a good team. When we dont, that happens. We got to put our working boots on and make sure Monday we come out hard and skate.
We have to play harder in front of the crease. If the puck gets there, we have to make sure they dont get there first. Its the whole unit and we werent working together.
Boucher gave up a fifth goal minutes later to Brad Marchand, which led to Bobrovskys entrance.
It wasnt a good afternoon all around for all of us, Boucher said. We didnt get any breaks and we certainly didnt play all that well. At the same time, I dont see the need for a change in goal, but well see what happens.
JVR scored at 17:30 for his fifth goal of the playoffs, but it was a moot point even with a period to play.
Its frustrating first game maybe not having your legs, Richards said. As bad as it is, some games youre going to have that. Youre not going to play a great hockey game. How you bounce back is the biggest thing.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
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