For hockey players who dont participate in the NHLs All-Star Game, the week of the All-Star break is often a time to take a vacation to a warmer climate, to re-energize and prepare for the seasons second half.
Like many of his teammates, Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov took some time off from the rinkbut when asked about how he spent his six free days, Bryzgalov spoke in-depth about cleaning leaves and twigs from his backyard, and playing outside with his dog.
Whatever works, right?
Nevertheless, Bryzgalov, who has had a rather rough and inconsistent first half of the season, was happy to return to Skate Zone on Monday, and said hes looking forward to getting back to playingand to getting back to the opportunity to play a good game.
It was good to get away from hockey, recharge your battery, refresh the mind, he said. Its just amazing when you can spend a weekend full-time with your family and you dont have to go anywhere.
The Flyers wont have to go anywhere for their next game, either. On Tuesday night, theyll host the Winnipeg Jetsand if the game is anything like either of the teams other contests this season, it could be a wild one.
The teams have played twice so far, Oct. 27 and Nov. 19. The Flyers lost bothand gave up 15 goals in the process. (They lost 9-8 at home in October and 6-4 in Winnipeg in November.)
NHL
There were too many defensive breakdowns, a lack of discipline and struggles in net in both games. And the Flyers still arent sure exactly why.
I dont really have an answer, coach Peter Laviolette said. We dont change our gameplan. We dont change what we do or how we do it based on an opponent. We didnt try something new and funky against Winnipeg to see if we could beat them a different way. We just havent had the success, and we dont like the way that weve played the game. I guess, especially, defensively.
Weve given up way too many goals and way too many scoring opportunities in order to be successful against that team in those particular games youre talking about. We really need to do a better job of taking care of that, I think.
Sergei Bobrovsky took the loss after playing all 60 minutes in November. In Octobers game, Bobrovsky started, but was replaced in the second period by Bryzgalov, who gave up four goals on just 10 shots.
Neither game was ideal for the Flyers.
It has been frustrating for sure, Matt Carle said. When you look at the game at Winnipeg, they got early power-play goals. I think if you look, the last couple of weeks we have done a good job staying disciplined and staying out of the box. We definitely need to do that tomorrow night.
This edition of the Jets are only technically in their first year of existence, but the Flyers struggles against the team started before the first puck of the 2011-12 season dropped.
When the Jets were the Atlanta Thrashers, they seemed to have the Flyers number, too, as Carle pointed out. The Thrashers werent particularly impressive last season, but the Flyers went 1-1-2 against them.
I think it even goes back to last year with Atlanta and struggles with them, he said. I dont know if it is any one thing. We have to put an emphasis on our defensive game.
The Winnipeg game kicks off a week with three games for the Flyers: the Jets on Tuesday, the Nashville Predators on Thursday and the Devils on Saturday. Theyre currently second in their division and fourth in the Eastern Conferencea successful first week of February could help them make up some ground on the New York Rangers, who hold a three-point lead and have been just out of reach for so much of the season.
February, as Laviolette emphasized, is a tough month. Just look back to last year if you need proof.
Weve done a good job to this point but I still think that theres a lot of areas that we can work on and get better and really look to not just continue what weve done and where were going, but to get better at it as the playoffs approach, Laviolette said.
Once you get through January, and even more to a point once you get through February, you really start seeing a playoff picture and you start to get excited about the spring. February is a tough month. Weve got a lot of work to do.
E-mail Sarah Baicker at sbaicker@comcastsportsnet.com.