Penguins deal Flyers 'embarassing' shootout loss

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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Posted: 9:40 p.m.Updated: 11:28 p.m.

By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com

BOX SCORE

This was supposed to be a week of discovery for the Flyers.

How do they stack up against the best teams in the Eastern Conference: the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins?

So what have we learned after another shootout loss, this one 2-1 to the Penguins at Wells Fargo Center in which Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin werent even here?

Sometimes I feel we play a good game against Washington, but we cant bounce back, Kimmo Timonen said. Thats a big worry for me. Its the playoffs. You have to put that behind and focus on the next game.

Every game is a different game ... They outworked us, they won all the one-on-one battles. Its an individual thing. If youre not ready to play when you come to the rink, its not good. It looked like we werent ready to play and that was the result.

Chris Kunitz won it in the shootout as the feisty Penguins, who have 94 points, are now within four points of the Flyers in the Atlantic Division, even though the Flyers have a game in hand.

Unlike the shootout loss to the Caps where the Flyers felt they won almost every battle, not a single Flyer thought they won anything against Pittsburgh.

We didnt play good the whole game, they outskated and out-battled us, said Andrej Meszaros. They outshot us. They did everything better than us in our building. That was embarrassing.

The Pens held the Flyers without a shot for nearly 13 minutes in the third period and outshot them 31-20 overall. Truth is, this was a lame effort by the Flyers whose mental frame of mind right now is hard to figure out.

Lucky we had Bob. He kept us in the game, Meszaros said

Indeed, rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had a strong bounce-back game after the disaster against the Caps, with 30 saves. Without him, it could have been 4-1 or worse. He stole the Flyers a point they didnt deserve.

Theres no excuse for it, we were not sharp tonight and we got beat in most areas, said coach Peter Laviolette. If it werent for our goaltender, we wouldnt have gotten any points tonight.

So, two games into this test period, the Flyers have two points and are 1-3 in these last four shootouts.

Im not sure if we thought it was going to be an easy game, but it was a standard Pittsburgh Penguin game, said team captain Mike Richards.

They worked hard and probably out-hit us a little bit in our own building, which is disappointing. Im not sure if it was just a letdown after having a good game or we didnt have our legs, but it was disappointing stuff.

Washington didnt have Alex Ovechkin and the Flyers elevated their game, even though their goaltending failed. Here, their game sagged everywhere.

Its Pittsburgh, its a team in our conference were battling the division for them, Laviolette said. It is a little perplexing and its something were going to have to figure out and clearly not, by any means, the standard we need to be at.

Did the Flyers blow the game off because Crosby and Malkin were injured?

I cant give you an answer why we werent sharp, Laviolette replied.

As bad as it, the game was 1-1 going into the third period. The Flyers got an early power play and because of turnovers, giveaways, etc., their actual zone time didnt come until the final 16 seconds. No shots, either. Well, Pittsburgh got one.

Max Talbot, the guy who delivered the Penguins Stanley Cup in Detroit a few years ago with a pair of goals, stripped Claude Giroux and went solo on Bobrovsky, who made a clutch save.

Bobrovsky had another good save on Jordan Staal in the final 2:37 of the period and several in the overtime.

Bob played a great game for us and gave us a chance to steal another point, Danny Briere said.

Pittsburgh dominated the final two-thirds of play, especially toss-up battles for the puck.

They played well defensively, Briere said. But we have to do a better job than what we did. Creating chances, I think thats where our biggest problem was. Its not like we give up to many chances. Its just that in the offensive zone we need to do more. Work as much as we do, or are expected to do.

Virtually every fanand some within the Flyers organization -- were holding their breath at the start to see how Bobrovsky would look after his dreadful performance on Tuesday against Washington.

They didnt have to wait long as he had a full-stretch, left-pad save on Tyler Kennedys breakaway three minutes in the game. Bobrovsky had 10 saves that period, several off tips and looked sharp and more relaxed in net.

Im not happy because we lost, but Im happy that I made a lot of stops, Bobrovsky said via a translator.

Richards 21st goal at 15:18 of the first period was the only marker for the Flyers and it had to go to video review.

Off the rush, James van Riemsdyk somehow centered the puck from near the left boards across the slot despite Deryk Engelland hanging all over him. The pass hit Richards skate, then ricocheted off his stick over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury into the net.

The review was for a high-stick from Richards, which came up after the puck had already gone into the net.

At the end of the period, Andreas Nodl was hit with what appeared to be an embellished (by Fleury) goaltender interferences call. The ensuing Penguins power play carried over into the second period.

Naturally, the Penguins made the Flyers pay on a laser shot from Kennedy in the right circle at 1:01. That tied it.

Much like the opening period, the Flyers had one power play and were completely out of sync. If theyre not struggling to get the puck up ice and into the zone, theyre over passing once there. They seem reluctant to shoot.

As such, the power play is now 7-for-its-last-54. Pittsburgh outworked the Flyers on the penalty kill, too.

Today we thought we could skate through and it would be an easy game, but there is no easy games in this league, Timonen said. They outworked us and won all the one-on-one battles. If you dont work, youre in trouble.

Bobrovsky masked how badly outplayed the Flyers were. He had the more difficult saves throughout the game.

During a third-period Pens power play, he had a sprawling save on a rebound off the back boards from Alex Kovalev to keep it at 1-1.

Pens coach Dan Bylsma said Bobrovskys performance that period was such that, Im not sure I felt like anyone could score again on him. We did have some chances and he did come up with some key saves.

How ironic that Bobrovsky rose to the task while his teammates failed so miserably.

Certainly theres a lot to talk about from our end, Laviolette said. On where we go, what we did and what we certainly need to do better.

E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net

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