A look at the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-1 loss to the rival New York Rangers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City through the perspective of crippling turnovers, a group of players that were hardly noticeable and one dominant goaltender.
In what could quite possibly have been their biggest game of the season, the Flyers came up short. Real short.
That’s now eight straight losses for the Flyers at Madison Square Garden. Ouch.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
3. Defensive-zone turnovers
Go back and watch replays of each of the Rangers’ three goals and you’ll find a common theme: Really bad defensive-zone turnovers that led to the puck winding up in the back of the Flyers’ net within seconds.
Slightly before the Rangers’ opening tally, Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen couldn’t handle a pass along the boards from his netminder, Steve Mason. The Rangers were there to pounce on the turnover and throw the puck on net. Derek Dorsett ultimately knocked home a rebound.
News
In the second period, Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald made a soft clearing attempt that Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh easily picked off and eventually sniped past Mason to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
And then in the third period, Flyers winger Michael Raffl fumbled the puck along the boards and turned it over. Moments later, a seemingly harmless wrist shot was deflected by Rangers winger Dominic Moore and trickled through Mason to complete the hat trick of horrible defensive-zone turnovers that wound up in the Flyers’ net.
Though he should have had the last one, Mason was pretty much left hung out to dry. It was the kind of defense that we had seen from the Flyers in October, not the kind we had seen over their recent hot streak. The objective now is to not make a trend down the stretch.
2. The Flyers’ top line
Forget about Jake Voracek’s goal late in third period because it didn’t mean anything except an upward tick in his goal total for the season. The game was well over by then.
The Flyers’ top line is listed here for all the wrong reasons.
Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Voracek really didn’t show up on Wednesday night at The Garden. They were hardly noticed when the Flyers needed them to step up and generate some offense in the worst way.
The Rangers’ top defensive pairing of Dan Girardi and the aforementioned McDonagh clearly keyed in on the Giroux line and did their best to take the Flyers captain and his linemates out of the game. They got the matchups they wanted. Girardi and McDonagh are really good defensemen but the Flyers’ top line has to have a much better showing than what we saw Wednesday night.
Flyers TV analyst Rick Tocchet even took to twitter to say he felt Wednesday was the worst game he had seen Giroux play in some time.
A legitimate argument can be made that the Flyers’ fourth line was the team’s most effective line in the offensive zone. Good for them but not good for the Flyers.
1. Henrik Lundqvist
That, my friends, was what you would call a superior goaltending performance.
Lundqvist was his usual spectacular self, making 31 saves for his 27th career victory over the Flyers. They weren’t all easy saves, either.
His second-period save on Adam Hall was a sight to see as he somehow flashed his pad over to rob the Flyers center on a rebound. At the beginning of that second period, he made an equally remarkable save when kept the puck pinned between his skate blade and the ice as Flyers swarmed the crease for a Brayden Schenn rebound.
Lundquvist was at the top of his game and asserted his dominance from the time the puck dropped. You could say it was vintage Lundqvist. Is he old enough or been in the league long enough to say that?
Whatever you want to call it, you just don’t want see it come playoff time if you’re a Flyers fan if the teams do meet in the opening round. A lot can happen over the next few weeks, though.
Two straight losses are never good at this time of the year. But Wednesday’s loss in New York is a bit more concerning than the loss to Los Angeles this past Monday because the Flyers didn’t bring their best effort in a crucial game. There was basically no pushback to the Rangers’ onslaught. The Rangers’ second goal seemed to deflate the Flyers and they could never recover.
The good news is that the steaming tire fire that is the Toronto Maple Leafs – losers of six straight and – comes to South Philly on Friday. It’ll be a prime opportunity for the Flyers to get back on their feet against a team that considers defense highly optional and gives up more shots than the Sixers’ 2-3 zone.