Emotional detachment.
Its one of the things you hear as reasons for people divorcing.
Well, three games into this Eastern Conference Semifinal series, the Flyers seem emotionally detached from the New Jersey Devils.
Whatever fire, whatever anger, whatever challenge that got the Flyers collective juices flowing against the Pittsburgh Penguins simply hasnt manifested itself in this series.
That, more than anything, is a very big reason why they trail, 2-1, heading into Game 4 Sunday in Newark.
Unless the Flyers attitude changes, they wont win a series they are capable of taking.
If we thought they were just going to let us win, then we had the wrong mindset and we deserve to lose, theres no doubt about that, Danny Briere said.
NHL
Everybody on an individual basis has to find another gear. Find a way to believe we can beat them. Find a way to go out there with the mindset that they are going to win every battle and find a mindset.
Were not going to win every single battle but we cant lose the majority of them like we have the last two games.
Patrik Elias and Zach Parise said on Friday that they felt the Devils put some doubt into the Flyers in this series.
Which is what the Flyers did to Pittsburgh in the last series.
As a team, we just haven't used or played with enough emotion and passion as we have in the first round against Pittsburgh, he said.
That's what we have to find. I don't know if we left a lot in the other series or what, that's certainly something we need to find again. Every single playoff game should be played with the most passion and most emotion. Obviously it wasn't there the last couple games.
Claude Giroux said the Flyers that show up at Prudential Center on Sunday will be a different team than the one that was there in Game 3.
We know we can play better, that's obviously true, Giroux said. We know we can play better as a team and our work ethic can be better. The message is pretty clear. We're going to see a different group of guys next game."
Jaromir Jagr is the only player in NHL history who has ever won two Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two World Championships.
He knows about emotion and coming from behind and how things can turn on a dime within a series, even for a team being as badly outplayed as the Flyers have been in this series.
You gotta understand that every series is kinda different, Jagr said. It all depends who you play against. Theyre a tight checking team that is pretty strong on the boards.
Theyre stronger than I thought, that is for sure. I thought wed handle the boards a little better than we have so far. You never know. You just have to keep fighting.
In my experience, I have been on teams that totally dominated the first, three or four games and this series it has changed. I thought they have been a little bit stronger and faster than us.
Jagr said the Flyers need to dig deeper within themselves.
Not every time you will feel your best, he said. Maybe not feel your best for two weeks. But you got to find a way to produce. Sometimes it tough and it is frustrating and you kinda lose confidence.
You dont play your game or the game you wanted to play for whatever reason that is the way it is. Its tough to find it, but it is the only way you can find it.
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette declined to speak to anything his players have been saying since Game 3s overtime loss.
Laviolette said he doesnt like to respond to snippets of what players say because it could be taken out of context.
Yet, as a Stanley Cup winning coach himself, Laviolette has been around long enough to sense the Flyers are not fully engaged in this series like they were against the Penguins.
Its almost as if that series against the Penguins represented the Eastern Conference Finals and this series is a regular season game in January.
There is no hatred for the Devils in this series because no one on this roster was around for the 1990s as a Flyer against Marty Brodeur, when he was winning those three Cups for the Devils and making life generally miserable for Philly every spring.
This Flyers group has more Pittsburgh-hatred roots than Devils because of the past several years of facing them in the regular season and postseason.
Laviolette did agree that the Flyers need to find another gear.
I do think that our team is capable of playing certain parts of that game better than we did, he said. Thats the objective. Play a better 60 minutes. More competitive. Emotionally? Yeah, better.
Offensively? Yeah, better. Theres lot of thing I think we can do better. Thats our goal in Game 4 try to work on those things.
Couturier update
Sean Couturier skated on his own Saturday, briefly, but doesn't appear ready to play in Game 4. He has a right kneeleg injury. Zac Rinaldo took his place on the fourth line with Eric Wellwood and Max Talbot.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net