Flyers to tighten up after Winnipeg penalty fest

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In a way, coach Peter Laviolette had already warned that this was coming.

In Florida and North Carolina last week, despite the Flyers two wins, Laviolette mentioned there was work to do on the penalty-taking front. Sure, his team returned from its road trip 2-0-1, but the Flyers had taken too many unnecessary penalties in the process.

On Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg, it caught up with them. The Flyers took a barrage of sloppy penalties and dug themselves into a hole they couldnt climb out of on their way to a 6-4 loss to the Jets.

Whether the game was just a hiccupas penalty-killer Max Talbot allegedor a wake-up call, the Flyers know discipline is something theyve got to work on going forward.

As of Sunday, they led the league in penalty minutes with 339, 23 minutes more than the next closest team, the Dallas Stars.

I was one of the culprits yesterday taking bad penalties, said Danny Briere, who took two penalties in the game. Sometimes you get a bad game like that. Its basically one of those games where you hit the reset button and try to go back to what we were doing.

Lately, I thought we were much better, especially in the Phoenix game. Florida, we did a good job. Weve just got to go back to doing that again. If we dont take as many penalties, were going to give ourselves a great chance to win every night.

If not for the penalties, the Flyers very well could have won on Saturday. They fought their way from a 5-1 deficit to within one in the third period. They had successfully killed off 17 straight penalties heading into the game, but the Jets managed to go 3 for 8 on the power play.

Weve talked about it since the beginning of the year, Talbot said. We all know what discipline is. We were undisciplined.

The Flyers were loose in Florida and Raleigh and against Phoenix, coming off their two-day bonding excursion. That confidence and joviality likely helped them come away with wins in a tough stretch of games. But at the same time, theres always a danger in becoming too comfortable, too complacent, when the wins keep coming. They hadnt lost in regulation since Oct. 29, ironically against the Jets.

Sometimes you just take it for granted, Briere said. You just let yourself off the hook for one period, basically that one little bit. That first period got us in trouble last night. Theres going to be games like that. We got frustrated too with the referees early in the game and it just escalated. We have to do a better job controlling our emotions, starting with me.

The loss to Winnipeg was evidence that the Flyers should look to tighten up their discipline, certainly. But Talbot, a member of the penalty-killing unit, wasnt all that concerned.

Its going to happen, Talbot said. You can be the best penalty-killer in the league, sometimes its going to happen in a game where you allow three power-play goals. You got a hot power play, you got a bad bounce, and its going to happen.

Laviolette, too, wasnt about to dwell on what happened in Winnipeg.

Im kind of past last night already, he said. Moving on to tomorrow, weve got a big game against Carolina. Our penalty kill has been real good for us. Weve done a better job of a lot of different thingstaking care of the puck, staying out of the box. It didnt go our way last night, and were looking forward to tomorrow.

As far as teams the Flyers have done all the right things against, the Carolina Hurricanes are most certainly one of them. The Flyers have won four in a row against the Canes, and polished the team off with little trouble the last time they were in Philadelphia.

I dont know how to explain it, but theres just teams where you seem to do better, to perform better or match up better, Briere said. Carolinas one of those teams where we seem to get the bounces. We seem to have a lot of confidence against them each time we play them as well. Hopefully that trend continues, because we need to get back on track.

It should come as no surprise that Briere added the Flyers will for sure be more careful about taking penalties Monday at the Wells Fargo Center. But besides that, everyone in the locker room on Sunday was still upbeat and happy about how the team has looked lately.

And they should be; the Flyers are still first in the Eastern Conference.

Our teams played some pretty good hockey, Laviolette said. As much as youd like to win every game for the rest of the year, its probably unrealistic. Youre going to have speed bumps in the road. I think well get back on track tomorrow when we get in front of our fans and get back out on the ice.

E-mail Sarah Baicker at sbaicker@comcastsportsnet.com.

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