BOX SCORE
TAMPA BAY, Fla.Chris Pronger was just short of livid.
The idea coming out of the lockout was to open up the game of hockey. Remove the obstructions, generate flow, generate skating and hopefully generate more goal scoring.
Guy Bouchers Lightning play a 1-3-1 trap. They stand and wait.
So what did the Bolts do nearly the entire opening period of the Flyers 2-1 overtime loss at the St. Pete Times Forum? They played a trap.
Peter Laviolettes players responded by pushing the puck back and forth or skating in circles amid boos.
Embarrassing?
NHL
What do you think? Pronger replied. Would you pay money to see that? I wouldnt either and that was a VERSUS TV game, too. Way to showcase the product. Look at the players they got over there.
Thats not my job. Maybe Shanny Brendan Shanahan should take charge of that, too. I dont know.
That is the way they play there all the time, whether its us or anybody. If they get down, they go into a two-man forecheck. We were just waiting for them to come in. Force them out of their forecheck or whatever that was. They werent forchecking. Their stance, I guess.
That was their game right there. We were making them look bad. Thats not hockey in my book, but whatever. The league is letting them do it.
The game itself was the polar opposite of the Flyers last encounter on the ice when they shredded Columbus for nine goals.
They could have used some of those goals Wednesday night. The Flyers 14 shots were one shy of the franchise record for fewest ever in regulation play.
They didnt have many shots 24 either, Jaromir Jagr said. It was like a chess match.
They had five power plays, too, and only scored once.
Laviolettes club will now spend the next two days in Naples, Fla., as part of their team bonding experiment before meeting the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov carried a 1-0 lead into the third period. Marc-Andre Bergeron tied the game with a power-play blast from the point at 7:41. Brett Connollys rebound in overtime won it.
Boucher has successfully used a trap for two years now to make his club more competitive against better opposition.
He said at the morning skate he worried about the Flyers fast, first-period starts and admitted without his two best defensemen (Victor Hedman, Mattias Ohlund), his club was overmatched.
So when the game began with the Bolts 1-3-1 trap, the Flyers defensemen just stood in their end and waited. No one moved on the ice. Finally, after 49 seconds, the officials ruled delay of game.
We were trying to figure a way around it, Laviolette said. Its part of the game. Everybody coaches differently and you have to make adjustments.
Tampas tactics and the Flyers response continued seven times throughout the period as fans booed loudly, but that was more about the Flyers not attempting to advance the puck. For instance, Braydon Coburn just stood with the puck.
Don Koharski, the off-ice supervisor in attendance, called Toronto for advice and then told the on-ice officials that the Flyers had to keep the puck in motion, even if that meant back-and-forth passing. That answer was then communicated to both benches by referee Chris Mooney.
What happened was Pronger and Andrej Meszaros would just skate in circles in their end waiting for a break. At one point, a frustrated Jagr came into neutral ice to get a pass and take it into the zone when Tampas players refused to move from their assigned positions.
It needs some clarification, Laviolette said. The first one, they said the puck needs to be moving. We were moving on the second one and blown again. They straightened it out.
That this was being broadcast nationally certainly didnt win any new fans for hockey.
Its part of the game; we knew it was going to happen, Jagr said. We kind of practiced for it the last two days. Of course, Id like to be playing a different style. But thats the way they play.
We had the leadWe just couldnt finish it.
Pronger said it takes two teams to make the game a game.
You have to move a little bit, he said. They blew Cobie down for standing there. I was moving. They called the league and they said it was OK if they move.
The onus is on them. They have to come and forecheck once in a while, too. Ultimately, they did and we got ourselves a game. Look at the second half of the game.
Laviolette is not the first to combat the trap with a stall response. Washington coach Bruce Boudreau did the same thing in this building last season.
Tampa thrives on turnovers and puck possession, Hartnell observed It's a tough system to get through the neutral zone. Obviously, we talked about it and had meetings about it. As much as we had the puck, that's a good thing.
I don't know what the time of possession was for both teams, but we must have had it a lot with that two-minute shift with Chris Pronger on the puck there. They eventually had to change their system and that is something that we wanted them to do.
Incidentally, Pronger, returning to the lineup after a six-game absence (right eye), played the most minutes in the period7:28.
Things settled down in the middle period, while the Flyers had three power plays and finally converted on their last one at 9:34 with Hartnells sixth goal.
He deflected a hard tracer from Jakub Voracek on goalie Dwayne Roloson for the lone goal of the period.
Matt Read did a great job on the face off, winning it back, Hartnell said. The puck went from Jake to Kimmo back to Jake. I positioned myself between Jake and the net and when he took the shot I was able to deflect the puck with my stick.
That was the eighth time the Bolts had given up the first goal of a game.
That goal forced Tampa out of its trap, although Bryzgalov still only saw six shots in the period.
Shots werent that many but the game was pretty intense, Bryzgalov said. They had some chances and power plays. They had movement in the zone. It was the type of game that one team is waiting and not letting the other team do anything
Pronger made consecutive trips to the box near the periods end, one for slashing and the other for high-sticking. The Flyers penalty kill units, however, did yeomans work to stifle it.
Again, the Flyers had chances on the power playfivebut only came away with one goal. They are now three for their last 33 over seven games.
We didnt give up much five-on-five, Laviolette said. It was tight checking and Tampa skates hard and checks hard. We got a power-play goal and gave one up in the third. We went to the box too many times.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.