Tough weekend for Flyers
Another weekend, another missed opportunity. The Flyers could have gained ground this weekend and been within striking distance of the Atlantic Division lead. Instead, a pair of losses to the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings leave the Flyers eight points shy of the division lead.
Not only did the Flyers not get the win in Detroit, losing 4-3, but they now have to share a record. The Red Wings won their 20th consecutive home game on Sunday night and now tie the 1976 Flyers for the longest home win streak in league history. But it's not like the Flyers were that far off. After dealing with the best in the East, they nearly beat the best of the West on Sunday.
"It seems like we're right there all the time going into the third period and not finding ways to win," said Brayden Schenn, who had his first two-goal game in his career.
On Saturday, the Flyers' Achilles' heel was their penalty killing. They allowed the first three-goal performance for the Rangers' power play all season. On Sunday, it was more of the same. The Red Wings scored another two power-play goals thanks to Niklas Kronwall and Pavel Datsyuk.
"We played against two good power plays, but we made some mistakes and obviously it's costing us," said lead penalty killer Max Talbot. "We played against the top team in the East and the top team in the West, and to give up three and two goals, it's frustrating because we know the longer the season goes, the more you need to win the special teams."
Right now, the Flyers' penalty kill ranks 19th at 81.4 percent. If the Flyers are going to win games down the stretch, they'll need special teams to help and half of the forwards killing penalties are rookies in Sean Couturier and Matt Read.
"You got a lot of new faces in there against a veteran unit," Peter Laviolette said. "You gotta continue to teach and show things ... but there are things we can do better to prevent certain shots from certain areas."
It's not just special teams. The Flyers have had one of the league's best offenses all season, but this stretch of games for Sergei Bobrovsky has not been kind. He has allowed 18 goals in his last four starts, only one of which he has won. He was forced into action this weekend, with Ilya Bryzgalov on the shelf with the flu.
"I can't breathe normally," Bryzgalov said. "I have a sore throat, headaches. As soon as I started taking the antibiotics, it started to feel better."
Bryzgalov was healthy enough to make the trip to Detroit and backed up on Sunday night, but hasn't practiced with the team in days. There was no morning skate in Detroit before the game, so he didn't even have that experience to start building on coming back from the illness.
To make matters worse, the Pittsburgh Penguins won their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and are now in a tie with the Flyers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the Atlantic Division with 69 points.
They'll have to start making up ground on Thursday, when they take on the Buffalo Sabres at Wells Fargo Center, a place that hasn't been too kind to the Flyers of late.
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