Oct 19 2008
Flyers remain winless with loss in San Jose
The Flyers are once again the worst team in the NHL. Well, they’re tied with the Anaheim Ducks with the least amount of points (each has 2), but at least the Ducks have a win. The Flyers, on the other hand, have both of their points through overtime losses, including a 5-4 OT loss last night against the San Jose Sharks. Once again, the Flyers were outplayed by a better team.
What makes this loss worse is the fact that the Flyers had a 3-1 lead late in the second period and totally came unglued. Danny Briere got the Fly Guys on the board in the first period and Braydon Coburn tallied a goal very early in the second period to push Philly to a 2-0 lead. However, Christian Ehrhoff responded for the Sharks 83 seconds later to slice the lead in half. A few minutes later, Jeff Carter scored on a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1 Flyers, and it finally looked like they may get their first win. However, Jonathan Cheechoo scored a power play goal with 1:40 left in the second as the Sharks went into the locker room trailing 3-2, but with the momentum firmly on their side.
Joe Pavelski tied the game 5:43 into the third and things started looking bad for the Flyers. Briere responded for the Broad Street Bullies with a breakaway goal with 8:49 remaining as the Flyers regained the lead. Unfortunately, the Flyers could not hold onto their lead as Devin Setoguchi scored with 4:44 remaining to force overtime. It didn’t take long for the Sharks to score in the extra session as Dan Boyle scored to give San Jose the win.
Philadelphia completely dominated in all facets of the game by the Sharks. The Flyers were out-shot 45-17. They were out-shot 10-7 in the first, 19-4 in the second, 15-6 in the third, and 1-0 in overtime. Philly didn’t do that bad in the first, but they were absolutely brutal for the rest of the game. It is impossible to win games when you are getting out-shot that badly.
The Flyers also only had two power play opportunities and came up empty each time. The Sharks had seven power play opportunities and scored once. That’s a little better on the penalty kill than the Flyers have been doing this year, but they need to do a better job overall on special teams.
San Jose also out-hit the Flyers and won 10 more face-offs. Philly didn’t do itself any favors with turnovers either, as they had 18 giveaways, as opposed to only 5 giveaways by the Sharks. Coming out on the wrong side of all of these statistical categories makes it impossible to win. John Stevens needs to get this season turned around real quick or it’s going to be a lost year and he will end up losing his job.
It’s also not helping that besides Coburn and Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers have awful defensemen. I don’t know how they’re going to be able to fix that problem either since they didn’t address it in the off-season and lost a bunch of defensemen from last year’s squad to either free agency or injuries. It’s not looking good for their blue liners.
Finally, Antero Niittymaki didn’t play poorly despite giving up five goals. He just got no help and was hung out to dry for much of the night. Nitty made some sick saves and is the primary reason that the Flyers didn’t lose 10-4. This team needs A LOT of work defensively before they can even think about being a playoff team. It’s a good thing that they’re playing the Sharks again on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Let’s Go Flyers.
