When Thrashers head coach John Anderson watched the Flyers play Saturday night in Atlanta, did he see a team offensively challenged enough that he could afford to rest his hot starting goaltender, understanding full well that he needs every possible point if he wants his club to make the playoffs? More likely, it wasn't opponent-specific, that he'd simply planned ahead of time to rest Johan Hedberg for one of two games this weekend with a rough stretch of games on the way. Or maybe he had enough confidence in his backup to toss him out there against a team that would presumably be pissed about getting lit up the night before.
In any case, each statement ended up being true at some point in the Flyers' 3-1 loss.
However, the Flyers need to figure out how much of their loss on Sunday night had to do with their offense and their enduring ability to make backup goalies look like Ken Dryden. Oh, and how much of it was due to not clearing cap room to keep Antero Niittymaki if only to start these four games against the Thrashers. The Flyers have lost all four games to Atlanta this season, after having beaten them 14 straight times. Niitty has never lost to them, posting a 17-0-0 record, the last four of which came this season with Tampa Bay.
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As for the puzzling offensive chemistry... The team was able to pepper Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec with shots right from the start, remedying their biggest problem from the night before. Their 45 shots tied their highest total of the season. On a good many of them, Pavelec was in perfect position. But on many more, there was just no real danger of scoring. Give the Thrasher defenders their due too; they were credited with blocking 22 shots.
Any of those 44 saves or 22 blocked shots goes in, and we're looking at a much different game.
The Flyers were also shut out on three power play opps. They cycled the puck well enough around the perimeter and sustained pressure, but they just couldn't find a seam through the defensive box, or a good angle on Pavelec. They were mushed out there.
At the other end of the ice, hang much of the yoke of this loss on Brian Boucher, who didn't have a great game. In the pre-game post, we hoped he wouldn't let in that early goal he's becoming known for. It took all of two shots before that was a memory. Sure, there were breakdowns in front of him to lead to the scoring opportunities, but Boucher simply couldn't do what Pavelec could at the other end, and that was the biggest difference in this game. It's easy to get frustrated by the offensive inconsistencies and a few defensive breakdowns, but how deflating does it have to be to steal the momentum back, only to have an uncontested wrister make the deficit wider?
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Mike Richards had a real nice game, with some big hits (knocked two Thrashers flat on their asses in the first period alone), and the team's only goal, coming in the third.
After a lousy first period, the Flyers showed great resilience in putting together a solid effort in the second, getting 19 shots on goal (and seemingly countless others near goal). They kept up that intensity in the third, and things started to get intense. The Thrashers were visibly rattled, causing some moments of hilarity in an otherwise frustrating game.
The most amusing came when Evgeny Artyukhin, pissed at Chris Pronger, crosschecked Pronger when he was down behind the Flyers net. No call? No problem. Pronger skated toward the blue line with the puck, wound up, and fired it at Artyukhin. There's really no other explanation than that it was intentional, as he was only a few feet away from him, and there's little reason to clear the puck from that point on the ice.
Scott Hartnell may have been on the ice for both Thrashers goals, but give him credit for trying to spark his team's comeback getting under the skin of Jim Slater, followed by beating him in a scrap.
Had Hartnell left his helmet alone, the win would have been decisive, but instead he tried to remove it to match Slater's uncovered head. Gentlemanly? I guess. But I didn't see Slater unscrewing his visor before the fight started. I did see him throwing a total fit for several minutes after it though.
So to sum this up and go watch the talking heads prattle on about healthcare... The Flyers' offense was better than their goal total would indicate; their goaltending wasn't. Only one of those elements can really be addressed though. They simply need to find a way to consistently score more goals. Short of the unproven Johan Backlund taking over (he was spotted by Frank Seravelli in the Wach after the game), Boucher will be the starter for the foreseeable future, and there will be games like this. He alone didn't cost the Flyers this game though, and they need to find a way to finish more than three times in two games regardless of their shot totals.
Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images