Inside Hockey/ Rob Marks

Get off to a better start.  Capitalize on the power-play. Tighten up and take less penalties.

They were the keys to the game for the Flyers going into Tuesday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils.

What actually happened?

The Devils scored just 1:07 into the game. The Flyers were 0-for-5 on the power play and took penalty after penalty. The Devils scored a power-play and short-handed goal.

In case you didn’t get the hint, the Flyers lost 3-0 to fall to 0-3-0 on the season.

Because the Flyers didn’t put much effort into the game tonight, I’m not going to put much effort into recapping it. Here’s the pros and cons:

Cons:

• Peter Laviolette sensed trouble and switched up the lines going into the game. They had at least six different defense combinations before the first period was even over. Nothing worked.
• Defense. If you can even call it defense. Braydon Coburn was in the box for the Devils’ second goal. Kimmo Timonen forced a turnover on the power-play which led to Ilya Kovalchuk scoring on a penalty shot.
• Instead of simplifying things, the Flyers became sloppier as the night went on. Stupid penalties, awful passing and useless fights.
• After a great weekend, Claude Giroux was nearly invisible. He had no shots on goal but he did manage to get on the score sheet by taking two penalties.
• The biggest con of the night has to be the effort put forth by the Flyers. After Kovalchuk’s short-handed goal, the mental aspect of their game was completely gone. When the fights aren’t even highlight-worthy, you know something is wrong.

Pros:

• The one person you can’t blame for the loss is Ilya Bryzgalov. He hasn’t been Vezina-like but there really isn’t much more Bryz can do when his defense is a no-show and the team is constantly short-handed.
• Tye McGinn had over 12 minutes of ice-time in his NHL debut and even saw power-play action.
• The Flyers started the season 0-3 in the 1994-95 abbreviated season and finished on top of the Atlantic Division. There’s hope!