Bright: Bruins Show Flyers How Far They Are From The Top
WELLS FARGO CENTER — The Boston Bruins walked into the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon and punched the Flyers right in the mouth.
“That’s for thinking you’re the best team in the Eastern Conference.”
Before the red-hot but injury-plagued Flyers could blink, their seven-game winning streak was gone. The reigning Stanley Cup champions had the contest in the bag less than three minutes into the game with goals from Benoit Pouliot and Daniel Paille.
The big, bad Bruins continued the beating throughout, easily winning, 6-0, and taking their seat atop the conference where they belong.
“We have to regroup,” said Kimmo Timonen. “Obviously, we weren’t happy the way we played. We can’t be happy the way we played today, I thought it was an ol’ fashioned ass kicking in every area of the game. They were better in every aspect of the game.”
Although lopsided to the point of embarrassment, the loss doesn’t erase the Flyers’ previous undefeated (7-0) December. In fact, it could help them refocus. It could prove a humbling experience for the team that racked up a 20-8-3 record before the New Year. The Bruins aren’t the Montreal Canadiens; they aren’t the Tampa Bay Lightning; they are the best team in the NHL and gave the Flyers a lesson in domination.
“We have a plan, we know what we can do,” said forward Jody Shelley. “When you have moments like this, you hope you can look back in two weeks and say ‘Remember that game? Look where we are now and what we learned.’”
December losses aren’t crucial, but they can provide good reality checks that make a team even hungrier. The Flyers’ locker room was quiet, sullen and full of unhappy patrons. After a month of wins, the loss to Boston was extremely bitter.
“We knew what was at stake and you think it’s just another game on the schedule, but it’s not,” said Shelley. “It’s frustrating even more in that sense. You hope guys are fired up and hope we’re ready to play, but it just wasn’t there. We’ll see them again.”
“It’s hard to take, especially against Boston,” said Bryzgalov.
On Saturday, it was crystal clear the Flyers aren’t as good as the Bruins and had work to do. With Claude Giroux and Chris Pronger out indefinitely, it couldn’t be more apparent that this team, the way they are configured, can’t win on talent alone.
“We played the Stanley Cup champions,” said Jaromir Jagr. “Maybe we thought we are better than we are and in a good way, I think this loss can help us in the long run.”
Soft defense around their crease and an inability to block Zdeno Chara point shots led directly to multiple goals against. Inefficiency on the power play (0-6 to be exact) kept the Flyers from making any sort of comeback. Especially shorthanded 5-on-5, with the added loss of Sean Couturier to a head injury, Laviolette’s club needed to strike with the man advantage and show strength defensively. They failed.
With injuries ravaging the Flyers’ ranks, to keep float in the East and make it through their five-game road gauntlet to finish out the year, the buy-in has to happen. They need to find wins by way of suffocating defense and special teams.
If not .. well, you saw what happens.
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