The Flyers Respond After 7-0 Loss To Rangers

Added on Mar 07, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

It’s a hard time to be a Philadelphia Flyers fan, and the 7-0 shut out by the New York Rangers twisted the knife just enough to rile up their leaders. Chris Pronger, covered in ice packs, told the media after the game that they are at a crossroads after the fourth loss in a row.

Pronger said “I think we’re at the stage now where it’s a test of our character. Teams go through ups and downs. We haven’t had too many extended or prolonged parts of the season like this. This is a test for us. It’s probably good we check our character right now and see what we’re made of. We’re facing some adversity and we have to show our mettle here and understand it’s going to take some hard work to get out of it and get everybody on the same page.”

The proof about how bad they are playing these days are in the numbers, and they resemble stats you would see on the bottom half of the NHL standings. In the past four games: Goaltenders Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky have allowed 18 goals on 132 shots, and thats only a a save percentage of .864. The Flyers’ top five scorers have combined for zero goals, 5 assists and a minus-17 rating. As if that weren’t enough to bring the Flyers fans to tears, the power play is 1-for-16, and the penalty-killing unit has allowed four goals in 19 shorthanded situations.

Pronger also said its time to remind everybody that the teams they are playing have something in common with his team. He said “We are still in a good position, but I don’t think anyone in this locker room is happy with the way we’re playing right now. It’s up to us to figure out a way to come together and get back to playing as a team and as groups of five out there. Some guys are on one page, other guys are on another page.”

Captain Mike Richards, who referred to the Rangers loss as a beat down, said its time to put the game behind them. “We have to bounce back with a better effort. Just stick with the program. Don’t try to do to do much out there. Don’t start pointing fingers. Be confident in the group. We have to put this one behind us and have a good practice Monday and move on to Tuesday. We’ve done a good job of bouncing back all year. This one’s a little longer, but we play well at home. We play with a lot more emotion at home. We’re going to need it to right the ship.”

Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette said they had no energy against the Rangers. “The two games prior to [yesterday] we had energy but we got beat. The bounces that were going our way, aren’t going our way, like the shots that are going in from behind the goal line. Things didn’t click and you could have come out on the other side of those two games. We still could play better, don’t get me wrong. Yesterday they didn’t have the pop we needed. It was like we were moving slow out there.”

Doing what a coach should do, he isn’t blaming his team for the rough path they are going through. He said “If I am being honest, I have to take one hundred percent responsibility for what happened yesterday. We came into the month of March and we wanted to push. We pushed hard for three days and will continue to push hard, but yesterday I think we felt the effects of that. We came in and we didn’t have the jam that we needed to play a team that had plenty of it. I think it’s an isolated [incident]. That type of game is really tough to take, and it’s one of those losses that makes you want to get sick over, but it’s one game. We need to move on. We need to get that energy back up to a really high level and prepare ourselves for the next game and not dwell on that game. There was no pop out there.”

The Flyers 40-19-6 (80pts), who are 1st in Atlantic Division, will try to turn the ship around against the struggling Edmonton Oilers (23-35-8, 54pts) on Tuesday night.