By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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In the past couple of seasons, the calling card when the Philadelphia Flyers have come to Raleigh has been the return of the only coach to lead the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup, Peter Laviolette. That subplot still exists tonight, but there's some more intrigue in tonight's game than just a rematch between the benches.
The Flyers, after surprising just about everyone with an Eastern Conference title last season, enter tonight's game atop the Atlantic Division and second in the conference with 20 points, largely on the back of their heretofore unknown goaltender, 20-year-old Russian phenomenon Sergei Bobrovsky. As they have for most seasons since the retirement of Ron Hextall, the Flyers entered this season with questions in goal, but Bobrovsky has largely answered those questions and the Flyers look primed to contend again for the Stanley Cup.
There's no change to the Canes lineup that dropped seven on Edmonton two nights ago, but the Canes face a much stiffer test tonight as they try to sweep their homestand. A win tonight could result in the Canes holding second place in the division when the night ends, depending on the outcome of the Tampa/Washington game. Here we go...
5:40 1st: Scott Hartnell sure thought he gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Joe Corvo disagreed, complaining to referee Rob Martell that the puck was kicked in. Martell didn't agree at first, but video review vindicated Corvo and the game remained scoreless. A bad break for the Flyers, who had a beautiful 3-on-2 rush capped off by a Ville Leino spinning centering pass to Hartnell, who tried to hit it with his stick but kicked it instead, resulting in no goal and a scoreless game.
6:20 1st: Not a minute later, a 2-on-1 shot from Claude Giroux beat Ward but went cleanly off the far post. Two huge breaks for the Canes, who could easily be down by two but still keep it scoreless.
7:54 1st: Flyers lead 1-0; Briere 7 (Leino, Hartnell) And the Canes' clock finally strikes midnight. Leino took full advantage of a sub-par play by both Carolina defensemen, as he circled around behind the net to skate away from Jay Harrison then found Briere uncovered at the top of the crease when Anton Babchuk completely lost his man. Nice play by Leino, but the Canes could have emerged from that play unscathed with a bit more honest defensive play.
14:47 1st: On a 2-on-1 created because Jeff Skinner set an inadvertent pick trying to get off the ice, Danny Briere nearly had his second of the night but his shot over Ward's pads bounced off the crossbar. The posts now have two on the night, and it could be way worse than a one-goal deficit for the Canes.
18:42 1st: Flyers take a 2-0 lead; Carter 6 (Pronger, Timonen) (pp) And an assist to Erik Cole, who took a dumb unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty ten seconds before the goal when he went overboard in reacting to a perceived slight from Nikolay Zherdev along the far boards. The Flyers power play moved the puck in a way that called to mind the '06 Canes (hmmm...) and Jeff Carter was the beneficiary of a point shot from Chris Pronger that Ward couldn't cover. Carter shoveled home the rebound to double the Flyers' lead.
End 1st: The Flyers' 9-8 shot advantage is a bit misleading, because every time the Flyers had the puck in the Carolina zone they seemingly created a scoring chance. The Canes have to tighten up in a hurry, something Paul Maurice knows well. He looked rather displeased heading to the locker room.
1:54 2nd: Flyers go up 3-0; Meszaros 1 (Carter, Giroux) All of the Flyers goals tonight could have been prevented by even passable defensive play. Instead, this time an inability to clear led to the Flyers taking a three-goal lead. Jeff Carter skated around behind the net (again) and caught Ward cheating off the near post, but Carter drew Ward down with a fake and after pinballing around the slot for a second or two, it came to Andrej Meszaros who blasted it home from 40 feet.
2:14 2nd: To no one's surprise, Tom Kostopoulos felt the need to drop the gloves with the Flyers' resident pest, Daniel Carcillo. Score it a win for Carcillo, who took Kostopoulos down to the ice with a couple of overhand rights.
5:58 2nd: 4-0 lead for the Flyers; Carter 7 (Briere) (pp) Justin Peters, come on down. Cam Ward's night is over through no fault of his own. This time, it's the inexcusable sin of giving up a 2-on-1 while killing a penalty, and Jeff Carter pots it for his second of the night. That's four goals on 13 shots for Ward, and only one of them was anything near his fault.
7:29 2nd: Chad LaRose is robbed by Bobrovsky with a spectacular flopping save on a five-foot shot that LaRose got all of. Canes can't buy a break.
12:30 2nd: Some loud "Let's go Flyers" cheers coming from the cheap seats. Only surprise is that they took this long to get going.
14:50 2nd: Tom Kostopoulos has been about the only Cane doing anything noteworthy tonight. This time, it wasn't with his fists, but with his hands...a pair of great shots from about six feet, but neither made it through to Bobrovsky thanks to some great blocks by Kimmo Timonen.
End 2nd: The Canes will begin the 3rd with :22 remaining on a Darroll Powe charging penalty, but honestly it might not matter at this point. Shots in the second period, inexplicably, were 14-6 Carolina, who took a 22-15 lead overall, but I have to wonder exactly where those 22 shots came from. I honestly have no idea.
5:20 3rd: There's your night in a nutshell. Eric Staal had the puck on a 1-on-2 rush, danced around Sean O'Donnell to get a clear shot on Bobrovsky, and...passed it to a wing where no one was within twenty feet of the puck.
End 3rd: The blog software ate my last few posts, but it wouldn't have mattered. Final score is 8-1, with Chad LaRose breaking the shutout at 8:44 and more defensive miscues plaguing the Canes. The night was punctuated by a Nikolay Zherdev breakaway goal with 1:50 remaining.
Postgame: The less said about this one, the better. Credit to the guys who stayed out to talk to the media, because no one wants that duty on a night like this. The Canes now hit the road to Montreal, which has been a good place to them over the years, so we'll see if they can bounce back on Saturday night.
Click for locker room audio from Tom Kostopoulos, Justin Peters and Eric Staal. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
We're back when the Canes return from their one-game road trip Wednesday night, as they welcome the Ottawa Senators to town.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
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