After inexcusable collapse, Flyers must ensure it doesn't define season
There were three minutes to go. The Flyers held a 2-0 lead. Sergei Bobrovsky headed to the bench. 27 seconds later, Ryan Murray took a penalty. The Flyers were well on their way to two points, thanks to their goaltender.
It wasn't a particularly well-played game by the Flyers through the first 57 minutes, but they had weathered the storms, scored timely goals and were in the driver's seat.
That's when it all fell apart at the seams.
Columbus scored with 1:04 left to cut the lead to one, then tallied again 56 seconds later with 8.9 seconds left to tie the game. The Flyers were suddenly forced to fight for the second point. They didn't recover, falling in a shootout to the Blue Jackets, 3-2.
In reality, the Flyers got one point in the standings, enough to pull even with Detroit, and therefore take command of the final playoff spot with some help from Tampa. But that shouldn't add any shine to this night. The Flyers blew this game as bad as any team can blow it. Being in a playoff position as the night ends should be anything but satisfying. And now, the challenge is in the recovery.
First off, take all of your Steve Mason narratives and throw them out. There were no soft goals here. There was no major struggles in the shootout. The Flyers leaned on Mason for the second straight night and he practically carried them to two points himself.
Mason made 43 saves in regulation and another eight in overtime. He stopped three shots in the shootout as well, as the first four rounds went scoreless. That gave the Flyers four chances to get the first goal. Again, the Flyers were left looking for a goal when they really needed it.
A goaltender cannot do it alone. For the second straight night, this time against a far inferior team, the Flyers lacked energy, didn't establish the strong forecheck, struggled with turnovers and played a generally sloppy game.
So if you want to look at the goals, look at the Flyers rather pathetic coverage on both goals, as players got positioning and swarmed the net. Look at Wayne Simmonds and the unnecessary icing that led to the offensive-zone draw, which directly set up the Blue Jackets' first goal.
Look at the overall lack of forecheck, lack of hustle, losses in puck battles. Look at the chances that went by the wayside — Matt Read's wide shot on a 2-on-1 in overtime or shootout attempts for Nick Cousins and Claude Giroux that had Bobrovsky fooled only to have the shooters miss the net.
But don't blame Mason for this one.
And yet they led 2-0 with under two minutes to play.
So forget about how Detroit got man-handled in Tampa, 6-2, and thus fell behind the Flyers in the race by virtue of games played. It hardly matters at this moment.
This game isn't about a lost point because the shootout reared its ugly head on the Flyers again. The Flyers have seven other shootout losses to lament points that got away. This was about a 60-minute effort, and on a night they didn't have that, they took a 2-0 lead, a two-goal lead after 50 minutes of rather lackluster play.
And in the final two, the Flyers let it slip away.
There was a game and potential two points that escaped the Flyers grasp last season and that derailed the Flyers playoff hopes. The Flyers have preached a short memory and while they have a game on Thursday, they have a day to wallow in this loss that never should have been.
And the recovery is equally as important to the Flyers, not just because they are in the middle of a playoff race and every point matters.
If the Flyers failed to make the playoffs and did so by just one point, you could pin it on any of the shootout losses. Or you could look back at Tuesday night, with only 11 games remaining in their season, 11 games to get into the playoff picture and stick, and how they not only lost a point with a shootout loss, but how they let it slip with an unimaginable collapse in the final minutes of regulation.
If the Flyers don't want to be defined by a collapse, they best respond with the play that actually made them look like a playoff team and not what they displayed on Tuesday night.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
