Claude Giroux and the Flyers are embarrassed after the Rangers game ... and they ought to be | On the Fly
The most lopsided loss to the Rangers in Flyers history had everyone singing the blues.
It was 9-0, and poor Steve Coates was trying to make a point Wednesday night about the number of shifts played by Ivan Provorov, except he mispronounced shifts. Decorum prevents us from repeating it, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out Coatsey’s fumble. Hint: “It” happens.
And it sure happened last night as the Flyers suffered one of their most humiliating losses in recent team history. Oh, they’ve had some clunkers before, but never 9-0 on the road. Rangers fans in the third period were chanting, “We want 10!” which is actually pretty funny. Unless you were one of the Flyers.
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— Ed Barkowitz (flyers@inquirer.com)
Flyers embarrassed after getting run out of MSG
The official attendance at Madison Square Garden was 1,723. But they forgot to count the Flyers’ 12 forwards and six defensemen. They pretty much stood around and watched the Rangers, too.
The defensive pairing of Phil Myers and Travis Sanheim was especially comical, in a Lenny & Squiggy kind of way. Sanheim was on the ice for seven goals, including a power-play tally in that nightmare of a second period when the Rangers put up a 7-spot.
The plus/minus database on Hockey-Reference.com goes back to 1979-80, and the worst it has is nine guys with a -7, the last being Calgary’s Chris Butler in 2012. Claude Giroux was a -6 in a 2010 loss to Ottawa, but that score was a reasonable 7-4.
9-0?
“We lost a lot of battles the way we played. We didn’t play the way we want to,” Giroux said. “I don’t know what to tell you. It’s embarrassing the way we played.”
It was just the third time in franchise history the Flyers have lost by at least nine goals and the first since losing at Montreal, 11-2, in 1981. The worst loss ever was when Chicago beat the Flyers, 12-0, in 1969.
Even the American Hockey League kicked dirt on the Flyers, noting that Kris Knoblauch, the coach of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford, had to take over as head coach of the big club. David Quinn and his staff learned a few hours before game time that they would have to sit out for COVID-19 protocol. The AHL tweeted out, “Knoblauch for Jack Adams!” the award given out to the NHL’s coach of the year.
It’s the worst loss in Alain Vigneault’s coaching career, trumping a 9-2 hammering when he was the Rangers coach in 2013. His team responded by losing its next game, 6-0.
Vigneault was asked what the key is to overcoming such a horrendous loss. “Short memory,” he said.
That awful second period even left upbeat Flyers radio host Jason Myrtetus beleaguered. “I’m not going to [do] the highlights,” he said, showing mercy on his listeners. “I’m not going to [do] the BetRivers highlight reel.”
Things to know
Mika Zibanejad looked like Wayne Gretzky. The Flyers looked like Mites On Ice. And poor Sam Carchidi had to write the game story.
After a couple of sluggish games, Oskar Lindblom gets some time off to hit the reset button. In other words, he got lucky and missed 9-0.
Checking in on prospect Wade Allison, a true power forward with a cannon for a shot.
Around the division, two wild videos. First, the Sabres playing very Sabre-like defense. Then Bruins goalie Dan Vladar with a candidate for save of the year — in the first game of his career!
Three & out
We mentioned the Flyers’ worst loss above, 12-0 to Chicago at the Spectrum on Jan. 30, 1969. The Blackhawks scored two shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill, but the rest of the world remembers that day as the last time the Beatles performed live. The Fab Four famously went up on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters in London and finished their jam with John hoping they “passed the audition.”
Phil Myers’ night, in addition to -6, included taking two penalties and having a puck go off his skate for the fourth Rangers goal. Whaddaya think that’ll do to his confidence?
Timing is everything in life, and this couldn’t be any more unfortunate. The Flyers are putting tickets for the next three home games on sale this morning at 10 o’clock. Yeah, no thanks.
Flyers’ next five
Thursday: at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Saturday: at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Monday: vs. N.Y. ISLANDERS, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
Tuesday: vs. NEW JERSEY, 7 p.m. (NBCSP locally, NBCSN nationally)
Thursday, March 25: vs. N.Y. RANGERS, 7 p.m. (NBCSP)
From the mailbag
Notwithstanding the recent response to the hit on Giroux, isn’t the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss is the strong argument that the Flyers are the softest team in their division?
There have been plenty of recent situations on the ice where there was no response. Included were Coots, their MVP, and G, their Captain, being roughed up while laying on the ice. The era of a fighter on every team is long gone, but the Flyers have no physical presence. No team fears a tough physical game when they come to Philly. Who hits hard on the team? A guy or two on the 4th line. That’s it.
One would have thought the Flyers would be cognizant of this weakness after being roughed up and physically pushed around by the Islanders in the playoff loss to them. In the playoffs, soft teams get exposed. Other fans I speak to tend to agree. Am I off base here?
— Gil Dick via email
Send questions or observations via Twitter to beat writers Ed Barkowitz (@EdBarkowitz) or Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull).