Flyers must recover quickly from tough break against Devils

The Devils' Travis Zajac, right, celebrates after scoring a goal as the Flyers' Vincent Lecavalier skates past during New Jersey's win Tuesday. The Flyers gave up ground in the playoff race with the loss, and will be challenged to gain more with a tough slate to end the season.
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA — The aftershocks might be felt in the standings down the stretch drive, but the Flyers can’t allow the disappointment from Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils to stick in their craw.

They may have thought Scott Hartnell had tied that game with 40 seconds remaining in regulation, but referee Tom Kowal ruled that instead of shoving the puck under Devils goalie Marty Brodeur into the net, Hartnell shoved Brodeur into the net, puck and all.

It was a close play, though replays seemed to indicate there was more than enough reason to question such a critically timed call. Where some Flyers (we’re talking about you, Jakub Voracek) were incensed at Kowal’s decision, they were angrier that the play couldn’t be reversed by the replay gods in Toronto.

The league actually calls that thing “The Situation Room.” Maybe CNN’s afternoon news show liked the name — or vice-versa?

Advertisement

Either way, NHL rules seem to stipulate that in cases of subjective decisions such as this one, the league office replays can’t steal the decision from the referee, no matter what the replay shows.

“I’m not going to cry here about the call,” Voracek said after the game — and after he’d said a lot more. “I mean, we lost the game. We had six power plays where we could’ve scored a goal. So I’m not going to cry over the goal, but with (40) seconds left you better be ... damn sure to make that call if it’s like that.”

Point taken, but a few Flyer principals pointed out that Kowal was simply doing his job as he deemed fit. Rightly or wrongly, the Flyers were dealt a setback by the Devils in a game either team could ill-afford to lose.

“It could’ve gone either way,” coach Craig Berube said. “I told you before the refs have a tough job, and they try to do the best they can. ... It’s a tough loss. Obviously, our team battled hard. It was a good game. I thought we competed hard. We didn’t score enough goals.”

Along with that, the Flyers went 0-for-6 on the power play, and with an intimidating schedule looming, they know their attention has to shift immediately to fixing the scoring problem, not addressing any more replay issues.

“I think we did a good job playing in their zone but we could’ve shot more pucks, I think,” Claude Giroux said. “We passed up a lot of chances to shoot the puck. We tried some cross-ice passes. ... They’re a good team defensively. We needed to get the puck on the net more.”

To that end, the Flyers had a complete off-day Wednesday, but will kick into two busy practice days Thursday and Friday where they’ll be shooting a lot of pucks before commencing a final month-long run that features a series of tall challenges.

To begin with, there is a home-and-home series with the Eastern Conference-leading Pittsburgh Penguins. They’re in a for a visit at Wells Fargo Center Saturday afternoon, and the Flyers run out for a Sunday afternoon rematch at CONSOL Energy Center.

Two days later, the Flyers host the Chicago Blackhawks, who beat up on the Flyers 7-1 in the teams’ only other meeting this season.

Other games include two against the St. Louis Blues, who only have the best record in the league; two against Atlantic Division leader Boston; one toughie each with L.A., Toronto and the Rangers; and yet another with the Penguins.

It’ll be 17 games in 30 days and nights. Not many breathers in the whole mix.

•••

NOTES: The possible recommendation of a better game-deciding system than a shootout died another temporary death in Boca Raton, Fla. Wednesday as the NHL general managers ended their meetings with yet another day of little real activity. That didn’t stop NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and other league officials from indicating they were productive. Of course, Bettman wanted no part of substantive talk as yet toward ending shootouts, popular with the public but not with large segments of coaches and GMs, and some players. Detroit’s Ken Holland pushed for a 3-on-3 overtime session that would have likely resulted in many more overtime goals finishing a game. The GMs barely addressed it. So much for progress. ... The Flyers Wednesday loaned minor leaguer Kris Newbury, second in scoring for the Phantoms this season with 14 goals and 22 assists, to the Hershey Bears, the Capitals’ AHL affiliate. In return, the Bears loaned Derek Whitmore, 29, who has four goals and five assists in 26 games, to the Phantoms. And yes, minor league transactions rarely make any sense.