Penguins win again; Flyers now down 3-1 in series
Pens rout Flyers again, head home with 3-1 lead
PHILADELPHIA » Two home playoff games against Pittsburgh, the last more embarrassing than the first, both even more humiliating than the four regular-season losses with which the Penguins tagged them.
So all those bold pre-playoff prognostications by the Flyers were absolutely right on. It’s the playoffs now. The regular season doesn’t mean a thing.
Nope, not when you manage to play much worse than the zerofor-four performance achieved during the regular season against the Penguins.
With their pride freshly shredded via a 5-0 loss in Game 4 at Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers allowed the Penguins to keep on track. They scored at least five goals all four times they visited Philadelphia in this 2017-18 barely extended season.
Against these Penguins, the Flyers are 1-7 in all meetings, the postseason included, with the fifth and probably final game of this series looming Friday night in Pittsburgh.
Ah, but never fear, diehards, for Neuvy’s here to turn back the clock.
The last time the Flyers were this dead in the playoffs was, of course, the last time they made the playoffs, two seasons ago against a similarly superiorly skilled Washington team. The Capitals were on the verge of a sweep when Michal Neuvirth, the puzzling goalie who always seems to be missing a piece (of his body) somewhere, appeared on the scene for Game 4 against his old team.
He largely stoned them, then did it again in Game 5, then almost pulled off another steal before the Caps finally eliminated the Flyers in Game 6.
Now, coming off yet another injury, Neuvirth was invited to sit on the bench to watch the latest Flyers flop. Instead, he had to watch from a different angle when Brian Elliott flopped in the eyes of his coach after giving up three goals by the 8:04 mark of the second period and was summarily yanked.
Neuvirth would come in and allow two more goals on 13 carefree Penguins shots behind a defense that was barely capable of keeping up with a juggernaut in cruise control.
“Tough outcome tonight,” Neuvirth said. “We lost to a better team.”
Rather than wave a white towel, Dave Hakstol should wave Neuvirth into the crease for the start of Game 5. But then, Dave Hakstol does have a stubborn streak.
So while it’s quite possible that Elliott will get a chance to improve slightly on his 4.75 goalsagainst average and .856 saves percentage in this playoff round, it’s also possible that Hakstol and the Flyers will reach back for a little history. Remember that 2016 flash of Neuvirth brilliance?
“Ah, it’s a totally different series,” Neuvirth said. “Obviously it was a great series against Washington, but it’s two years ago, a long time. Right now we’ve got to forget about tonight’s game and refocus and have a good practice tomorrow and try to get a win in Pittsburgh and move it back here.”
Doing so would be quite a feat, since the offensive trends don’t exactly favor the Flyers extending this series beyond Friday.
Harkening back to 2016 and beyond, Claude Giroux (minus-7 in this series) and Wayne Simmonds each chalked up an 11th consecutive playoff game without a goal Wednesday. Jake Voracek has similarly gone eight in a row.
To be fair, hardly any Flyers have scored actual playoff goals during the reign of this current core group of forwards, except for Sean Couturier ... who missed Game 4 with a lower-body injury that probably can’t magically heal in two days. Then again, desperation can be a powerful tonic. Just ask Neuvirth, who maybe saw his chance two years ago to not only pull a miracle out of his glove for his team, but also point his career in the right direction.
He certainly played like a topflight starting goalie in that series against the Caps. But as they already knew, and as Flyers general manager Ron Hextall certainly knows by now, Neuvirth was never going to follow it up by staying healthy.
Doesn’t mean he can’t keep trying. If he’s given yet another chance, that is.
“Definitely tough,” Neuvirth said. “It is what it is. We’ve got to stick together, play as a team and work for each other. And we’ve got to believe in ourselves and, like I said, try to move the series back home.”