Season new, but results already growing old
PHILADELPHIA >> Twentythree first-period San Jose Sharks shots after the Flyers began their home season Tuesday, a lone fan in the upper deck already had enough.
“Fire Hakstol,” he screamed, once, twice, 10 times. “Fire Hakstol.”
The idea, as all such plans go, was for a 19,000-throat chorus to join in, creating a roar loud enough to rattle Ron Hextall, up in his corporate box. Oddly, though, there was no such response. Then again, the entire newly appointed Wells Fargo Center Tuesday was a no-response zone.
That would include the stands.
That would definitely include the ice.
On a night when the Flyers needed an extra 40-minute run-up to accommodate a pregame ceremony that wouldn’t quit, the Sharks needed far less time to puncture the party. Within 3:28, they had two goals. Within
16:42, they had four. By night’s end, they would have an 8-2 victory and some quick peace of mind. For that would have been them a night earlier in New York, being smothered by four goals by, of all rebuilding operations, the Islanders.
“Games like these are frustrating,” Claude Giroux said. “But it’s one game. Everybody needs to relax. We’ll go back to work tomorrow and get a win in Ottawa. And we’ll be ready from there.”
Earlier in the day, evidently dissatisfied with a 1-1 season-opening road trip through Vegas and Colorado, Dave Hakstol reimagined his lines, certain that he finally had the right combinations. His plan included a top line of Sean Couturier with Giroux and Jake Voracek, a fine combo even if it had long, long ago lost its newcar smell.
“You see Coots going to the net a lot,” Hakstol said of Couturier. “By nature of playing with ‘G’ and Jake, there’s going to be pucks that go to the net. There’s going to be some loose change hanging around there, and that’s a strength he can bring to that line, always having a net presence on second and third pucks.”
Hakstol was not wrong. And early, that was the only Flyers line not inclined to slide aimlessly around offensive zone. Its trouble: Putting the loose change in the bank. Both Couturier and Giroux flubbed early open opportunities. And each time a Flyer failed to take a shot, or allowed a puck to skid off the end of a stick, or just tossed up a brick, the Sharks would respond with charges in the other direction so vigorous that goalie Brian Elliott barely had a chance.
“It is so bad to lose right now,” said Shayne Gostisbehere, with passion. “We left him out to dry. He was our best player tonight. It could have been 8-0 after the first. It’s a little ridiculous. Some of us really have to look in the mirror on this team. And we have to respond. Leaving a guy out to dry like that is not really fair.”
Apparently, the Flyers forgot that they were supposed to play that way in their last home game of a season, not the first. They were outshot, 48-33, and both of their goals were on the power play.
“Every man in this room, including myself, is better than that,” said Elliott, who did make 40 saves. “Sometimes, it takes a little bit of a wakeup call. I don’t think we had the structure to take on their attack. And they did a good job, four guys joining the rush. A lot of odd-man rushes tonight, and it kind of felt like wave on wave. We could have handled it better.”
A year ago, the Flyers won their home opener, 8-2. That would have been over the Washington Capitals, who were so shaken by the experience that they would need five games in the final, not four, to win the Stanley Cup. “For the rest of the season,” Giroux said, “I don’t think we played as well as we wanted to play at home.” So maybe it works the other way this season. All the Flyers knew early Tuesday is they wanted to find out.
“The last few years, we have been a pretty tight group, on and off the ice,” Giroux said. “And we had a chance to spend some time together on the road trip. We just enjoy being at the rink with each other. And any time you have a tight group like that, you will go out and work for each other. And we’re going to play as a team. “So we’re excited to be home.” There was reason for that enthusiasm. The road trip was productive, the victory in Vegas a statement, the Sharks coming off the loss to the Islanders. And Hakstol was into his fourth season, plenty long by NHL standards to start a buzz. But it is plenty long, too, to start a movement. And the booing and heckling and chanting that began Tuesday will only grow unless the Flyers improve.
“It’s not fun to lose like that at home,” Giroux said. “It happened before and we bounced back. And we’ll bounce back again.”
It’s early. Somewhere along the way, the Flyers were going to lose by six. Every team will. So it happened early. Simmonds, who scored late Tuesday, has three goals in as many games. The Flyers have some young players, who will improve. There will be the game in Ottawa. The Flyers won’t be worse.
“It’s a new season,” Nolan Patrick decided.
A new season. But a tired, years-long trend. By the final horn Tuesday, 95 percent of the building was empty. And the silence already was saying more than any one piercing scream.