Flyers’ season comes to an end
Eliminated by Capitals in 6 games
PHILADELPHIA >> Despite a strong final push late in the third period Sunday, the Flyers’ offensive shortcomings and the Capitals’ defensive size advantage worked to keep Philadelphia’s Stanley Cup drought going strong.
Nick Backstrom’s second-period goal stood up and Braden Holtby made 26 saves for the shutout as the Capitals took down the Flyers 1-0, winning the Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series four games to two.
The Capitals will move on to what should be a classic conference semifinal series against Pittsburgh. The Flyers go into an offseason with many questions, but at least know they’re coming off a season that should be viewed as something to build upon rather than tear down.
“It just shows our group, how resilient we are,” said Shayne Gostisbehere, the most positive of player developments this season. “Going down 3-0, we didn’t just pack it in and say it was over. We fought back, did our best and we did fall a little short.”
Despite a hardy effort in extending this rather one-sided series to six games, the Flyers also know that happened primarily because Michal Neu-
virth played the last three games of the series in brilliant fashion. He stopped 103 of the 105 shots he faced in games 4 through 6, despite coming in after his team had fallen into a threegame series hole.
“He’s the guy that gave us a fighting chance,” Gostisbehere said of Neuvirth.
The supposed backup goalie took over for Steve Mason and promptly fashioned a 0.67 goals-against average and .981 save percentage in his three series games, along with making a strong case for a significant offseason contract extension.
Maybe that’s one reason he sounded so diplomatic in his assessment of the series.
“I have been feeling good all series,” Neuvirth said. “It was just (that), Holtby played unbelievable once again and we couldn’t get one past him. ... It is disappointing, but it is a great team over there and we tried our best.”
Neuvirth wasn’t rewarded because the Flyers were dormant offensively once again Sunday against the hulking Caps defense. The Flyers were dormant offensively on any and every power play, too.
On this day, that fatal flaw they still call the power play flunked on a chance where they had 1:55 of two-man advantage time.
Yeah, kind of have to score on something like that when goals are hard to come by.
“They came with pressure,” Brayden Schenn said. “They pressured (Claude Giroux) at the half-wall, they pressured (Gostisbehere) up top. They had pressure everywhere. Those are obviously the toughest (penalty kill team) to go against and they did a good job on us.”
“They were the best team
in the regular season for a reason,” Gostisbehere said. “They’re a good all-around team. Their special teams are very good. Their PK, they got it figured out and they shut us down a little bit, per say. But you can’t base it all on that. We could have done a lot of things differently. We are a no-excuse team.”
Overall, the Flyers’ power play was 1 for 24 in the series.
Overall, the Flyers’ power play absolutely killed them in the series.
“They don’t give up a whole lot,” Schenn said. “They play tight defensively and when you get a chance, you have to beat Holtby. But obviously the power play let us down. We had a chance to capitalize on a 5 on 3 and weren’t able to put one in.
“We didn’t give either goalie enough run support in this series. That’s no secret.”
Yet Neuvirth (28 saves) was again superb, being beat only when Alex Ovechkin stole a puck that should have been cleared by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare at the point. Two crisp passes later, Backstrom drove a shot over Neuvirth’s glove at the 8:59 mark of the second.
“It was 3 on 2 and a good pass and an unbelievable shot,” Neuvirth said. “I don’t think I could have stopped it.”
Neuvirth and an excellent effort by the Flyers’ penalty killers kept it a one-goal deficit until the Flyers finally started generating scoring chances in the last six minutes of their last period of the season. But Holtby (26
saves) was equal to everything thrown at him.
That left the Flyers to throw around lines of regret in their locker room after their third consecutive playoff series defeat ... an achievement stretched over five springs that also included a pair of playoff misses with this same core group of forwards.
“I’m proud of every single guy in this dressing room,” Wayne Simmonds said. “We gave it all. There was definitely no lack of effort in this room.”
And no goals from either him, Brayden Schenn or Giroux, one goal by Jake Voracek and only one power play goal in the whole series.
Some questions don’t need a whole offseason to answer.
“Not good enough,” Giroux summarized. “You know, I’m pretty frustrated with myself. I’ve got to find a way, it doesn’t matter how it is. You’ve got to find a way.”
In retrospect, perhaps Giroux was playing injured. Voracek certainly was. To those suppositions, respective denials and no comments were all that were offered by those two players. Not that it mattered in the end.
“I can guarantee all players left it all out there,” Voracek did say. “I think we played a good series 5 on 5. Special teams, they don’t work. But we put everything on the line. We had a chance to win today. We didn’t, but it’s coming down the road that we’ve got to learn and we’ve got to be better next year.”