The usual signs pointing to a toofamiliar finish
The odd injury to a key player came before the Kate Smith video.
The Kate Smith video came before the in-game goaltending change.
The in-game goaltending change came before the Eagles chants.
The Eagles chants came before the horn to signal the end of the Flyers’ 5-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The loss came before the boos.
That’s how it happened Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center, predictably, on time and on script, as familiar as the first three words of Smith’s signature song. That’s how it happens. That’s how it always happens.
The Flyers are a game from elimination again, down 3-1 in a best-of-seven. It’s hockey. Maybe the puck twists the right way Friday in Pittsburgh and somehow they fire their Zamboni up one more time Sunday. But the Flyers’ postseason is spinning toward a conclusion in the very way their maddening regular season unfolded. It’s spinning through a swamp of unpreparedness, disinterest and, as always, goaltending follies.
“We’re not happy about it,” Dave Hakstol said. “Wasn’t good enough. But at the end of the day, we have to flip the page.”
The Flyers have been flipping the same pages for so long that they read every word backward. They have been on the same page all season, the one that outlines how to so dramatically turn inept and stay there. The team that at one point had a 10-game losing streak just played two critical home playoff games and lost by a combined 101. The Flyers’ inability, at times, to generate inspired, successful hockey is not evidence of poor bounces or any other hockey rationalizations, but proof of a horrifying inner flaw.
“It’s frustrating,” Claude Giroux said.
The Flyers were only down in the series, 2-1, and were in a position to draw even on home ice, maybe make the Pens a little tense and hope for the first-round upset. But then came Tuesday, when Radko Gudas collided with Sean Couturier during practice, tacking the top-line center onto that perforated line of injured Flyers stars that has been lengthening since 1975, from Tim Kerr to Eric Lindros to Keith Primeau. There were others. Chris Pronger. More.
Though the Flyers would play their usual lowerbody-upper-body and nonews-at-all games, it was clear long before Wednesday that Couturier was damaged. Since they were exposed through three games as less talented than the Pens, the impact of Couturier’s injury was deeper than the loss of his 31-goal ability. It meant hastened, and almost instant, deflation.
“It wasn’t a great start,” Andrew MacDonald said. “They came out hard and we kind of looked a little bit flustered. And I don’t know if it was attributed to the lines or what. But it certainly wasn’t a great start for us.”
Aware that their season was in peril, the Flyers played the first period as if they’d just had a nap disturbed. They were behind, 2-0, within the first 14:37. They had a flurry or two, but when those failed, and after Kris Letang scored at 8:04 of the second, they were ready for what was next: The goaltending change, also known around their building as the Michael Leighton Maneuver.
That Hakstol had ordered the ever-injured Michal Neuvirth back into uniform was a comically obvious tell that he was out of patience with Brian Elliott. So, down by three, he went to his backup, not that Elliott completely understood why. “I felt I was playing pretty good,” he said. And that was it, the secret code to a strange Flyers season: They always did think they were pretty good.
To a point, the Flyers inflated self-worth had value. They have recovered from some difficult stretches. They haven’t been overwhelmed on the road. They did win Game 2 in Pittsburgh, 5-1. And they have been prone to streaks, good and bad. Neuvirth will likely start Game 5. He was average Wednesday. That beat the alternative.
“It’s definitely tough,” Neuvirth said. “It is what it is. We’ve got to stick together and play as a team. Work for each other. We’ve got to believe in ourselves and try to move the series back home.”
Worth a try. But it’s probably too late against a better team going home to try to force a handshake line.
“Yeah, it’s obviously very frustrating,” MacDonald said. “We’ve faced adversity throughout the whole season. We’ve had our ups and downs. This is certainly a big downer, but it seems when we had our backs against the wall the most we responded.”
The Flyers will play Friday in Pittsburgh.
If they lose, it will come before their claim that they were young.
The claim that they were young will come before the offseason news that top players need groin surgery.
The groin surgeries will come before some new goaltending strategy.
The new goaltending strategy will come before the next season. That’s how it happens. That’s how it always happens.