Cold war with the Jackets starting to heat up again
CONFERENCE GLANCE
PHILADELPHIA » Since they essentially swapped goalies and contract problems in various trades a few years back, the Flyers have mostly not enjoyed a special closeness they’ve shared with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
They dumped their talented but unhappy young backup goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, on the Blue Jackets, and he went on to win a Vezina Trophy there.
They acquired Columbus’ talented young backup goalie Steve Mason, and he won a lot of games here before they let him go.
They sent expensive veteran Scott Hartnell there and brought in expensive veteran R.J. Umberger, and Hartnell kind of thrived for a while while Umberger’s career quickly died on a vine.
That’s all past history, of course, except Bobrovsky is still starring in Columbus’ goalie crease. He’s partly responsible for what has happened on the ice in recent years between these teams, too.
From a Blue Jackets home win over the Flyers on Dec. 21, 2013 through a 1-0 Blue Jackets home win over the Flyers March 21, 2017, Columbus beat the Flyers in 13 out of 15 meetings. Many of the same Flyers players who went through all those games are still around to simmer about it, and that should count for something as the teams prepare to meet again Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center.
“They’re tough to play against, obviously,” said seventh-season Flyer Jake Voracek, who started his career with the Blue Jackets as a teen back in 2008. “It’s been like that for the last four or five years. It’s always tight games against them, whether it’s there or here.”
There and here, it has been a little better for the Flyers against the Blue Jackets in recent meetings. The Flyers won the last two, a grinding 2-1 home victory Feb. 22, and a 2-1 win in Columbus Feb. 16. The Jackets had won by 2-1 in C-Bus in the team’s first meeting of the season on Dec. 23.
During that long-term losing run to Columbus, the Flyers did enjoy a respite two years ago, beating the Jackets 6-0 March 5, 2016. But the Flyers only won three of the next eight games (including the last two) since then. That said, three of those eight went overtime or beyond.
So the teams, in a way, have only tightened up. Yet in recent days, they‘ve been going opposite ways.
The Flyers, who put themselves in a solid position for the playoffs via a 10-0-2 run through February, have suddenly lost six of their last seven games to slide back onto slippery ground. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets (3728-5, 79 points) have won five straight games, and enter this one just two points behind the Flyers (35-24-11, 81) in the Metropolitan Division standings with a dozen games remaining for both teams.
So basically ... everybody’s starting to sweat?
“We don’t know what’s going to happen but we control what position we are in right now,” Claude Giroux said Wednesday. “We control our own destiny. I really feel like we’re playing good hockey right now. I know we didn’t get the results last game, but Vegas coming in here (Monday), they’re one of the best teams in the league and we were right there playing with them . ... But that’s what happened. We’ve got to find a way.”
What happened is a goal by the Golden Knights late in the third period slapped the Flyers with a loss. This just two games after a goal with 22 seconds remaining in regulation in Boston left the Flyers getting nothing out of a well-played game there, too.
“Over the last three games we lost two games in kind of a heartbreaking way. We should have come up with two, three or four points,” Voracek said. “But it is what it is. There’s nothing we can do about it now.
“We’re playing Columbus tomorrow. We know what it’s about. We have to treat it like a four-point game.”
They also have to treat it as their most important game of the season, which isn’t hard to believe considering it’s against a hot and hard-charging Blue Jackets team and a goalie who loves to beat the team that cast him away.
“It’s definitely the biggest game of the season, we know that,” Giroux said. “But sometimes you can’t overthink it. You just have to go out there and play the game. If you don’t enjoy it you’re not going to play your best.
“They’re rolling right now. They’re playing some good hockey and they’ve got momentum. So it’s important for us to go and get a good start here and kind of get the fans on our side.”
*** NOTES » The Flyers practiced at Wells Fargo Center Wednesday after sitting through their annual team picture session. On hand for the practice were goalie Michal Neuvirth and defenseman Robert Hagg, who are both on the injured list. According to general managing practitioner Ron Hextall, Hagg will miss another week or so and Neuvirth maybe a couple more weeks. Maybe . ... Another practicing injured Flyer is Johnny Oduya, who was claimed off waivers at the trade deadline and was injured in Florida in his first Flyer game. “Not the way you want to start,” said Oduya, now listed as day to day. “We’ll manage it and move forward. I feel better. That’s a positive.”