Flyers’ continued lack of discipline troubling issue

NHLHS Philadelphia Flyers’ correspondent David Strehle examines a worrisome and continuing trend in the game of the Orange-and-Black.

It doesn’t seem to matter who is at the helm of the Philadelphia Flyers.  There are certain players that apparently feel the need to play on the verge of self-destruction.

It was that way with John Stevens, and the walk along the edge of disaster continues with his successor, Peter Laviolette.

Laviolette should have known about the clubs’ penchant for self-destructive behavior.  It was well-documented during last season’s rollercoaster regular season.

As a matter of fact, Philly’s lack of discipline was one of the major reasons that they needed to win a shootout on the last day of the regular season just to get into the postseason. 

And topping the tales of last year’s discord and chaos just happened to be Laviolette’s first game behind the bench.  

The Flyers gave up four power play goals in the 8-2 home drubbing at the hands of the Washington Capitals.

While Laviolette would crack down and eventually get the team to exercise better discretion, late-game discipline problems occasionally arose.

And that trend continues this season.

At the forefront of the list of offenders are two very familiar names – Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell.  I use the term “familiar” because they were the  two most prominent players that battled the exact same problems last year.

Hartnell leads the team with 76 PIMs, and he has shown a bad habit of taking unnecessary penalties at the worst of times. 

But Briere has had the worst issues with discipline lately.

Briere is a very talented player and is currently tied for the team lead in goals with Claude Giroux at 14. 

He has played with a certain amount of an edge to his game for the past several seasons, and his career high of 89 penalty minutes was reached in 81 contests during the 2006-07 campaign, his last year with the Buffalo Sabres.

This year, Briere appears to be primed to shatter that total, as he has already racked up 51 PIMs in just 26 games. 

The diminutive forward has also had an encounter with the NHL’s Wheel of Justice, as he was suspended for three games for a cross-check to the face of New York Islanders’ Frans Nielsen.

But his propensity for taking bad penalties in the latter stages of tight games has been maddening.

On November 20th in a game against the Capitals in Washington, the Flyers were clinging to a 4-3 lead in the last two minutes of regulation. 

These were a huge two points, as Philadelphia was coming off two straight losses – a 3-0 white-wash by Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens, and an 8-7 shootout against the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Briere high-sticked defenseman John Carlson with less than two minutes left in regulation and Philly nursing the one-goal lead. 

With a struggling penalty killing unit and a potent Caps offensive attack, the result was predictable.  Eric Fehr rifled a power play shot past goaltender Brian Boucher with just 38.8 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

That night, Briere would atone for his miscue.  He would be the only player to score in the shootout, beating Michal Neuvirth to help Philly grab the extra point.

But doing it the hard way also allowed Washington to gain another point in the standings.

Last night would be similar in frustration level, but would turn out worse. 

With the Flyers already reeling from giving up two goals to the San Jose Sharks to cut their seemingly safe 4-1 third period lead to the slimmest of margins at 4-3, Briere took a tripping minor.  It took just two seconds for Joe Thornton to win a faceoff and have Joe Pavelski beat Flyers’ netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game.

Briere would be assessed a double-minor for cutting Scott Nichol with 6:33 left in regulation, not only nullifying a Philadelphia power play, but also putting the Flyers a man short late in the third of a tie game.

Luckily for Philly, their much-maligned penalty-killing unit was able to keep San Jose off the board, and the game headed to overtime.

Just after Mike Richards nearly won the game in the closing moments of overtime with Briere crashing the net, Briere would be stopped by San Jose goaltender and former-Flyer Antero Niittymaki. 

Philly would lose the shootout, the game, and the extra point that they had worked so hard to put themselves in a position to claim as their own. 

Being a smaller player, Briere takes a lot of punishment, some of which goes unnoticed by the officials.  But there is a time and place for getting revenge or retribution, and it’s not in the late stages of close games.

In the overtime, Briere was cross-checked onto the back of the net just as the whistle sounded to halt play.  Seeing there was no penalty forthcoming, Briere responded with a slash to the legs to avenge the hit.

To me, this was the epitome of selfishness. 

In all likelihood, if the officials would have made any call, he would have taken both of them.  They can be lazy that way and like the even up call instead of putting a team on the power play. 

But how many times have we seen a Flyer penalized for a retaliation with the original infraction goes unpunished?  Briere has got to suck it up at that point in the game, for the sake of the team.

Being that Briere and Hartnell, along with Ville Leino, comprise two-thirds of the club’s top-scoring line, the need for their offensive contributions will put them on the ice at critical junctures of close contests.

It’s just what they do during that time that will generally determine the outcome for the team.

And I’m not naive to think it can be corrected to the point of perfection.  Richards’ comments of the problem being easily corrected by”just not taking penalties” seemed a bit comical.  If that were the case, the team would be following that “stringent” policy.

Keep in mind that this is not written with the purpose of bashing any of the players or Laviolette.  It’s just to point out a lingering albatross that needs to be dealt with at some point.

And preferraby that it be righted well before the season begins to spiral out of control as it did last year.

David Strehle
NHLHS Philadelphia Flyers Correspondent
dstrehle@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @PhilaDAVEia