Like dazed survivors of a 10-car pileup, the Flyers tried to make sense of what had just happened.
They couldn’t.
They just knew, as entertaining as it had been for the paying customers, this was something they never wanted to do again.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said defenseman Kimmo Timonen, whose four assist night — along with two goals apiece from Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk — was wasted by a horrific defensive and goaltending performance in a wild 9-8 loss to the newly-relocated Winnipeg Jets last night. “It’s a sign we have a lot of work to do.
“That’s not Flyers’ hockey. We scored eight goals and still came up short.”
There was plenty of blame to spread around, but goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov insisted he deserved most of it. Considering he didn’t even start the game, but was inserted after Sergei Bobrovsky surrendered five goals on just 15 shots — most coming on long shots that somehow found the back of the net — that seemed a bit extreme.
“I have zero confidence in myself right now,’’ said a disgusted Bryzgalov, who gave up three of his four goals after the Flyers had scored five unanswered goals to take a 7-6 lead early in the third, including Andrew Ladd’s game-winner with 1:06 left. “I was terrible I don’t know what’s going on. I am lost in the woods right now.”
He had plenty of company, leaving coach Peter Laviolette at a loss for words following the Flyer’s fourth loss in the last five games.
“There’s different reasons they are going into the net,’’ said Laviolette, who wouldn’t use the absence of injured captain Chris Pronger as an excuse. “Defensively there has been some issues. But we’re giving up too much.”
The 17 goals matched the most ever scored in a Flyers game, set three previous times. The eight goals is the most ever scored in a Flyers loss.
By the time the Flyers take the ice Saturday vs. Carolina they’ll try to figure out how to make sure this is a complete aberration.
So that next time they can avoid the pileup.
