Another season, a familiar pattern of events. The Flyers lost 3-1 in their opener to the Leafs, and themes of last season begin immediately this year.
First, I'll start with the positives. Those were good debuts from Lecavalier and Streit. I can see Streit getting a lot of points this season, and Lecavalier created a lot of chances and the only goal. Also, Mason looked pretty good, and could not be faulted on any goal (though I do wonder if he could've done better directing the rebounds on the initial shot before the Leafs put in the rebounds for their 1st and 3rd goals). Overall, lots of pressure from the Flyers the first 30 minutes.
Now the bad, and unfortunately none of this is new. For all the pressure the Flyers were sustaining, only one goal. Now Bernier played an excellent game for the Leafs, no doubt about that, but the Flyers also didn't really break down the defense. They just had better legs at the start against a team that played an emotional game last night. Of course, the Flyers have never been able to sustain that type of control for 60 minutes. Once that push faded, the Flyers chances and puck possession really dried up. And once ahead in the 3rd, the Leafs completely smothered the Flyers with vastly superior puck support and control. The result at the end of the day was the Flyers being outscored 2-0 at 5-on-5 (the Flyers were 25th in the league in this category last year), and the Flyers came away with 0 points in a game that was tied after 2 periods (they were also awful in this category last year).
It's just one game, and the Leafs could be one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, but it is discouraging to see last season's problems immediately rear their head.
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