Rarely have you seen rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere angry after a game.
After all, he hasn’t been in the NHL long enough — just 26 games — to work up any real anger toward anyone.
But Ghost was upset Tuesday night after the Flyers' inexcusable effort during a 3-2 loss to the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center that snapped the club’s six-game point streak (5-0-1).
After two periods of dreadful hockey where the Flyers were trailing only 2-1 yet seemed to be losing 4-1 because they weren’t winning any individual battles anywhere on the ice, Gostisbehere had single-handedly given his team life.
He picked off an errant pass in his own end, mounted a three-on-one rush up the ice, glanced to his right as if to pass, then one-timed that patented slapper of his to beat Leafs goalie James Reimer through the five-hole at 12:59 of the third period.
A 2-2 game.
He had brought the Flyers back to life in a game they didn’t deserve to win. And he had given them a legit chance to earn a point if they could get it to overtime.
They didn’t.
Instead, the Flyers lost it on a deflected shot with 7.5 ticks left in regulation. Most of the players felt, as goalie Steve Mason phrased it, the Flyers “got what they deserved.”
“The way we came out tonight,” Gostisbehere said, drawing a deep breath, “we’re not a playoff team if we come out like that.”
Indeed, the Flyers lost precious playoff ground. They fell further behind both the Rangers and Islanders in the Metropolitan Division standings and now trail the Devils by three points in the wild card.
Everyone knows the Flyers more or less blew off the Maple Leafs because they are among the dregs of the NHL. The Flyers are 5-8-3 against non-playoff clubs at the time they faced them this season.
“We’ve got to prepare for everyone no matter who they are,” Gostisbehere said. “We scored the first goal and I think we thought it was going to be a night for everyone on the stat sheet. We sat back a little bit.
“We were getting points in the last five games. We got a little complacent there at the end. We can’t think like that if we want to be a playoff team.”
Incidentally, his eight goals lead all rookie defensemen.
Matt Read agrees with Ghost that the Flyers were a bit complacent against the Leafs.
“Yeah, I think after the first 10 minutes of the game we weren’t moving our feet and were just throwing pucks, I wouldn’t say blindly, but throwing pucks and errors,” he said.
“We had I don’t know how many turnovers and creating a lot of opportunities on offense for them and hemmed us in our defensive zone.”
