Back at the end of October, Leafs Nation was wondering why its hockey club couldn't be more like the Philadelphia Flyers.
An awful club last year, Philly made significant changes under general manager Paul Holmgren and came out of the box with six wins in its first seven games and the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference.
Andrew Raycroft returned to the Toronto net Wednesday night for the first time in 12 games and was sharp despite the layoff.
(Aaron Harris/The Canadian Press)
It turned out to be another case of being careful of what you wish for.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs take the ice at the Wachovia Center on Thursday night they'll find a Flyers club that has gone six games without a victory (0-4-2) and that has come back to the pack with a 16-14-4 record.
Those scoring at home will note that's just 10 wins in their last 27 since the solid start.
So this could be a darn sight easier club for the Leafs to handle than it might have been two months ago. Assuming Toronto can keep from going to overtime with the Flyers, that is.
That extra five minute tie-breaker and the shootout following seems to be beyond the Leafs' ability to figure out.
On Wednesday night, a sloppy game against the New York Islanders went to overtime where, with just nine seconds left, Mike Comrie put one by Andrew Raycroft for the 4-3 win.
Toronto has lost eight times in overtime or the shootout this season, and seven of those have been to teams in their own conference. Each point lost is one gained by an opponent who could push the Leafs out of the playoffs when April arrives.
If you missed Wednesday's game, you may have been surprised when Raycroft's name went by above. The former "future saviour" of the Leafs hadn't played in a dozen games thanks to the brilliant play of current "future saviour" Vesa Toskala.
But the Finn came back from the short Christmas break with a tight groin that will keep him out again against the Flyers and perhaps Saturday when the club finally returns home to face the New York Rangers.
Raycroft was not the reason for the Islander loss, and he had been looking forward to getting that contest into the breakaway segment.
"All I've done the last month and a half is shootouts," Raycroft said. "I wanted to see if some of that work was going to pay off."
The timing on Raycroft's return might turn out to be good considering he's 5-2 with a tie and a 2.05 goals against average in nine career games against Philadelphia.
And that brings us back to the Flyers, who gave up a game-tying goal with 7.2 seconds left in regulation on Saturday against Buffalo and eventually lost 6-5 in the shootout — the second such loss during the losing streak.
"We're going to have to deal with it," said coach John Stevens. "We have to come and play hard for 60 minutes every night coming back from Christmas because we put ourselves in a hole that we have to climb out of."
Philly's defence has especially gone south, allowing four goals a game over the last six contests. They've also given up 18 power play goals in the last 15 games and are 20th in killing penalties.
One more thought: the Flyers are 0-5-1 in their last six meetings with the Leafs.
With files from Associated PressRelated
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