Coach Laviolette elects to show his troops a sobering video session following a painful series opener.
VOORHEES, N.J. -- After a deflating loss on home ice in their series opener against the Boston Bruins, Phildelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette could have put his team through a grueling practice on Sunday afternoon.
Instead, the head coach did something that was far more embarrassing for his players: He made them watch video of their 7-3 loss in Game 1 during a team meeting.
"There was a lot of things on video that were revealing, but most of them had to do with attitude and competitiveness," said Laviolette, calling his team's effort level into question.
The Flyers also lost the opener of their first-round series to Buffalo on home ice. But Laviolette was quick to point out that the Game 1 loss to the Sabres was a 1-0 game that Philadelphia actually dominated. But he told his players the lack of emotion and character in the opener against Boston was completely unacceptable.
"You can take that as motivation and get pissed off a bit," said forward Claude Giroux. "Especially in front of our fans and getting embarrassed like that -- it's not good enough and guys will be ready (Monday)."
"Sometimes, we talk about an eye-opener. It makes you realize the effort needs to get higher," added Daniel Briere, who scored his playoff-leading seventh goal in Saturday's loss. "You can't afford to take it easy and still think you'll be in the game."
The Flyers will need to win Monday's Game 2 to avoid falling to an 0-2 series deficit. And while they climbed out of an 0-3 series hole against the Bruins last year, they don't expect to do the same thing again this spring. Philadelphia was completely outplayed in all aspects of their series opener with Boston and if they do not correct their mistakes, they will be facing another uphill battle.
"Whether you lose 7-3 or 1-0, a loss is a loss. We obviously realize there are a lot of things we can fix," said Flyers’ veteran Chris Pronger. "Nobody said it was going to be an easy ride and it never is."
It never seems to be an easy ride for goaltenders in Philadelphia at playoff time. Brian Boucher was reminded of that on Saturday, after he was pulled for allowing five goals on 23 shots. Laviolette declined to announce his Game 2 starter, but Boucher is expecting to get the call.
"I don't know if he's made any announcement yet, but I'll prepare the same way as I always do and see what happens,” said Boucher, who was one of the few Flyers players who actually did take to the ice on Sunday.
If Laviolette does switch goaltenders, it would be rookie netminder Sergei Bobrovsky who would get the call on Monday. Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 10 shots in relief of Boucher in the opener.
Even Boucher is quick to point out that the goalie carousel has to stop rotating at some point, if the Flyers want to have long-term success in these playoffs.
"There's only so many times you can make a change before you run out of nine lives," he said.
