Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Laviolette not focusing on “controversial” goal

Image (1) Laviolette-thumb-250x166-12609.jpg for post 1854

There were many positives for the Philadelphia Flyers to build on from their Game 1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. They dominated play for the first half of the game and surprised Chicago and the hockey world with a surprising 3-2 lead after the first period. Furthermore, they showed why they got to this point in the first place, fighting back after the Blackhawks took two leads in the second period.

Still, this was a painful loss to take. The Flyers can feel good about keeping up with a team many feel is much more talented, yet they’ll also be disappointed and aggravated with the sloppiness of the game and how Michael Leighton had to be pulled after allowing five goals on 20 shots.

After the game, coach Peter Laviolette was succinct while addressing the media. He was clearly not happy with his team’s performance in the game, and wasn’t all that interested in focusing on the positives.

“You know, you lose a game, the first game of the Stanley Cup Final,” Laviolette said. “It’s hard to sit here and thumb through the positives right now. We’ll take a look at it tonight, and tomorrow and we’ll be ready to go.”

Most interestingly -- and for this you have to respect Laviolette on -- he refused to get into the “controversy” surrounding the game-winning goal. Many feel the play should have been whistled dead when the puck appeared to hit Tomas Kopecky while he sat on the bench. The play continued, and Kopecky scored the winning goal just a few seconds later. Laviolette is only interested in the outcome.

“If a puck hits player on the bench, it’s supposed to be whistled down. Well, that’s neither here nor there right now. They scored.”

While the play should have been blown dead, there’s no doubting that the Flyers were grossly outplayed in the final 25 minutes of the game. Like we’ve seen so many times before this postseason, the Blackhawks took their play to another level while not allowing the Flyers to do the same.

That’s what Laviolette and his team should be focused on; while the Flyers played better -- in some aspects -- than many expected they still have a lot to work on.

“Everybody has got to be better,” Laviolette said. “We win as team and we lose as a team. Tonight we lost as a team. We have to be better if we’re going to win as a team.”