The emotions came bubbling to the surface of Flyers goalie Steve Mason.
For the umpteenth time, his teammates wasted a 37-save effort against a team very similar to the Flyers.
That is, a team going nowhere in the standings.
The Dallas Stars had just buried the fast-fading Flyers nine points behind Boston in the wild-card hunt with a 2-1 victory (see Instant Replay), and Mason’s face was a mixture of anger and near tears.
“I don’t know what to say,” Mason said. “There was no desperation. It’s tough to come into the room after games like that. We needed a much better effort and it wasn’t there.”
Not because it was a team worse than them — the Flyers always play down to the NHL dregs — so much as because the Flyers have surrendered at this point.
You can’t underestimate the collateral damage of the lost weekend in Boston and New Jersey as the Flyers' season is down to its final 14 games until they are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
“I don’t know,” Mason replied, when asked if the weekend is the root of what is behind the sudden total collapse of competitiveness from the Flyers that we’re now seeing it at the Wells Fargo Center.
“I’m embarrassed. We have an effort like that at home in situations where we have to come up big and to come up with an effort like that, we got to be a lot better.”
He wasn’t the only one angry and embarrassed.
Jakub Voracek, who was leading the NHL in scoring only a very short while ago, but has just two goals over the last 15 games, smashed his carbon-fiber stick along the side boards and hurled its remains down the ice when the final buzzer sounded.
Why?
“Our line, we were dominating all game long, we had so many chances, especially in the second period,” Voracek explained. “Good looks, created a lot … it is what it is. We scored one goal. It’s not good enough.”
Asked if he were embarrassed, like Mason, Voracek replied, “From my standpoint, it’s hard for me to comment on that. We lost the game, 2-1. We didn’t play good enough to win. That’s why we lost.”
And yet the start was promising.
Luke Schenn tossed a seemingly harmless point shot at the net and it appeared that brother Brayden redirected it past Kari Lehtonen at 1:13 for a 1-0 lead.
It was the first time in five games the Flyers scored first in a game. After the period, the goal was changed to Luke’s — just his third all season.
Dallas tied it at 11:13 off the rush on a goal from Brett Ritchie, who soared right past Luke Schenn to the net.
After outshooting the Stars 14-9 in the opening period, the Flyers' energy level sagged as Dallas outshot them, 30-12, the remainder of the game.
Puck possession in the final 40 minutes was solidly in Dallas' favor while Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (25 saves) didn’t have to work anywhere near as hard as Mason in picking up his first career victory against the Flyers — 1-10-3 now.
At exactly the midpoint of the second period, Mason had to come up big on consecutive saves a split-second apart on Vernon Fiddler, then Jason Spezza. He was equally brilliant at period’s end when things completely broke down in front of him, denying both Jon Klingberg and Ritchie in the paint with the game tied, 1-1.
“Mase played unbelievable,” Wayne Simmonds said. “We had a ton of chances to score. We couldn’t put them in the net. ... It sucks. Mase held us in the game.”
Until the final six minutes when Fiddler scored off the rush from a perfect crossing pass by Colton Sceviour.
“They turned it up in the second period,” coach Craig Berube said. “The third period, we missed the net too many times. They skated better than us in the second period.”
Dallas did almost everything better after the opening period. You could feel the Flyers fade away.
Which is why Voracek smashed his stick.
“You want guys to show passion,” Simmonds said. “We gotta have more guys doing it.”
It’s too late.