from Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer,

The Flyers deserved what they got Monday night. They lost to the Islanders, 4-0, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and questions and concerns and they-had-betters will rain down on them until Game 2 on Wednesday afternoon, and they earned all those doubts, all those hedged bets.

From the drop of the puck at a few minutes after 7 p.m. until the end of the first period, they played as if busting out of the Toronto bubble and heading home were more important to them than competing for a Stanley Cup. They were outshot, 15-4. They were outscored by a goal. Those 20 minutes were a tone-setter. The Flyers were wobbled, and though they got their bearings back a bit in the second period, they collapsed for good in the third. They weren’t ready, and there’s no excuse for it, and it’s an open question whether they’ll recover from it....

...It might sound panicky to suggest that the Flyers have to win Game 2. It’s not, not after this performance. It’s one thing to lay an egg against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, against a young and tenacious but inferior team. It’s another thing to sleepwalk through the first period of the first game of a series against an opponent such as the Islanders. This is a team coached by Barry Trotz and constructed by Lou Lamoriello, two of the titans of the sport. This is a team that is solid up and down, can play multiple styles, and will not beat itself. The Flyers aren’t going to get away with anything against the Islanders. They’re certainly not going to get away with treating the franchise’s first conference-semifinal game in eight years like it’s a late December night in Calgary during a 10-day road trip.

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