PHILADELPHIA - With four losses in their last five road games, the Hershey Bears were ready for a panacea, the cure-all for struggling AHL teams this season, a tilt with the Philadelphia Phantoms.
The Phantoms didn't disappoint, surrendering five goals on 10 shots in the second period, en route to a 6-1 loss in front of 5,336 fans at the Wachovia Spectrum.
"In the first period I thought (Philadelphia) looked good," said Bears head coach Bruce Boudreau. The Phantoms went into the first intermission down by a goal, the first marker in a natural hat trick by Chad Wiseman.
"(The Phantoms) got disheartened when we came down and scored two quick ones to make it 3-0, and their shoulders start to slump and it's 'oh woe is me.'"
Boudreau then proclaimed what many have whispered of this year's version of the Phantoms.
"When you don't have success and you keep getting beat down, it's easier just to fall down after awhile."
Boudreau was being polite. In the second period of Wednesday's hockey game, the Phantoms simply quit.
Five Hershey goals in the span of 10:23, the last two coming just 19 seconds apart, sent the Phantoms to perhaps their ugliest loss of the season.
"S--t happens, but we have to battle through adversity and still play the game, no matter what the score is." said Riley Cote. "It's tough to say what happened. We didn't come ready to play, we didn't stick to the game plan and I don't think we had the work ethic out there. (Hershey) completely dominated us everywhere on the ice."
Responding to whether he felt the team "quit" in the second period, Cote responded, "If I were a fan, I'd feel that way." As a player, Cote said "It felt like (we quit), there was no energy (on the ice).
On one level, Cote said that "as hockey players, I don't think we're a very skilled team, we're grinders and checkers. We turned the puck over too many times trying to make skilled plays and it hurt us tonight."
Then Cote spoke of the wave of apathy that is running through the Phantoms dressing room of late.
"It seems to be a problem that keeps repeating itself. I really think it's the lack of effort by some guys and just not caring," said Cote.
"Either you do care or you don't care, but it's tough to put heart in someone."
Cote explained that "to win hockey games, every guy has to pull his weight...but I think some guys here are too comfortable and take for granted that they'll be in the lineup every night. If everybody works and we lose, you can't feel bad, but if with an effort like we had (Wednesday night), it's embarrassing. It's unacceptable."
"Sammy (head coach Kjell Samuelsson) and Joe (Mullen) do a good job of preparing us for every game...it's the same system we've played for almost 45 games now, it's just a matter of execution," said Cote.
"(The coaches) can't go out there and do it for us. You can X and O all you want, but if you're not working, X's and O's aren't going to do anything for you. You can't make someone work and you can't put heart in someone."
"I don't think we quit and if that's the case, well, that's sad," said defenceman and team captain John Slaney. "To me, that's hard to swallow."
With 900-plus games at the pro level, Slaney considered Wednesday night's loss to be one of the worst games of his career. "There's no question that when you lose a game like this, it sucks. There's no other word for it."
Slaney reiterated that hockey is a "team game and you have to follow team rules, and if you can't, then why even be here, that's my question. But it shows on the ice. If certain guys don't want to be here and play here, that's fine. At the same time, we need the 18 or 19 guys (on the roster to play hard together). The question is that some players need to answer themselves is 'do you want to be here and play hockey?'."
"Too many guys who don't prepare themselves the right way to play and they're unwilling to pay the price (to win)," Samuelsson said, making no effort to avoid being overhead as his players filed out of the dressing room.
Why?
"You can ask them that question and see if they'll answer," said Samuelsson.
"(The coaching staff) got some answers in the dressing room after the game In speaking of his players, Samuelsson said that "they have to realize that they're professional athletes and that they have to prepare (themselves) to their own ability to play (hockey) every night. And if (they) can't figure that out, then (they) have to look around and figure out how to do it...or maybe they're in the wrong occupation."
"Everyone has bad games now and then, but you can't have 15 guys having bad games every other night," said Samuelsson, explaining that the players are ultimately hurting their future in hockey.
What smacks of insolence is the fact that many of the Phantoms players blatantly put forth a lacklustre performance despite the number of front-office types in attendance at every game, including general manager Paul Holmgren, Dave Brown, Don Luce, and/or Reggie Lemelin.
On many nights, there are at least two or three pro scouts from NHL teams in the press box. On Wednesday, representatives of the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers were at the Spectrum.
They all see the same thing.
"The Flyers organisation is pretty fair to players," said Samuelsson. "If you have potential to play in the NHL and there is not room for you on the roster, they'll move you. It happens every year...the Flyers will give you a chance to play somewhere else. It doesn't matter how bad you think you've been treated (by the Flyers organisation), you have to look out for yourself as a player.
And how do you do that? Prepare yourself to play a hockey game and put everything on the line. It comes down to pride and heart"
"What you saw tonight was embarrassing to watch," said Samuelsson in gauging the level of pride and heart of his hockey team.
"Competing becomes automatic if you do what you need to do in order to be successful."
