Flyers Show Minimal Rust, Look Like Well Oiled Machine
The Philadelphia Flyers last played a hockey game on March 10. They lost 2-0 to the Boston Bruins, ending a 9-game winning streak.
After an 140-day break, the Flyers didn’t look like they skipped-a-beat and defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in overtime Tuesday in Toronto.
As Carter Hart stated yesterday, “it’s going to be a little bit sloppy at first for everybody“, it was for the Flyers on the games first goal. Travis Sanheim & Phil Myers got stretched out too wide for an easy cross ice pass and a wide open Penguin who would make it 1-0 Pittsburgh.
It wouldn’t be long after for the Flyers top line to go to work. On a delayed penalty call, Sean Couturier would fire home a Claude Giroux pass to tie the game at 1-1. A goal that sure felt good for the new dad in Couturier.
The Flyers would then turn up the pressure after tying the game. Outshooting the Penguins 8-3 over the latter part of the period.
With just 29 seconds left in the 1st, Kevin Hayes would capitalize on a Evgeni Malkin turnover to make it 2-1 Flyers heading into the break.
Pittsburgh would tie the game with 3:55 left in the 3rd period. After a lost face-off, the Penguins would finally get the 4th shot in quick succession past Brian Elliott. Pushing the game to yes, why not, to overtime.
The goalies would put on a show in overtime. But, with 2:20 left in overtime, Scott Laughton would score to give the Flyers the win.
Carter Hart would stop the remaining 10 shots he faced. Ending his day stopping 11 of the 12 shots he faced during his two periods. Brian Elliott would stop 13 of the 14 shots he faced, including 3 of 3 in overtime for the win.
Observations…
If you didn’t know Egor Zamula was 20-years-old & the 9th defenseman on the team, you would have thought he was a NHL regular. In his first action since January back surgery, Zamula showed the fans why the front office has show much faith in his potential. Zamula still needs some muscle to his skinny frame, but this experience in Toronto is only going to improve his potential even more.
The Flyers penalty kill was clicking on all cylinders when the season was halted. When halted, the Flyers were the 10th best penalty kill unit. However, that was a big improvement from their 23rd ranking after the first month of the season. In the Flyers return, they returned back to great form. Killing off all three Pittsburgh power-plays, while holding the Penguins to just 4 shots on the three power-play opportunities.
It took the Flyers 1st line all of one shift to assert their dominance. After getting their legs, the Flyers top line, Giroux-Couturier-Voracek, looked like the same, dangerous line they were before the halt. But, not to be out-done, the Flyers 2nd line, Laughton-Hayes-Konecny, was close to, if not a better version of what they were before the halt.
When Kevin Hayes scores, the Flyers normally win. By normally, it’s actually 99.9999999% of the time. For the season the Flyers are 19-0-1 when Kevin Hayes scores. With another goal today, the Flyers improved to 20-0-1 when Hayes scores. In reference to his goal post-game, Hayes said laughing “just happy it went in.”
Alain Vigneault mentioned yesterday that Gostisbehere, Friedman, & Zamula would all be in the lineup. That meant two regulars would have to sit. Robert Hagg & Justin Braun were those two regulars who did sit. Many thought it would have been Braun & Matt Niskanen given their veteran status. However, Vigneault said he wanted to get Niskanen & his defense partner, Ivan Provorov, right back into game action. A pairing that Vigneault is expected to rely on heavily during the Flyers playoff run.
It’s game time now. The Flyers open up their round robin series with the Boston Bruins on Sunday at 3:00pm on NBC.