Any time a team takes 5 of 6 possible points away from a three-game road trip, the trip has be declared a success. The Flyers did enough things right in last night's 5-3 win in Carolina (running their record to 17-1-3 in the last 21 games with the Hurricanes) to be the deserving winners of the game.
Start with the play of Claude Giroux (2 G, 1 A -- 7 points in 2 games against the Canes) and third liner Max Talbot, Matt Read and Jakub Voracek. Add in some good forechecking work and limiting the 5-on-5 scoring chances they allowed. That was enough to get the job done in this game, and the W is really all that matters in the end.
On many nights, however, giving up two shorthanded goals -- one in final second of a period, another on a penalty shot -- will prove fatal. The Flyers got away with it last night, just as they got away with some-than-stellar defense in the third period of the Florida game on Saturday.
Sergei Bobrovsky came up with a few good saves among the 17 he made, especially one against Eric Staal. You can't fault him on the three goals. However, he has often been plagued in his young career with an inability to make critical (if sometimes difficult) "momentum" stops at certain junctures of games. Above all, he is now 0-for-3 in stopping penalty shots, to go along with just 9-for-20 in stopping shootout attempts (.319 save percentage). Young goalie or not, backup or not, he needs to stop more one-on-one chances.
The Flyers made some poor puck decisions, especially on the power play last night. They gave up too many oddman rushes. In addition, they were very lucky to avoid giving up a late goal in the second period just as they did in the first.
Winning on the road sometimes means winning ugly. Giroux scored two beautiful goals last night and Jaromir Jagr made two great lead passes (and one not-so-great cross-ice pass that led to Patrick Dwyer's penalty shot). The rest of it was due to lunchpail work ethic and simply being the deeper team than Carolina.
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Kudos to Mark Howe for mentioning the plight of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl families who have yet to be fully compensated by the team's owners and sponsors in the wake of the tragic plane crash in September.
Howe has always been a straight shooter who speaks his mind, and fights the good fight as he sees it. To use his Hockey Hall of Fame induction platform to call attention to something that bothers him personally -- no doubt because of his long friendship with the late Brad McCrimmon but also because the situation disturbs him as a hockey lifer and as a human being -- speaks to the man's character and concern for others.
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Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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