Last night's 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes may not have been the textbook way to win a hockey game. But the Flyers couldn't care less right now. They desperately needed the two points from the game. After being held to two or fewer goals in seven of the first eight games, the five goals (including three power play tallies) felt like a bonanza.
Let's accentuate the positives first. Philly got off to a quick start, as the Claude Giroux line immediately pinned Carolina deep in its own end and generated a lot of forechecking pressure. That set the proper tone for the team. The Flyers pretty much pounded Carolina on the forecheck as they began to build leads of 1-0, 3-1 and 5-2.
The Flyers got a lot of traffic around the net. Struggling to score? Crash the net and look for screens, rebounds, deflections and/or stuff-in chances. Three of the Flyers goals -- Braydon Coburn, Danny Briere and Mike Knuble -- were scored from the doorstep. Another was a long-distance tracer from Claude Giroux with traffic in front.
One or both ends of Philly's special teams had been their undoing in many of their six losses to date. Last night, both the power play and penalty kill played a big role in the team's victory. The Flyers' power play generated good puck movement, which contributed to power play tallies by Kurtis Foster (a rocket of a slapshot from near the right circle), Briere and Giroux. On the penalty killing side, the Flyers killed five of six disadvantages, including three of four in the third period.
The Flyers played a physical game and blocked a staggering 32 shots. Nicklas Grossmann and Luke Schenn led the way with six apiece, while Kimmo Timonen had four. Some of the blocks were the type of body-sacrificing players -- especially ones where Brayden Schenn sprawled for a block and took the brunt of a slapshot in his hip, while Giroux and Timonen both skated back to the bench gingerly at different points.
In the body checking department, Philly outhit Carolina by a 25-16 margin. The Flyers were led in this area by Luke Schenn's five hits and three apiece from Grossmann and Tom Sestito (in just 3:56 of ice time).
Philadelphia has not been scoring much this season but at least they've been getting recent goal contributions from the blueline. In the 2-1 loss to the Rangers, Timonen scored the lone Flyers' goal. On Friday in Washington, Bruno Gervais scored one of Philadelphia goals in a 3-2 loss. Last night, the first goal came from Foster and the third from Coburn. That trend probably won't continue much longer, but it's a plus when the defense can chip in a few goals when the forwards are having trouble putting the puck in the net.
In terms of standout individual performances in the game, start with Ilya Bryzgalov. The Russian netminder was fantastic in making 39 saves, including a host that were real testers at key junctures of the game. His stop of a Jordan Staal shorthanded breakaway preceded the Flyers' first goal of the game. As the game progressed, he made numerous other saves that erased breakdowns and/or prevented the momentum from swinging.
Bryzgalov had zero chance stop two of the three goals that Carolina scored. The other one came directly off a giveaway and was sort of a changeup from close range.
The first one, scored by ex-Flyer Joni Pitkänen, came as a result of every Flyers skater ending up on the opp side of the ice. Able to count to five, Pitkänen realized he had a wide open path to pinch in from the point, pick a spot and bury his shot off a pass by Eric Staal.
Carolina's second goal came directly off a turnover by Luke Schenn near the right circle. Eric Staal took the puck directly to the net and got Bryzgalov moving. The puck actually rolled off Staal's stick but slid through Bryzgalov's pads. Although potentially a stoppable chance since the shot attempt was flubbed, it's tough to fault the goalie on the play.
The third Carolina goal was a power play tally by Patrick Dwyer. No goalie was going to stop a line rush goal like this one. Jordan Staal eluded Braydon Coburn, whose partner, Grossmann, left his side of the slot to come over and try to help. Once the pass got across to Dwyer, he had a point blank shot and made no mistake.
But that was it for Carolina. Bryzgalov was a wall whenever he had a chance to get set. He tracked the puck very well and even handled the puck well, which has sometimes been a trouble spot. Bryzgalov was charged with a pair of giveaways but also made a couple of good plays with the puck to relieve pressure. He looked calm and focused, and was a positive difference-maker.
Giroux and Matt Read played outstanding two-way games last night. Not only did they have multiple-point games offensively (goal and assist for Giroux, two assists for Read) but they also had several excellent backchecking plays.
Sean Couturier (one assist) had a strong bounceback game from a rough night in Washington. He logged five minutes of penalty killing time among his 18:52 of ice time, was credited with a game-high four takeaways with no turnovers and also had a pair of shots on goal. That was much more like the Couturier we saw last season as a rookie.
Tye McGinn didn't get any points from the game but he did his job nicely as the third member of the top line with Giroux and Briere. He did a lot of effective grunt work on the walls, winning battles and creating space for his linemates.
On the blueline, Grossmann had a beastly defensive game in 17:45 of ice time, which included a grueling 7:09 worth of penalty killing time. He erased a couple of teammates' mistakes with blocked shots, had several would-be forecheckers bounce off his huge frame while retrieving and maintaing control of pucks behind the net and twice stopped would-be rushes dead cold at the blueline.
The best hit of the night, however, came by Luke Schenn. On one sequence, the former Toronto defenseman crushed Jeff Skinner cleanly, knocking the wind out of the dangerous forward. On the whole, Schenn had a rough game (more on that below) but he finished strong with five consecutive strong shifts in the third period.
Now for the negatives.
The Flyers played one of their sloppiest defensive games of the season, yielding 12 giveaways (tied for second-most in the nine games thus far) and numerous odd-man rushes, including a shorthanded breakaway and a 3-on-1. The Hurricanes attempted an incredible 91 shots on goal, getting 42 on the net, plus the 32 that got blocked and another 17 that missed the net.
Philadelphia got itself in penalty trouble in the third period, and took six minors in the game. That's hardly what the team was looking for in the second night of back-to-back games. Spending 11:56 of game time on PK is a good way to get worn down and get your line rotations at even strength out of synch. The Flyers got outshot 15-3 in the third period because of all the time spent killing penalties.
Bottom line: If the Flyers play that way defensively against Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Bryzgalov is going to hard-pressed to keep the damage below five or six goals. Had the goalie not been so sharp last night, Carolina easily could have eight or nine goals off the various breakdowns that occurred.
The play of Luke Schenn was kind of a microcosm of the Flyers' defensive night last night. He did a lot of good things, mentioned above, in terms of hitting and shot blocking. He also hung in, kept competing and finished strong after a serious of earlier misadventures. But in the first period in particular, his overall play was a train wreck.
The older Schenn brother had a game-high four giveaways, including one that led directly to a goal. On top of that, he frequently took himself out of position hunting for big hits rather than picking his spots where it made sense to take the body. Three separate times last night, rushes went right on by Schenn with no chance for him to recover. He had been so effective in several recent games (minus the Washington game) precisely because he'd kept his body under control and made safer plays.
Of course, Luke Schenn was far from the lone culprit in the loose defensive play. There was plenty of it to go around, as witnessed by the number of shots the Canes attempted. Something that stands out like a sore thumb, apart from the blueline's lack of stretch-pass ability, is its immobility.
Braydon Coburn is actually the Flyers' most mobile defenseman, followed by Bruno Gervais.
Four-time NHL All-Star Kimmo Timonen has been robbed of his former mobility by Father Time and a mounting collection of injuries. So far this season, Timonen has had to rely on guile. Schenn is an average skater. Grossmann is a below-average skater but knows how to position himself. Foster and Andreas Lilja are both deficient skaters.
I suspect that there will some roster moves coming by Tuesday. For one thing, I would not be surprised if Erik Gustafsson (finally healthy after being out for a month with a high ankle injury) is called up from Adirondack to add a little mobility and puck movement to blueline.
For another, with Scott Hartnell lost until March and Wayne Simmonds out indefinitely, the Flyers need some power forward top-six help on the wings. Whether that's accomplished by a trade or by leaving McGinn on the top line for the time being and perhaps calling up rookie Marcel Noebels to see if he's NHL ready, we shall see soon.
As expected, the Flyers acknowledged yesterday that Simmonds suffered a concussion when he got elbowed in the nose and then hit the back of his head on the ice in Friday's game in Washington. Erskine was suspended three games by the NHL as a result of the play, which did not initially result in a penalty call.
Simmonds is out indefinitely. However, he was at the game yesterday and talked with teammates near the locker room afterwards.
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