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UPDATE 2:55 PM EDT
In the newest edition of the FlyerBuzz podcast, I take a look at the Flyers' decision today to send Tye McGinn down to the Phantoms. I also discuss the play of Michael Raffl, the greatly reduced ice time of Luke Schenn compared to last season and look ahead to tomorrow night's game against the Islanders.
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It wasn't always pretty but the Philadelphia Flyers were just stingy enough in limiting prime scoring chances and Steve Mason did a strong enough job in making 30 saves for the team's anemic offense to nip the New York Rangers' equally inept attack, 2-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
Coming off a week-long schedule break and an intensive week of practice, the Flyers did their best work in five-on-five play against a Rangers team that was missing the injured Rick Nash, Ryan Callahan, Carl Hagelin and Henrik Lundqvist. The pressure against Rangers roookie goalie Cam Talbot in his NHL debut was somewhat sporadic.
A first period shorthanded breakaway goal by Matt Read -- his first goal and point of the season -- got the Flyers on the board first. Read fired off his shot quickly and beat Talbot through the five-hole.
Late in the opening stanza, a funky deflection off Braydon Coburn on a flat-angle shot by Rangers' leading scorer Brad Richards ended up in the net.
After a scoreless second period and a failed five-minute Flyers power play, Coburn put the Flyers ahead on a long distance, partially screened shot at the 3:33 mark of the final stanza. Read and Nicklas Grossmann drew the assists.
The Flyers caught a break shortly thereafter when a would-be power play goal by J.T. Miller -- initially called a good goal by the officials -- was overturned on review in Toronto. Frankly, I did not think any of the replays of the puck going off Miller's skate conclusively showed a distinct kicking motion and I was slightly surprised the ruling on the ice got overturned.
Philly, which has yet to score more than two goals in any game, had two glorious chances in the final period to notch their third tally of the game.
First, they had a 2-on-1 rush with Jakub Voracek carrying the puck, joining by Brayden Schenn. Voracek telegraphed pass all the way, giving Cam Talbot the chance to cheat over toward the other post. Schenn also put his shot right into the goalie.
Later, the Flyers had a 3-on-1 rush. Kimmo Timonen passed up an open shot to try to feed Giroux and the pass was snuffed out before any shot on goal developed from the play.
The Flyers had a couple scary minutes in their own zone third period, as they seemed to be a bit tentative protecting the one-goal lead. Eventually, their play picked up again enough to close out the game. Mason made one final clutch save in the waning seconds and then tossed the puck into an open corner to let the clock run out.
GAME NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* There was a scary moment at the 17:00 mark of the second period, when Max Talbot went face-first into the boards near the Rangers bench. On the play, he was off-balance and bumped by the Rangers' Benoit Pouliot, who received a boarding major and game misconduct on the play. When I saw the play happen at live speed, I first thought Pouliot pushed Talbot from behind as he saw him falling off balance -- which would have absolutely been suspendable -- but when I saw it a second and third time, it looked more like an accidental minor bump.
* Almost miraculously given how violently his face hit the boards and his neck snapped back on impact, Talbot returned to the game in the third period and helped kill off a Claude Giroux hooking penalty. After the game, Talbot said he was feeling fine (except for a cut on his nose) and had gone through the concussion protocol at the second intermission.
* As is often the case in the first period of the first game after a long break in the schedule, the Flyers' passing game was a bit off in the early going of the first period.
* In his return to the lineup, Vincent Lecavalier looked a bit out of synch in his first few shifts on right wing of Claude Giroux's line. He soon settled in. Although Lecavalier came away from the game without a point, he had several good looks at the net among his four shots on goal.
* The Flyers hit several goal posts in this game against Talbot. Giroux has hit posts at least three times this season, including in each of the team's last two games.
* During the Flyers' five-minute power play late in the second and early in the third period, they had at least three good looks at the net were the shot was partially flubbed or the shooter otherwise did not get a good piece of the puck with his shot.
* While trying to close out the game with the 2-1 lead, the Flyers were guilty of several unnecessary icings. Berube rightly pointed it out after the game, although the Rangers were unable to do much with the ensuing offensive zone faceoffs with the same Flyers personnel on the ice.
* Read was chosen first star of the game, Mason second and Coburn third (Steve Coates made the selection tonight). Read led all Flyers forwards with 22:12 of ice time.
* The blueline ice time distribution in the game was as follows in descending order: Coburn 22:28, Mark Streit 20:02, Nicklas Grossmann 19:52, Kimmo Timonen 18:36, Erik Gustafsson 17:39, Luke Schenn 15:04.
* Grossmann led all players in the game with four blocked shots. Two came in rapid succession with the Flyers protecting their one goal lead in the third period. The first one actually bounced out to center ice and triggered a transitional chance for Philly shortly after Read's goal. Overall, the Flyers blocked 17 shots to 12 by the Rangers.
* In the shot attempt category, Philly attempted 50 shots (27 on net, 11 missed the net, 12 got blocked) while the Rangers attempted 61 (31 on net, 13 missed, 17 blocked).
* There were two fights in the game: Derek Dorsett handled Zac Rinaldo in the first period, while Wayne Simmonds rallied late against Brandon Mashinter after the Ranger had the early edge.
*The Flyers were charged with 15 giveaways to just 6 by the Rangers. However, few of the unforced turnovers were in particularly dangerous areas of the ice.
* The Flyers have practice tomorrow in Voorhees at 11:30 a.m. eastern. They will head to Long Island on Saturday for a meeting with the Islanders.
QUOTEBOOK
Crag Berube: "I thought we stopped playing a little in the third just a couple times with the puck, just a little too cautious but we picked it up again and we were okay. It definitely gave the team some confidence.”
Berube: "When you’re off a week a lot of the time you can be rusty with the puck, I thought that was the case early on in the game. As for the execution, a lot of the plays that were right there, we just missed. I still think that offensively we are not where we have to be. We do not put enough consistent pressure on the other team. We get some chances but we need to have a little bit more fight with the puck. Win some more battles, keep some more zone time. Defensively, I thought we were pretty solid tonight. The second period we missed a couple shots in the slot area, we usually haven’t done that lately but we did. The goalie made the save on one, and other that I thought we were pretty sound.”
Berube: "I was happy with all the lines tonight. They all did a good job. We had some good chances. Hit a couple posts. I was happy.”
Matt Read: "[On my goal], I looked back at “Coots” (Couturier) to see if I could make a pass and you always know with the length of the pads these days that the five hole is always open, so I held the stick tight and shot the five hole."
Read: "I didn’t know I had success against [Talbot] in college hockey, but I got an email before the game and I don’t really look at my emails on game day, but for some reason I did and I saw that I had a couple goals and an assist against him in college hockey, and I felt tonight could be my night to get back into the groove of things and start helping this team win."
Read: "I think playing with a lead we have to create more offense still and get in their zone. We can’t score from our own zone, so we have to keep going, but we finally won a game going into the third period and it feels good."
Steve Mason: "We cleaned up our own end and limited our mistakes. I was able to get it out of our zone pretty cleanly. Against a team like that, they are missing some of their key guys but they still a lot of the guys who can put it in the net so when you’re getting out of your zone, usually on the first attempt makes a difference."
Braydon Coburn: "Mason played great and made some big saves when we needed it. I thought we could have added a couple of goals in there. We had some great chances, it’s just too bad we can’t bury those."
Coburn on Max Talbot's return: "Well, surprising to some. Not the guys in this room. We know what kind of guy Max is and the character he is and I think he is one of the tougher guys we’ve got around here. So it was good to see he was okay and he came back."
Coburn on the Richards goal: "You know it just happened so quick it is just reaction, you know? I think it surprised me that he shot from there really and obviously it was just one of those bounces."
Max Talbot: "I felt my face hitting the board. I didn’t see a replay. I think I tripped first, I didn’t feel like he pushed me. I don’t think Pouliot is a dirty player. I think I tripped first and hit my head and face went into the board. I got off the ice and got tested. I did all of the concussion protocol, and my head is fine. I feel good."
Talbot on people's surprise at him coming back in the third period: " I was surprised a little bit too. I felt fine. I felt stunned when you hit your face like that. I walked around a little after that and felt great so I wanted to come back."
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