Photo courtesy of of Zack Hill/Flyers.
SCHENN HAT TRICK SPARKS FLYERS TO 5-3 OVER FLAMES
Over the course of the 2015-16 season, Brayden Schenn has seemingly started to blossom into the type of player -- not just in terms of scoring goals but also without the puck on his stick -- the Philadelphia Flyers envisioned he'd become when they acquired him from the LA Kings during the 2011 off-season.
On Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center, Schenn compiled his first NHL hat trick and a career-high nine shots on goal to lift the Flyers to a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Jim Watson Flyers Hall of Fame Night at the Wells Fargo Center.
"With the ceremony here, honoring Mr. Watson, through the trade deadline day, I think we had a lot to play for. This group went out, and other than about seven or eight minutes in the first period where we, well we forgot to keep playing, other than that we did a lot of good things tonight," said Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol.
Schenn notched two even-strength tallies and one power play goal. Moments before he scored his first one that counted, Schenn shot a puck that seemed to cross the goal line but no definitive replay angle could be found to conclusively overturn a no-goal (actually, a play-on) call at ice level. He also had a breakaway he was not quite able to convert into a second goal. The second goal he scored was also reviewed in Toronto but that one stood.
"I thought if I was going to get two disallowed goals tonight I wouldn’t be very happy. It is nice to score a hat trick and top it off with a team win. It got a little scary there in the third, made it harder on ourselves, but it is nice to come away with two points," Schenn said.
"t is not easy to get [a hat tric]. Goals are hard to come by in this league, teams are so good, and goalies are so good. It is nice to get rewarded, I was the just the recipient of three good plays. G [Giroux] obviously on the first one beat the guy off the wall and I’m open in front and he gets it to me. MacDonald’s with the heads up play on the second and Streit on the third one with a great slap pass."
Last season, Schenn had a "temporary" hat trick in a game against Detroit on March 14, but one goal was taken away by a scoring change. His three goals on this night gave him 21 goals for the 2015-16 season; the second 20-goal campaign of his five-season NHL career to date.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux played a big part in Schenn's huge night. Giroux collected four assists on the night, including helpers on all three of Schenn's goals.
Giroux said Schenn, "He's playing very well right now. He's getting open and that makes our job a lot easier when he gets open. He's a good shooter so he's going to put those pucks in. He gets streaky like that. He's been playing very well, I think, the whole season. He's consistent with it and a big part of our team."
Wayne Simmonds tallied power play and empty net goals for the Flyers, missing a hat trick by only an unsuccessful breakaway exiting the penalty box on a third period penalty. Simmonds had six shots on goal for the night.
Philadelphia also had assists chipped in by five of their six defensemen -- Radko Gudas, Shayne Gostisbehere (power play), Andrew MacDonald, Mark Streit (power play) and Nick Schultz -- along with a nice pass by Michael Raffl to Simmonds to set up the empty net goal.
The last time the Flyers had a hat trick in the regular season was Vincent Lecavalier's road hatty against the New York Islanders on Oct. 26, 2013. Schenn's three goals marked the first Flyers regular season home hat trick since Scott Hartnell did it on Jan. 22, 2012. . The most recent time they had five different defensemen record an assist in the same game was their 6-5 overtime road win against the Dallas Stars on Oct. 8, 2014.
Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth let in a leaky third goal by Calgary but otherwise played well enough to earn the win. He stopped 29 of 32 shots. Flames counterpart Jonas Hiller stopped 23 of 27 Flyers' shots.
Sean Monahan opened the scoring in the game with a power play goal. After the Flyers struck for each of the next four goals, closely spaced tallies in the third period by Micheal Ferland and Michal Frolik cut the deficit to 4-3 with 8:53 remaining in the game. Calgary got assists from Johnny Gaudreau, T.J. Brodie, Sam Bennett, Mark Giordano, Joe Colbourne and Dougie Hamilton.
Playing against the NHL's bottom-ranked penalty kill, the Flyers went 2-for-3 on the power play. The Philadelphia penalty kill was 3-for-4 against Calgary's 29th-ranked power play.
The Flames got the game's first power play on a Raffl hooking minor at 4:41. Neuvirth made a good stop on a Bennett backhanded chance off a Mikael Backlund centering pass in front. The Flames' power play then moved the puck around crisply and took a 1-0 lead.
Taking a pass from Gaudreau, Monahan (20th goal of the season) snapped a 25-foot shot past Neuvirth from the right slot at 6:07. Brodie got the secondary assist.
Garnet Hathaway blew right past a flat-footed MacDonald -- who seemed to have a miscommunication with Nick Cousins -- on the rush and went on Neuvirth by himself. The right winger cut to his right on the goalie and tucked the puck wide of the net at 9:38.
The Flyers appeared to tie the game at 1-1 on a Schenn shot that appeared to go over the goal line, hitting Hiller on the glove-side arm and then exiting the net as his arm came forward. Play continued but the Situation Room in Toronto called for a review then ruled the puck had not conclusively crossed the goal line.
"I thought it was in. It sure looked like went in. It's one of those tough ones where there was no white ice under the puck. It was hard to tell. The puck was kind of caught in his jersey or glove but it's nice to get rewarded on the same shift with a goal," Schenn said.
There was no denying Schenn (19th goal) the next time, taking a backhanded pass from Giroux across the ice, moving left across the goal mouth and tucking the puck past Hiller at 12:25 to offically tie the game at 1-1. Gudas got the secondary assist.
"We were cycling down low and G beat his guy off the wall and made a great pass to me. I was able to have a one-on-one with the goalie and hit the post and it went in," Schenn said.
At the 15:13 mark, Deryk Engelland laid a clean big hit on Matt Read. He was OK.
The Flames had a dangerous-looking rush with speed go offside at the Flyers' blueline in the final minute of the period. Shots were 9-6 in the Flyers' favor.
At the 36-second mark of the second period, Hiller fought off a shot through traffic. A would be breakaway for Medvedev was whistled down for interference at the offensive blueline by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare at 1:37. With 40 seconds left on the penalty, Dougie Hamilton grabbed Matt Read on a shorthanded counter-rush and was called for holding.
The Flyers took a 2-1 lead at 4:47. Gostisbehere got the puck in deep to Giroux, who fed out to Simmonds (22nd season). The power forward released the shot immediately and scored from 22 feet out from the slot for his 11th power play goal of the season.
Medvedev took a hooking penalty on a developing odd-man rush for Calgary at 5:25. Read generated a shorthanded scoring chance but neither Couturier nor he were able to chip the puck over Hiller.
Colborne cut in from the right circle but was unable to score. A sprawled Neuvirth froze the puck in the crease at 8:43. The Flyers later got caught chasing Gaudreau around in vain and Neuvirth left out a dangerous rebound on a seemingly harmless point shot but finally reeled the puck back in for a stoppage at 10:44.
Couturier (cross-checking) and Lance Bouma (roughing) went off for coincidental minors at 12:04. Play went to four-on-four. Schenn was unable to score on a breakaway.
MacDonald flubbed a pass but no harm resulted. At the other end of the ice, the Flyers scored to make it 3-1 at 15:27. Schenn continued his dominant game by getting in front and deflecting the puck home on a MacDonald point shot. Giroux earned his third assist of the game.
The play was briefly reviewed in the Situation Room in Toronto for a kicking motion on the deflection off the skate but quickly upheld.
Ryan White took exception to Engelland boarding VandeVelde behind the Calgary net. Gloves were dropped, but nothing more than wrestling ensued and the Calgary defenseman got the only (minor) penalty at 16:55. Schenn had a hat trick bid from the hash marks denied by Hiller.
Schenn completed the hat trick (21st goal) as he angled his stick to tip in the puck as Streit slap-passed it nicely toward the net to build a 4-1 lead at 18:31. Giroux got the secondary helper for his fourth assist of the game.
Shots in the second period were 13-13 (22-19 Flyers through 40 minutes) but the cash register was 3-0 for Philly.
“We just kept our structure, we kept diving and diving, kept plugging away, we didn’t get our results in the first period but if we stay on the same course and keep doing the same things then generally you get success and that’s what happened tonight," Simmonds said of the Flyers' play in the middle stanza.
Bennett went off for roughing at the 2:00 mark. With 1:19 left on the Flyers power play, Simmonds took exception to a hit on Schenn behind the net and received a cross-checking penalty. Philly killed of the brief carryover power play and then Hiller denied Simmonds on a breakaway exiting the penalty box as Simmonds tried to go five-hole.
"It didn’t work. I think when Schenner went in there I saw a little sliver of mesh. He tried to go across his body and I just tried to keep the five hole thinking he would think I was trying to do the same thing as Schenn but he made a great save," Simmonds said.
At 4:26, Neuvirth made a sharp save on Colbourne's snap shot from 30 feet to hold the lead at three goals.
Calgary cut the gap to two goals at 10:17 as Ferland (fourth goal) roofed a puck with Neuvirth dealing with traffic. Less than a minute later Frolik used MacDonald as a partial screen and wristed a right circle shot that leaked through Neuvirth at 11:07 to cut the Flames' deficit to one goal.
Couturier had an outstanding late-game shift as Calgary got hemmed in deep. Simmonds then iced the game with an empty net tap-in goal (23rd of the season, second of the game) off a pass from Raffl. Schultz got the secondary assist at 19:23 to seal a 5-3 final.
Shots in the third period were 13-7 Calgary (32-29 Flyers for the game).
The win enabled the Flyers to at least hold serve in the wildcard race, as both the upper-seeded Detroit Red Wings and lower-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins won their respective games on Monday Philadelphia remains three points behind Pittsburgh.
The Flyers will take a complete off-day on Tuesday and resume practice on Wednesday before the Edmonton Oilers come to town the next night for what will be the fourth game of the Flyers' six-game homestand. Thus far, Philly is 3-0-0 and have improved their home record to 16-8-7 for the season.
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HEXTALL DISCUSSES TRADE DEADLINE, VORACEK INJURY TIMELINE
Two hours after the passing of the NHL trade deadline -- one in which the Flyers did not make deals -- Flyers general manager Ron Hextall addressed to the media to talk about the deadline, give an update on Jakub Voracek's injury status and explain an on-paper move to assign Nick Cousins to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and then immediately recall him (a move that enables Cousins to be eligible for the Calder Cup playoffs, but which counts against the Flyers' four-player callup limit for the rest of the season).
Q:
Can you give us an update on Jake Voracek?
A: “Jake’s going to be out approximately two weeks.”
Q:
Is he going to need surgery or anything?
A: “No.”
Q:
Is that surprising? I think it seemed like it wasn't going to be that long.
A: “No, it was a wide range. That’s probably on the light end so we got good news.”
Q: How much of a setback is this to your team?
A: “We found a way to kind of band together at times this year when a guy is out. We did it when G [Claude Giroux] was out now we got to do it when Jake’s [Jake Voracek] out. Sam’s [Sam Gagner] kind of stepped up in the offensive role and helped out, but I think everybody's got to add a little bit more. The guys who got more ice time have done a pretty good job.”
Q:
How much could that diagnosis play into how much you were on the phone today if at all?
A: “Probably not at all. I’ve said this all along, we’re looking if we make ourselves better today and not hurt our future we’re all for it. Nothing came up that made sense.”
Q:
Were any deals close to happening?
A: “I’m not sure. I mean there was a lot of conversations just like every other team, you never too much of a sense of close. There’s certain things you talk about over and over so you believe it, but in the end nothing made sense.”
Q:
Did the last week change your mind in terms of maybe selling more?
A: “Not really, I mean you always look at the deadline first you locate how far are we in how far are we out, where are we positioned. Yeah it comes into your mind of course, but we have a vision set out a couple years ago and we’re not deviating from it. Does it mean you adjust? Of course you adjust you have to adjust everything doesn't go the way that you planned for it to go. If we wanted to start unloading picks and prospects today we could’ve. We could’ve become a better team. We weren’t going to do that. Conversely we’re three points out, our guys have played well. You owe your players, you owe the organization, you owe the fans a certain amount. So were we just going to start letting bodies fly out? No, again, if something made sense long term that kind of overwhelmed us we would a looked at it. We did, we looked at everything.”
Q:
Were you surprised to see teams like Carolina and Jersey were are right lined where you are let go of some of their key pieces?
A: “Every situation is different. If you have key unrestricted free agents and you can get a boat load for them sometimes it makes more sense to do that than when you know you’re not going to re-sign them. Every situation is different and those are all the things that weigh into it. What other teams did that’s certainly not concerned about. That’s their business. There’s a financial part of it, there’s a hockey part of it, and there’s a number of things that weigh every organization different.”
Q:
Does the financial part of it for everyone play into why this is such a slow day for example? There’s only been six or seven transactions up until the deadline I know there’s a few past the deadline.
A: “Yeah, probably. It’s competitive too there’s not a lot of teams that you say are out out of it. It’s competitive, a lot of the teams that are at the top are capped out. Maybe they would have liked to do something else and they couldn’t. It’s a different market but the market starts strong and it ends a little bit weaker. It’s very unpredictable time of year, certainly for us.”
Q:
Just in conversations you’ve had with other GM’s how surprised are you that Jonathan …. is still out there still with Tampa?
A: “I’m not surprised. He’s a good asset for them as a young player. Not surprised.”
Q:
"Is it fair to say that the draft is going to almost become a second trade deadline? Sometimes conversations might continue."
A: “Yeah, no question we had some of those. That happens all the time in the year. Sometimes even a year later you still might be talking about the same two players. There’s always needs. Sometimes when you talk to GM’s you find out their needs they find out your needs and wishes and sometimes things end up working out down the road. Fair to say.”
Q:
You talked about the vision you set out here, has it met your expectations on where you should be right now?
A: “Yeah, I think we’re right on course. I’d like to be four points up right now, but in terms of the draft picks and the prospects, and the things that we have I think we’re right on track. I’d like to add to our forward group of prospects. We certainly will at this draft, but right now I’d say yeah we’re on course. I like where we’re at.”
Q:
Were there any other paper moves? I know Nick Cousins was sent down then recalled again? You could’ve done that with Ghost and is Laughton still [eligible without waivers]?
A: “Yeah, you can but then you use a regular recall. You only have four [Nick Cousins counts against it] so now we have three. It’s something you’d love to do quite frankly; the four recall rule. Not sure why it’s in there. I’m sure its got a purpose. It’s in the agreement nothing you can do about it. It can help the players in terms of staying up, it can also hurt a player in terms of no we’re not going to recall a guy because we only have four left so we’re going to save it. Not sure I like it or agree with it but it is what it is and we have to work within the rules.”
Q:
Can we assume that Jake got hurt in the collision with the goalie, seems that way?
A: “He got a lower body injury. I’ll never substantiate or answer those questions because I don’t want you guys to know or I’d just come right out and tell ya. That’s not you guys. That’s the other team. I don’t want the enemy to know.”
Q:
Is the injury timeline from today or when it happened?
A: “Today.”
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Photo courtesy Anthony Mingioni
WATSON OVERWHELMED BY FLYERS HALL OF FAME HONOR
Five-time NHL All-Star defenseman Jim Watson was inducted as the 25th member of the Flyers Hall of Fame prior to the team's game against the Calgary games. Roughly 90 minutes before Watson gave a heartfelt acceptance speech, he spoke with members of the media.
Q [Asked by Watson himself]: I guess the first question is my reaction to all this, right?
A: “I said earlier, I didn’t come here with the intention of becoming a Hall of Famer. I just wanted to make a hockey club back in 71-72-73. I go to Richmond, Virginia for a year, learned the ropes so to speak, come up for a couple playoff games at the end of the year and there was a real pointed moment in Montreal after we lost to Montreal in the Stanley Cups finals. Bobby Clarke asked all of the coaches to leave the locker room and he held the press out and held a meeting. Now we hadn’t won any at that point we had just lost in the Semi-Finals to Montreal and Bobby gathered everybody together in there and he said, ‘Listen guys we got something special here. Everybody go home have a great summer of training take care of yourself and come back with a great attitude.'
"I thought I was highly motivated to begin with but when I heard that from Bobby and I was in the locker room cause I was up on standby as a player. To hear that I just, I wanted to be a part of it. That was another reason for me to be motivated and came back the next year of course and made the team. Fit right in and got a lot of playing time and then of course we go on to win a Stanley Cup.
"I go back home to Canada for the summer and all my friends said ‘Jim, how fortunate are you? You win a Stanley Cup in your rookie year’. I had two dreams come true in the same year. I always wanted to be an NHL player and of course second dream was to win a Stanley Cup. Here we are both in one year. So I go home and people say what are you going to do for an encore? and I said we’re going to win it again. I was bound and determined. There was so many insinuations where we may have gotten a little bit fortunate or maybe a little Bernie won it for us and we wanted to prove that wrong.
"So we came back more determined than ever and had a real good year the second year to win another cup. Then of course the third year go right to the finals with Montreal and they beat us in four straight by one goal. Could’ve won a third cup and actually the MVP of the playoffs that year was… their goalie. We really out played them a lot of that series. Just a tremendous run and then we just kept going from there. Over the nine years I played with the Flyers I believe we won as many or more than any team in the league in that nine year period. I was a small part of that. I’m quite proud of that.”
Q:
Biggest goal of your career in Toronto in '77 playoffs?
A: “I won it Toronto, yeah, we won a series there. Probably my biggest goal. I didn’t score a lot. My goal was to stop them, right? But yeah, that would probably be the biggest one I would say.”
Q:
Any others?
A: “Nothing that comes to mind. Probably just being on the ice when game winning goals were scored. The highlight of my life, one of them being very high on the list, would be when Bobby scored the overtime goal first year to win the cup in Boston in the second game. That evened the series up. I was on the ice with Bobby and there was Dave Schultz I believe and Eddy Bennett and I just couldn't get to Bobby fast enough after he scored that goal cause that tied the series 1-1 now we’re coming home for home ice; we had home ice at that point.”
Q:
There was a story when you were playing junior hockey in Calgary, you were a little homesick. You weren’t happy with your play, maybe thought about going back to Smithers and Joe brought you here to Philly to see what the NHL was like. Do you remember that?
A: "Remember it well. I was 17 years old and I just didn’t know if I wanted to make the sacrifice required to become a player. It was just very overwhelming at time and I was running into some difficult times playing I wasn’t playing particularly well.
"So yeah, I was a little down and I decided to take a little leave of absence if you will and came down and visited Joe, and Joe kind of pointed a few things out to me and showed me what was going on. I went home and wrote my junior coach Scotty Munroe, who coached the Calgary team at the time.
"I wrote him a letter, I said Scotty, I’m sorry I left the team and I’d really appreciate it if you gave me a second chance. And he said Jim of course. He brought me right back in and I had two really good years of juniors after that. Coming down here was a real good experience for me. Kind of let me get my feet on the ground a little bit.”
Q:
You still don’t know why you lasted until the [third] round [in the '72 draft]?
A: “You know what? Yeah, probably a little doubt there but I don’t worry too much about that. That’s so much in the past. I think maybe sometimes when you go a little later in the draft it probably motivated you a little more. Makes you realize hey nothing’s easy, nothing’s going to be handed to me and you have to be ready to go. So I think in a way it acts in your favor.”
Q: The Hall of Fame here has great tradition, great players, how much is that a result of what Ed Snider has done?
A" “I actually talked to Ed Snider today, had a nice conversation with Ed. Ed brought hockey here in 1966 the NHL expanded and he heard about expansion, he wasn’t sure about hockey but he heard expansion, learned about it and went for it. Ed tells the story where originally the franchise was going to go to Baltimore and Ed intercepted that.
"He knew Bill Jennings who was the head of the expansion committee up at the Rangers and Bill listened to him and said this is what you have to do. You have to get 2 million dollars to Montreal by such and such date and you have to get a promise for an NHL stadium and Ed Snider got both of those. He brought Joe Scott in, Joe gave him the money I believe at the time and then Ed went to the counselors in Philly and got the Spectrum built to house the Flyers and Sixers.
"This is Ed Snider, he saw a possibility, he saw something special in the game, he also tells the story; He was in Boston with the Sixers and they weren’t selling up the game apparently. Then he said he went by the ticket window and there was a great big line up of people and said, 'What are all those people there for?” and the guy said, “Well their here to watch the Bruins tomorrow they got this guy Bobby Orr.' The people were lined up and they sold out the game for hockey so that’s another reason why Ed said, 'Hell, I want to get involved in hockey.'
"I had a great talk with Ed he’s in a battle right now, healthwise. You look at Ed and what he’s done with hockey in this arena not only with the flyers but also with the Snider Youth Foundation, renovating the old rinks in the city and then building new skate zones. I mean the guys laid it on the line for the great game of hockey and we’ve seen the great game growing, Ed’s been right in the middle of all of that.”
Q: How much did those years forge your identity, your values for life, in other words you knew at some point your hockey career was going to be over, a lot of athletes don’t know what they’re going to do?
A: "Everybody I’m around I try to be positive and upbeat but at the same time make people accountable and responsible. You have to have that balance there but hockey definitely gave me some characteristics that help me in my everyday life since then.”
Q:
You reminded us you didn’t score many goals, lost some peripheral vision in the back of the eye and then the back started problems?
A: “I was in great shape other than the back and the eye. I figured at least another 10 years. I played 9, 10 years. I got 10 years total pro, 9 years NHL but at least another 10 years if I had stayed healthy. I was in good shape physically other than the back injury.”
Q:
How much was your vision affected?
A: “I lost, ah, maybe 15, 20 percent vision out of the eye. I wouldn’t say that had an effect I’m not going to use that too much but the back was the issue for me.”
Q:
The fact that you came here as a young player and you made this your home was that your plan?
A: "I had every intention of going back to Canada, I was going to go back to Smithers where I come from. All you have to do is Google Smithers and see why I would want to go back there. It’s beautiful right in the Rocky Mountains, gorgeous. All my family’s back there but after hockey I met so many people and I ended up having a family and my kids, they went to school and it was over at that point! I was going to be living here after that. I had every intention going back home but then hockey kept calling here, I got involved with some wonderful partners at ice works and built our rink there and the rest is history.
"We’ve been there 20 years now, a little footnote about the growth of hockey and what we have been able to accomplish over there and what Ed has done with his foundation and other facilities in the area. We had a mite tournament here back in November mites are 6,7, 8 year olds and we had 500 mites there for a whole weekend. Could you imagine that? All little players, all little 6, 7, 8 year olds running around our rink for a weekend playing hockey. I told Ed today every one of those little guys is a new Flyer fan. It goes hand in hand, one hand washes the other.”
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