Although they all look the same in the standings, not all wins are created equal. There are games where the winning side plays with high energy and executes well and ones where it overcomes sloppy play. The Flyers' 3-0 win over New Jersey last night fell into the first category, which bodes well heading into another three-game-in-four-day stretch.
Likewise, not all shutouts are the same. There are "goalie shutouts" and there are "team shutouts." Over the course of Ilya Bryzgalov's run of three consecutive shutouts and four in his last five starts, we have seen games of both varieties. Last night's game was the latter (and more sustainable) type.
The goalie was tremendous, and so was the team defense in front of him. One element feeds into the other, just as surely as when one facet of the game struggles for too long, it inevitably drags the other one down with it.
Despite getting into penalty trouble last night -- Nicklas Grossmann took six minutes worth of high sticking penalties, Brayden Schenn had to take a "good" hooking penalty to prevent a scoring chance after falling down and Scott Hartnell came out on the wrong end of marginal-at-best goalie interference calls -- the Flyers limited New Jersey to just 17 shots for the game. Bryzgalov stopped a couple testers from Ilya Kovalchuk, and otherwise gobbled up perimeter shots with no bad rebounds.
Even though the Flyers were unable to score in the first period last night, you could see that they were playing with exponentially more energy than they did in Sunday's 4-1 loss in New Jersey. They were up on their skates, passing crisply, supporting the puck and winning battles that went the Devils' way on Sunday.
The returns to the lineup of both Kimmo Timonen and Jakub Voracek were certainly factors in the outcome last night. After needing a few shifts to get his skating legs under him again, Timonen looked like the All-Star defeseman of the first half of the season and not the struggling shell of himself that he was in the games leading up to his absence from the lineup. Voracek played with boundless energy, and recorded a key goal and an assist.
Voracek's goal, which put the Flyers ahead 2-0 early in the third period, helped Philly put a stranglehold on the game. From a Flyers' standpoint, there was a lot to like both about the goal itself and the team's play afterwards.
Danny Briere did some good work behind the net to set up Voracek's scoring chance on the doorstep, and Voracek outworked the defense in front of the net to make a second and third effort that eventually paid off in the goal.
The Flyers have not always been good this season about managing their shifts immediately after a goal is scored. There have been big games this season against Boston and the Rangers in particular where the Flyers have to work extremely hard for a goal, and then give it right back. That didn't happen this time.
Instead, the Flyers cranked up both their forechecking and backchecking intensity. New Jersey found itself hemmed in its own zone for much of the third period. When they weren't forced to make multiple attempts just to clear the zone, the Devils had to attempt to go 200 feet against Flyers' players with active sticks and good body position to cut off the rush. Basically, the Devils got a taste of their own medicine from Sunday night.
On a night where the Flyers' top line was unable to light the lamp, Philly got scoring from other places. Sean Couturier, who has fully recovered his stellar defensive game after struggling (especially on the PK) for a couple weeks after the All-Star break, scored a hard-working goal that gave the Flyers' a 1-0 lead midway through regulation.
With five minutes left in the game and the clubs skating 4-on-4, New Jersey gambled by pulling Martin Brodeur. I have seen that strategy work once or twice over the years, but it was Philly that quickly capitalized. Briere was able to put his scoring drought behind him, taking a pass from Voracek and scoring into the vacated cage on a second chance effort.
The Flyers now how to deal with a brutal schedule through the weekend. First, they face a potential "trap game" on Long Island tomorrow night. Then it's time to head to Boston to take on the struggling Bruins in a Saturday matinee, followed by a return home on Sunday to play Sidney Crosby and the scorching hot Penguins in a 12:30 game on network TV.
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Braydon Coburn, who has made a good tandem with Grossmann minus the previous game in New Jersey, led all Flyers in ice time with 24:12. He registered a pair of assists, including an intentional bank-shot "pass" into the slot on the Couturier goal, led the team with 7 shots, blocked three shots and did not have a single giveaway.
With all due respect to Eric Wellwood, who showed off his blazing speed several times and got the secondary helper on Voracek's goal, I thought the ball was dropped by not honoring Coburn's best game of the season with a three-star selection.
Wellwood was chosen third star, Voracek second and Bryzgalov the first star for his fifth straight start.
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With his shutout last night, Bryzgalov joined John Vanbiesbrouck as the only Flyers goalie to blank opponents in three straight shutouts. The Beezer recorded three consecutive shutouts from October 20-24, 1999.
Twice in team history, the Flyers have recorded four consecutive shutouts. This time around, they've done it four times in six games.
Vanbiesbrouck was involved in one other team-wide span of three consecutive shutouts. The Flyers registered shutouts in three straight games from Jan. 7-13, 1999. Beezer was the starting goalie in the first and final games, and relieved an injured Ron Hextall during the middle game.
Heading into Thursday's game, Bryzgalov has a consecutive-minute shutout streak of 196:13. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the third-longest shutout streak for a goaltender in team history:
1) Vanbiesbrouck – 227:40 (Oct. 17-26, 1999)
2) Vanbiesbrouck – 218:42 (Jan. 3-16, 1999)
3) Bryzgalov – 196:13 (March 16, 2012 – present)
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After last night's game, I asked both Briere and Timonen about the way the Flyers' cranked up their checking pressure on New Jersey after the Voracek goal. Timonen pointed first and foremost to Bryzgalov's recent stellar play, while Briere said that the third period was a case of the team executing Peter Laviolette's preferred method of protecting the lead.
Timonen: "When a goalie is playing the way he is, the whole team gains confidence. Jake's goal was definitely a big one for us, but I thought we pressured them all night and we just kept on going after Jake scored."
Briere: "That's Peter Laviolette's system. He talks a lot about not sitting back on a lead and playing with a high tempo. We don't want to take foolish chances that are going to create transitional rushes for the other side but, at the same time, we want to keep up the pressure. We haven't always done that, but tonight we stayed aggressive."
Personally, I thought the Flyers played one of their best periods of the season in the final stanza last night. They did not turn over a puck, killed off Grossman's high-sticking double minor with authority and limited New Jersey to just three shots on goal for the period.
For the night, the Flyers had just 2 giveaways (to 10 by New Jersey). They were also credited with 7 takeaways and won 58 percent of the faceoffs. Execution doesn't get much cleaner than that.
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Timonen had his wrist and hand heavily iced after the game while he was doing postgame interviews. Claude Giroux was originally on the postgame interview list but was soon taken off, leading to speculation that he may have been taking treatment for an injury during the game. Giroux finished the night without a point, but won 10 of 13 faceoffs (77 percent).
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