In the grand scheme of things, it remains to be seen if the Philadelphia Flyers' 6-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings last night at Joe Louis Arena is a springboard to a successful run during the second half of the Flyers' six-game cross-country road trip.
Looking at it in immediate aftermath, however, the Flyers' offensive explosion after trailing by scores of 1-0 and 3-1 -- and taking a series of extremely undisciplined penalties -- had to be a big emotional uplift for the team. That's especially true given the fact that the Flyers had been 1-18-2-0 in their last 21 games at the Joe (including the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals).
To take a strictly objective outlook, the Red Wings have been a very good road team this season (9-3-1) but have not had a great season on home ice this season. They have had some problems closing teams out, as attested to by their 5-5-6 record at the Joe this season.
Last night, the Red Wings had ample opportunity to put the game away with all of their power plays. No doubt, the absences of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Todd Bertuzzi hurt the team when it had a chance to go for the jugular. Tomas Tatar mustered a five-on-three power play goal that gave the Wings a two-goal lead in the second period, but the other six power plays that were not cashed in ended up looming huge.
With all that said, the Flyers deserve full marks for the resiliency and competitiveness they showed last night. Rather than sagging when they faced adversity, they dug a little deeper and found ways to battle back until they simply overwhelmed the Wings in the third period.
To me, the big turning point of the game was the Matt Read goal late in the second period that cut the Philadelphia deficit to 3-2, followed by the Flyers killing off Luke Schenn's (needless) charging minor and Braydon Coburn's holding penalty in succession.
The Sean Couturier line was magnificent throughout the entire game, and there was a lot to like on the sequence that led to the Read goal: the line winning a battle on the boards, Read getting himself open, Couturier making a perfect centering pass and then Read patiently waiting out goaltender Jimmy Howard to (barely) deposit the puck in the net.
That's what you call manufacturing a goal through sheer hard work, and I have no doubt that the Flyers drew a lot of energy from it. The club seemed to realize that despite being largely outworked and outplayed up to that point, they were within striking distance of still being able to win the game.
Everything came together in the third period. The Flyers were up on their skates, and the Red Wings could not withstand the onslaught.
It was in this final stanza that Couturier scored the go-ahead goal and then added a late empty netter to complete the first four-point regular season night of his career. Back in the first period, he made the setup that created Steve Downie's power play goal that tied the score at 1-1.
Likewise, it was in the third period that Claude Giroux wired home a power play shot through traffic from the left circle to tie the game at 3-3. Scott Hartnell completed the team's 3-for-3 night on the power play by getting inside the Detroit penalty killing box and ripping a pass from Giroux past Howard (28 saves on 33 shots) to give the Flyers some insurance at 5-3.
Finally, I thought Steve Mason showed a lot of moxie in this game in extending his streak of not giving up more than three goals in a game since joining the Flyers. All three of Detroit's goals came from prime shooting range.
I did not think that Mason looked especially sharp early in the game -- which had nothing to do with the goals themselves -- but he fought through it and settled in to play very well. He got better and better as the night progressed.
Mason made momentum saves when the Flyers really needed them and finished the night with 32 saves on 35 shots. There was nothing any goalie was going to do on the Tatar five-on-three rebound goal that opened up a 3-1 lead for Detroit.
In addition to being one of the NHL's best puckhandling goalies (although he didn't have his best night in that department last night), Mason has shown this season that he has one of the best glovehands in the league. Additionally, his legs and feet are very good.
That has left opposing teams to try to focus on beating him high to the blocker side, which is where he's been beatable this season. I will gladly take that over a goalie with a suspect glove or five-hole. When a shooter can hit that small square mark over the shoulder and under the crossbar, as Tatar did on his first goal, tip your cap to him.
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UPCOMING ACTION
The Flyers are back in action on Saturday afternoon to take on the Dallas Stars. It will be the fourth segment of Philly's six-game road trip. With a win on Saturday, the Flyers can assure themselves of no worse than a .500 trip and also push their season record above the .500 mark for the first time in the 2013-14 campaign.
The Stars are the other team I blog about here at HockeyBuzz, and I plan on covering the game live at the American Airlines Center. However, with potential ice storms in the frigid (especially for Texas but even for the northeast) forecast for Friday night into Saturday, that will be a game day decision as to whether I make the 100-mile drive from the Tyler vicinity to Dallas.
Either which way, I will have an extensive preview on both the Flyers and Stars blogs.
As I have done in past Flyers-Stars meetings, I will slightly alter my usual gameday blog format for this game. Here on the Flyers' blog, I will have a "scouting report" of sorts on the Stars' strengths and weaknesses. I will do the same on the Flyers on the Stars' blog.
Thereafter, I will resume my usual gameday blog format.
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