IMPROBABLE COMEBACK PROPELS FLYERS ABOVE .500
One of the things that makes hockey such an addictive sport is that you never know what the next night will bring. You can trot out all the stats and cite the conventional wisdom -- all of which may hold true most of the time -- but there's always the chance that the rising and falling tide of emotion will sweep over the respective teams and swing the outcome in an unexpected way.
Over the course of their last three games, the Philadelphia Flyers have deviated from the usual script each time.
First, they held a three-goal lead over Washington midway through the third period, and found a way to lose. They've trailed twice in the back end of a home-and-home with the same opponent and went on to win by three goals. On Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers trailed the Columbus Blue Jackets at the second intermission by a 3-0 score, got back within one, gave up a potentially backbreaking goal to trail by two again and the exploded for three goals in the final five minutes to win in regulation.
It has been a rollercoaster of a week, for sure. But to take five of a possible six points thus far from three divisional games is a positive, and the Flyers have shown a lot of fight and resolve under adversity in the last two games.
With this victory, the Flyers moved above the .500 mark for the first time in the 2013-14 season. While that is a modest accomplishment, it's sufficient for the club to sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division; one point ahead of Carolina with one more game played and three points behind Washington with one more game played. In short, with no team in the Metro except Pittsburgh able to establish prolonged success, the Flyers are in good shape in the current standings despite all of their own ups and downs.
In Thursday's game against Columbus, there is no doubt that former Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason would have liked to have had a little stronger outing against his old club. He wasn't awful, despite yielding four goals on 29 shots. But he wasn't much better than average, either. I wouldn't label any of the goals he yielded as soft ones -- all came from legitimate scoring chances -- but three of the four were plays where he'd been making saves in the first two months of the season.
Mason, of course, has bailed the Flyers out of trouble many times this season. He's kept them in a lot of games where they could have been blown out, although he hasn't had much puck luck in December.
On this night, he wasn't able to get his team over the hump with momentum saves when there were a few breakdowns. He needed the team in front of him to be the ones to shoulder the burden, and they responded with a five-goal outburst after going scoreless for two-plus periods against Curtis McIlhinney (34 saves on 39 shots).
The Flyers' top line, which has been on fire offensively since Craig Berube shuffled around the combinations, led the charge in the extraordinay third-period comeback.
Jakub Voracek (one goal, two assists) extended his point streak to six straight games, during which time he has compiled six goals and four assists for 10 of his 22 points to date this season. Claude Giroux (two goals, two assists) tallied the game-tying and game-winning goals in the waning minutes of the third period to extend his point streak to five straight games. In that span, the Flyers captain has tallied four of his nine goals this season and 10 of his 30 points.
Giroux's game-winner with 1:38 remaining in regulation was a dazzler. He somehow managed to elevate a backhanded shot from a tough angle as he was falling to the ice. The tally was the 100th of his regular season NHL career.
I doubt anyone would have predicted what happened in that crazy third period.
The Flyers significantly had the better of the first period territorial play and a corresponding 14-4 shot advantage, but found themselves trailing on Cam Atkinson's shorthanded goal with 4:44 left in the period.
The Atkinson tally was scored on a 2-on-1 rush. Voracek fumbled a puck around the offensive blueline and Columbus counterattacked. Puck carrier Atkinson elected to shoot rather than pass, and caught Mason through the five-hole on a play where he was probably expecting the puck to come across the ice on a pass.
In the second period, the Blue Jackets gained momentum from surviving the first stanza and going off with a lead. In this frame, the Flyers got outworked by a pretty significant margin, much to the (understandable) displeasure of Craig Berube.
Scored at 4:44 of the middle stanza, the Jackets' second goal was somewhat similar to the first. Once again, Columbus had a two-on-one rush. One again, the Blue Jackets' puck carrier (Jack Skille) elected to shoot from the circle rather than pass. Once again, the shot found the back of the net. This one, though, was laser beam of a shot that was a little too hot for Mason to handle.
The Flyers were unable to get out of the middle period down by a goal. Will 12 seconds remaining, Nick Foligno got open in the lower circle and fired a shot that had just enough on it to beat Mason and trickle over the goal line. Not an easy save given the shooting angle and how quickly the chance developed but it was kind of a changeup of a shot that appeared to be a makeable save.
That late-period breakdown was a bit of a tough break for Mason. The goalie had done a pretty job in a period where Philly got outshot by an 18-9 margin.
In the third period, it took the Flyers four-plus minutes to start to mount their comeback. At the 4:20 mark, Voracek swung out from the behind the net and circled hard into the slot, firing a puck home -- a type of goal that former Flyers right winger Mikael Renberg specialized in scoring during the heyday of the Legion of Doom. Giroux and Mark Streit received the assists.
At 5:22, the Flyers drew back within a goal. Braydon Coburn held in a turned over puck at the blueline and skittered a re-directed shot past McIlhinney.
The crest of the emotional wave was rising. It would soon dissipate for awhile; putting the game seemingly firmly back in Columbus' control.
At 8:35, the Flyers skaters -- Scott Hartnell in particular -- were guilty of the cardinal sin of worrying a little too much about a missed call (a puck that seemingly went over the glass up into the safety netting but came right back into play) than in the ongoing play. Suddenly, a battle got lost behind the net and Philly's coverage got scrambled. Blake Comeau took a pass from Artem Anisimov and beat Mason from the slot.
Columbus, which got outshot 16-7 in the third period, made the same mistake the Flyers did on Sunday. Although the Blue Jackets maintained their two-goal lead until there was less than five minutes left on the third-period clock, they started to let the Flyers dictate a little too much of the play again. Columbus would soon pay and pay dearly.
Philly's emotional surge began with defenseman Erik Gustafsson joining a rush and potting a goal at 15:21 to bring the Flyers back within a goal. Wayne Simmonds and Giroux received the assists.
Less than a minute later, the top line dialed up the tying goal on another line rush. The initial shot hit the post but Giroux, who was going to the net, collected the rebound and quickly jammed it home with 3:46 left on the clock. Voracek and Michael Raffl earned assists.
Now the emotional tide was about to become a tidal wave. With Columbus shaken and the Flyers moving in for the kill, Giroux scored his incredible backhanded goal to take the only lead the Flyers would get or need in the game.
Philly rode the wave ashore for the final 1:38 to skate off with an improbable victory.
The Flyers will look to sweep the home-and-home when the teams rematch in Columbus on Saturday. Philly would probably be well-advised to follow more of a traditional roadmap to victory in the return match. Of course, at the end of the night, all that really matters is getting the W in the standings.
*********
HOWE BOOK AND HOLIDAY READING
Anyone who knows me knows that Hall of Fame defenseman Mark Howe is my all-time favorite hockey player. Bobby Clarke was my first sports idol and I greatly admired Bernie Parent, Bill Barber, Dave Poulin,Tim Kerr, Pelle Lindbergh and others. But Howe was my absolute favorite.
Defense in the NHL is an extremely difficult position to play. Howe, a converted left winger who had been a star forward before making the switch, made it look ridiculously easy.
As a player, he was so good at both ends of the ice, so smooth on his skates, so smart in reading plays, that he was a joy to watch. Off the ice, Howe has always been a paragon of dignity, class and refreshing honesty; a trait of the entire Howe family.
Of all the things I have ever done since becoming a hockey writer for a living, perhaps the biggest thrill I have ever had was texting a congratulations message to Mark Howe after his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame and receiving a gracious response within a couple hours on what was obviously a whirlwind day for him.
I don't have words to express how much Howe's career meant to me, not just as someone who grew up as a Flyers fan but as someone who loves the game as a whole. As a matter of fact, a big part of the reason why Nicklas Lidström ranks near the top of my list of all-time favorite players is that his on-ice game and off-ice class always reminded me so much of the years I spent marveling at Mark Howe's talents.
In a similar manner, I feel very fortunate to have grown up as a Flyers fan in the 1970s and 1980s because the caliber of the hockey writers we had working for the city's newspapers: ranging from Jack Chevalier to Bill Fleischman in the 1970s to Al Morganti and Jay Greenberg in the 1980s.
The latter two were especially big influences on my dream to cover this sport for a living (I sure as hell was never athletic or coordinated enough to do it as a player). In an era before the internet and virtual round-the-clock TV coverage, Morganti and Greenberg had a special gift for making readers feel like they had their finger on the day-to-day pulse of the team the beat writers covered.
In the mid-1990s, when Greenberg wrote Full Spectrum -- still the definitive history of the team from 1967 to 1996 - - I was staggered by the level of detail and the many previously untold stories that he wrote about; all in a fast-moving, engaging and accessible way.
As a matter of fact, I would rank Greenberg as my favorite hockey writer of them all; and I read plenty of hockey books and articles. During his years with the New York Post, I always read his New York Rangers and leaguewide stuff and enjoyed his work as much as I did when he was on the Flyers beat.
When Greenberg received the Elmer Ferguson Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame, it was an honor that was every bit as well deserved as Mark Howe's (needlessly belated) induction as a player. I was every bit as happy for Greenberg's recognition as I had been for Howe's.
Incidentally, Jay was also very helpful to my Pelle Lindbergh biography co-author, Thomas Tynander,when Thomas was researching the original Swedish-language edition of the book. He was very generous with his time and insights.
A few months ago, during the Flyers' training camp, I found out that Greenberg and Howe had worked together on Howe's autobiography, entitled
Gordie Howe's Son: A Hall of Fame Life in the Shadow of Mr. Hockey. Immediately, that book shot to the very top of my must-read list.
I just received my copy of the book last week. I have not yet had opportunity to read it and write a review for HockeyBuzz. However, I plan to read the book in the weeks to come and will publish a review here during the Olympic break in February.
All I can say for now is that a Howe-Greenberg tandem is pretty much a can't miss combination. Add in stories about Gordie, Colleen, Mark's siblings, the 1972 Olympics, the WHA, Bill Dineen, Howe's frightful injury that nearly paralyzed him, tales of the Flyers of the 1980s and the rise of the Red Wings in the 1990s and there is almost endless turf for memorable material written in Greenberg's distinctively accessible yet hockey-smart style.
Honestly, the only thing I'm not wild about is the book's title. Personally I'd have pushed for
"Howe2", which can play several different ways for the two homophones: 1) like father Gordie, Mark is a Hall of Fame Howe, too; 2) he had a special "how to" knowledge and ability on the ice; 3) Howe wore uniform number two throughout his Flyers career.
Another book I'm looking forward to reading in the weeks to come is
This is Russia: Life in the KHL - Doctors, Bazas and Millions of Air Miles, written by goaltender Bernd Bruckler and Risto Pakarinen.
Bruckler, an Austrian-born former Flyers draftee and University of Wisconsin graduate, never got signed by the Flyers but has gone on to be one of the better goalies in several European leagues, including a three-season stint in the KHL. He is a personable yet straight-shooting figure.
Risto, whom I've known for seven years since we were both writing for NHL.com, is a very gifted writer on just about any topic -- sports or otherwise -- but especially hockey. I've read a lot of his work in English, and it's great (and written so smoothly and fluently that you would not know it's not even his first language). I've read some his Swedish material, and it's every bit as engaging. I'm sure his Finnish stuff is also fantastic, but I can't read, write or speak that language.
I wish the Mark and Jay tandem and Bernd and Risto the best of success with their new publications. I'm looking forward to the hours of enjoyable reading.
********
Click below to follow me on Twitter:
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»