Forty Minutes of Dominance Propels Flyers Over Caps
The Philadelphia Flyers continued their schizophrenic ways last night at the Wells Fargo Center but, in the end, all that mattered was that Philly skated off with a regulation win in an important divisional game. Coupled with the New York Rangers' overtime loss to Toronto last night, the Flyers' 6-4 win over the Washington Capitals strengthened Philadelphia's hold on second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Two goals and an assist by Claude Giroux and a pair of goals by Jakub Voracek (one power play and one even strength) paced the Flyers. Philly also got goals by Michael Raffl and Steve Downie (empty net).
Steve Mason stopped 21 of 25 shots. It was tough to blame him on any of the four goals he yielded. Two were vicious deflections. The other two were wide open shooters in good scoring range, and Mason nearly picked one of them but couldn't quite get enough of the shot.
Playing in mid-game relief of starter Braden Holtby and charged with a hard-luck loss, callup goaltender Phillip Grubauer was solid in turning back 10 of 11 shots for the Caps. An uncomfortable-looking Holtby struggled at times in making 14 saves on 18 shots before he was pulled. Newcomer Jaroslav Halak is likely to get the next start for the Capitals.
Washington struck for three power play goals in four tries and also bagged a 4-on-4 goal in this game. The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play.
Philadelphia is now finished with its regular season series against the Capitals. The Flyers went 3-1-1 in the five games after losing the first two games. All of the games were tough, physical ones and there were numerous fights including a couple of line brawls. Comebacks were common, too, with the Flyers pulling off a pair of come-from-behind wins and the Caps managing one via shootout victory and nearly another last night.
Pandemonium broke loose at 11:59 of the first period last night after a clean but heavy check by Luke Schenn on Ryan Stoa near the stanchion along the boards felled the Washington forward. Capitals forward Tom Wilson fought Schenn and received an instigation penalty.
Just as the first fight was breaking up, things escalated behind the initial altercation. In the only full-fledged fisticuffs that developed Vincent Lecavalier (who suffered a facial injury in a Nov. 1 line brawl against the Caps) fought John Erskine. Both players received game misconducts for the secondary fight. Additionally, Wayne Simmonds got tagged with cross-checking and slashing minors.
Washington ended up with a two-minute power play, which was the only one of the Caps' four 5-on-4 manpower advantages that the Flyers survived unscathed.
The Flyers have been the quintessential Jekyll and Hyde team this season. There's the team that has its feet moving, is hungry for the puck and resilient. That's the one that showed up in the opening 40 minutes of play, in which Philly compiled a 4-1 lead on the scoreboard and a 23-8 advantage in shots. The Flyers consistently displayed excellent puck support and made the Capitals pay for turnovers and penalties.
On the flip side, there's the Flyers' squad that is reactive, stationary and prone to coverage breakdowns and discipline lapses. That was the team that showed up for lengthy stretches -- but not the entire duration -- of the third period. The Flyers hurt themselves by taking bad penalties against the second-ranked power play in the NHL and had trouble getting out of their own zone at even strength.
Philly got outshot by a 17-7 margin in the final stanza and twice saw multi-goal leads shrink to a single goal. That's certainly not how they wanted to close out the win.
However, there were also pockets of the third period where the Flyers restored some order to the game. This was especially true of the shift right before Jakub Voracek converted a feed from Scott Hartnell to create a 5-3 lead with 8:09 left to play.
On the previous shift, the line of Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and Michael Raffl (moved up to play in place of the ejected Vincent Lecavalier) had a lengthy cycling shift that trimmed 30 seconds off the clock and created some momentum toward Voracek's goal on the next shift.
"That’s our game," said Flyers head coach Craig Berube. "I think we compete on the walls, we compete in the offensive zone with the puck, keep the puck battle. We use everybody and try to wear things down that way.”
The Flyers were very much on their game through the opening 40 minutes of play. Everyone was up on their skates and the Flyers won virtually all the battles. They controlled the walls and everything below the dots, owned the faceoff circle (going 11-for-15 in the first period alone, with team captain Claude Giroux going 12-for-16 through two periods). They forechecked effectively and created turnovers. They took advantage of unforced turnovers and moved the puck around at will on their two power plays despite only converting one.
"I think you see the difference right away. I think those two periods were some of our best this season so we have to keep doing that," said Michael Raffl.
Philadelphia collectively played outstanding hockey for two periods, but it was Giroux was the biggest tone-setter. Giroux has compiled 57 points in the last 48 games, including 23 goals. He played like a man possessed last night even apart from scoring two goals and assisting on the first Voracek goal. The two Giroux tallies were beauties.
The first, which gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 6:48 of the opening period, started with Sean Couturier making a good hit on Jack Hillen in the neutral zone and creating a turnover. Giroux pounced on the puck and sped in against Braden Holtby (14 saves on 18 shots, pulled at 11:52 of the second period). Holty committed himself too early and Giroux went around him and deposited the puck in the net.
Less than two minutes after opening the scoring, Giroux set up Voracek for the Flyers' second goal. The tally came just 12 seconds into Philly's first power play of the game.
Giroux extended the Flyers' lead to 3-0 at 5:26 of the middle period. Hartnell applied some forechecking pressure to Mike Green behind the Caps' net and Green fumbled the puck away into the slot. Giroux immediately pounced and scored for an unassisted goal.
At 11:52 of the middle frame, the Flyers opened up a 4-0 lead (of which they'd later prove to need all of the goals in order to win the game). Michael Raffl deflected a Luke Schenn shot. After a pair of scoring changes -- from Raffl to Adam Hall and back to Raffl -- newcomer Andrew MacDonald was re-credited with his first assist as a Flyer.
Joel Ward's power play goal at 14:06 of the second period was a double-deflection of an initial point shot by Mike Green. First, Ward got a piece of it up high in the zone and then it re-directed off new Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald as he jostled for position with Marcus Johansson.
The Flyers responded well after the fluky goal by Ward. They restored order quickly and took a still-comfortable lead to the second intermission. The third period was another story. The Flyers started out on their heels in the first 100 seconds or so and things went downhill with penalties and defensive breakdowns.
Alex Ovechkin tallied his league-leading 44th goal of the season on a power play goal at 6:35 of the third period. The NHL's most dangerous shooter was left uncovered in his wheelhouse on the left circle to receive a feed from Nicklas Bäckström and blast away. Mason actually sniffed out the play before it happened and had his glove in the right position to make the save. The goalie just didn't get all of the puck and it ended up in the net.
At 9:25 of the third period, Troy Brouwer cut the Caps' deficit to 4-3 during a stretch of 4-on-4 play created by coincidental roughing penalties to Zac Rinaldo and Jason Chimera. Flyers defensemen Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen ended up on the same side of the ice and there were no forwards helping as Brouwer got wide open at point blank range. Bäckström and Jack Hillen got the assists.
At 16:00 of the third period, Brooks Laich deflected home a power play point shot by Green to cut the deficit to 5-4. The play was reviewed to see if Laich played the puck with a high stick but the ruling on the ice was correctly upheld.
Even Steve Downie's empty net goal in the final minute was a risky play that happened to work -- at the end of a long shift, Downie measured a long-distance shot from his own end of the ice and found the vacant net at the other end. Had it missed the net and gone for an icing with 50-plus seconds left, disaster could have ensued.
To be honest, I did not think Downie should have been on the ice at all with the Flyers protecting their late one-goal lead. Early in the third period, he took a needless elbowing penalty early in the third period that opened the door for the Caps to climb back into the game. Later, he had a bad turnover on the defensive sideboards that caused an extended shift in the Philly zone, and then took a (justifiable) icing with the Flyers having already used their timeout.
The empty-net goal was a measure of redemption, but the riskiness of it reminded me of an old story with risk-taking defenseman Behn Wilson and Flyers assistant coach Terry Crisp. With the Flyers changing lines and no one behind him, Wilson started from behind his own net and skated past everyone on the ice, including stickhandling around three opponents. He finished the end-to-end rush by deking the goaltender and scoring.
As Wilson skated back to the bench, Crisp greeted Wilson by saying, "Hell of a play, Willy! Don't ever [bleep]ing do it again!"
That's what the ENG goal was like last night. It took guts to try it from that distance and it worked. It still wasn't a smart play. In the end, though, the Flyers did what they needed to do last night.
With 63 games played and 19 to go, the Flyers have 72 points and 30 regulation or overtime wins among their 33 overall victories. The Rangers (70 points, 29 ROW) and Capitals (68 points, 21 ROW) have also played 63 games. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who were idle last night, have 69 points and 28 ROW with a game in hand. The Blue Jackets will be in Chicago tonight to take on the Blackhawks.
The Flyers practice today at the Skate Zone, starting at 11:30 a.m. They will also have a practice day tomorrow. On Saturday, they will be in Toronto for a Hockey Night in Canada game against the Maple Leafs.
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CASINO ROYALE FUNDRAISER WITH FLYERS ALUMNI
On Sun. March 9, starting at 5 p.m., Abrams Hebrew Academy will hold its annual Fund Raising Dinner and Casino Royale Night at Congregation Beth El in Yardley, PA. Special guests for the night will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Bill Clement, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
Apart from the dinner and casino event, there will also be a host of items available via auction, including a signed stick by all three members of the Flyers' legendary LCB line (Reggie Leach and Hall of Famers Bob Clarke and Bill Barber), boxes of Bernie Parent's signature cigar line, a handsome Clarke lithograph and many more goodies.
All proceeds go to benefit the school. My nephew, Sammy Sherman, attends Abrams and my sister, Liza, helped to organize the event and line up the Flyers alumni guests. The slogan for the event is "Help Abrams Make Its Goal."
For more information,
click here.
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