FLYERS FOLLOW WINNING PROCESS TO FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN
When a team is playing the way that the Philadelphia Flyers have of late, no opponent or challenge seems too daunting to overcome. Yesterday afternoon, the Flyers downed the visiting St. Louis Blues by a 4-1 count to capture their fifth straight win.
Philadelphia continued its run of victories against elite-caliber opposition -- sweeping a home-and-home set with the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins, downing the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime and (after an uninspiring win over Dallas) overcoming St. Louis.
For the second straight game, Steve Mason (32 saves) was stellar in net when they needed him to be. In the last two games, he has outplayed a pair of former Vezina Trophy winners in Dallas' Tim Thomas and the Blues' Ryan Miller (15 saves).
After yielding an early first period shorthanded goal that was extremely difficult to stop, Mason made several mind-boggling saves and stopped everything else fired his way. Mason was also fearless in handling the puck and getting to teammates to clear the defensive zone. Although he got charged with a pair of giveaways -- which is the risk of being active in puckhandling -- neither were costly. Overall, he did his team a lot of good in terms of helping push the puck the other way.
The Flyers got goals yesterday from Scott Hartnell (power play), Brayden Schenn, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds (empty net). They went 1-for-5 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill. Jaden Schwartz's shorthanded tally in the opening period stood as the Blues' only goal.
Heading into yesterday's game, Flyers coach Craig Berube and several players talked about the need for patience and persistence in trying to generate an attack against the defensively stingy Blues. Sometimes that is easier said than done, especially when the flow of a game is interrupted by as many whistles as yesterday's match. The Flyers generated just 19 shots for the game, but they made them count.
After the game, I asked Simmonds about the way the team stuck to the game plan through all the penalty calls and the early deficit. That is something that probably would not have been accomplished early in the season. Down the stretch drive, they are doing a good job at creating or, when necessary, resetting momentum.
Simmonds agreed.
“I think that’s the biggest thing," he said. "Sometimes you can get antsy, and you can go off plan. I think that’s something we’ve done really well, also, We’ve been sticking to our game plan whether we’re up by two or down by two. We don’t change a thing. We just keep doing the exact same things, and I think that’s part of our success.”
Coaches often talk about winning as a process. The instant gratification may not always be there but when the game is kept fairly simple with a high level of focus and intensity, the end result will more often than not be a positive one. There is really no secret to the way the Flyers have been winning of late:
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They have been keeping their feet moving. The Flyers do not look like a "slow team" when they pay attention to their skating.
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On a related note, the Flyers have been much better their D-to-F gap control. There is usually support nearby, and the Flyers are outnumbering opponents around the puck.
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The puck pursuit in general has been tenacious. Players making second and third efforts and not giving up on winning the disc. The forechecking has been much better, and the team is spending less time in the defensive zone. That keeps the defensemen fresher. Even when other teams do break out, it is often at the end of a long shift; so all they can do is dump the puck into the Philly zone and go off for a line change rather than attack.
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Players are now taking pride in two-way play. Forwards are backchecking, defensemen are pinching intelligently. On a teamwide level, Claude Giroux has been a key tone-setter in two-way play in recent weeks. Others are following suit.
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The Flyers are playing a physical brand of hockey. They are also willingly paying the price physically to make plays with the puck and to block shots. It's contagious.
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The team is getting strong goaltending. The entire team has a lot of confidence in both of its netminders but especially in Mason. Confidence in the goaltending helps teams stay on plan and feeds into good two-way play. Even when there has been a rare soft goal or a breakdown in defense here and there, the quick bouncebacks are a product of confidence in the goaltending.
This is an intangible that really can't be measured through a statistical prism but you know it when you see it on the ice. Any player, coach or scout would concur. With the current goalies, the Flyers' level of confidence is palpable. That was not always the case before, and that was also palpable. Nothing needs to said publicly -- and teams always say they believe in their goalies -- but you can see for yourself if they really do. With Mason and Ray Emery, the expressions of confidence are not just lip service. They believe.
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As exhibited yesterday, the Flyers have shown greatly improved discipline with the puck on their sticks. They are showing patience rather than forcing low-percentage plays. Of course, there are occasional slip-ups -- it's a human game that moves at a breakneck pace and involves a lot of emotional swings -- but the improved puck discipline is something that's worth noticing. That, too, is a product of confidence. The Flyers are in a groove where they know they'll get their chances eventually.
In yesterday's game, the Blues outplayed the Flyers in the opening period but the game was kept under control. Thereafter, Philly elevated its game and executed the aforementioned process better than the Blues did, despite the game's final shot attempt disparity (71 attempts for St. Louis to 55 for the Flyers).
One downside yesterday was that the Flyers took too many penalties in the game. While referees Francois St. Laurent (who called most of the penalties) and Jean Hebert where perhaps a little too hyper-vigilant with all the whistles, many of the calls were legitimate ones. Three on the Flyers and two on St. Louis were a bit weak.
Of the four minor penalties whistled on Giroux in this game, I thought two were legitimate and two should not have been made.
What happened on the first-period sequence in which Giroux was whistled for separate holding and hooking minors on the same rush was that Hebert made one call and St. Laurent made the other. Ordinarily, when one referee already has his hand in the air for a delayed minor penalty, a second restraint-foul penalty on the same player will get let go. I have seen two restraining foul calls made on one player before, but the second one is usually something very blatant. I thought the hooking call after the hold was a marginal one.
The one call on Giroux that I really did not like was the hooking call made at the expiration of the second period. This was just normal jostling on a faceoff. There was no scoring chance involved, and time was about to expire on the clock -- the arm went up with less than a second remaining in the period. That's a call that just should not be made; and I'd say the same if it were called on an opposing team.
To their credit, the Flyers actually turned all the penalty kills yesterday against a dangerous Blues' power play to their own benefit. St. Louis got a bit disheartened by their half-dozen unsuccessful power plays, and the subsequent shifts usually saw the Flyers get the better of the play.
All game long, the Flyers were aware of how quickly the Blues can turn defense into offense. That ability was made evident on how, in the blink of an eye, Andrew MacDonald's forced turnover on the offensive side boards got turned into a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush and a goal for Schwartz. Plays like these are who the Blues are among the top favorites this season to contend for the Stanley Cup.
It can be very tough to establish a forecheck against the Blues, and St. Louis does not typically turn over many pucks. As such, the way the Flyers got their own forecheck going as the game progressed and the Blues started to turn over pucks in dangerous areas was a very impressive accomplishment.
Even early in the game, when the Flyers had very little forecheck going, Simmonds was having some success. He kept it up relentlessly from buzzer to buzzer and it eventually paid off -- that is why I would have chosen him as first star yesterday if it were my pick to make. Both Hartnell (second star) and Voracek (third star) were worthy of their selections but I thought Simmonds, shift in and shift out without taking any penalties yesterday, was an even bigger pace-setter in this game.
The play that was perhaps the biggest turning point in the game was one in which Simmonds was at his absolute best. He hustled to get his stick on a puck just over the offensive blueline as St. Louis attempted to rush the other way.
Collecting the puck, the Flyers now had a quick 2-on-1 counter-rush as Simmonds and Brayden Schenn worked a give-and-go. Simmonds shot the puck at Miller, deliberately looking for a rebound. He got it, and Schenn potted the rebound to forge a 2-1 lead the team would not relinquish.
Video from NHL.com
Don't get me wrong: Hartnell and Voracek were also excellent in yesterday's game. Even apart from scoring their respective 19th goals of the season, they were creating havoc in the St. Louis end of the ice. I just thought Simmonds did it the entire game, whereas it took the Flyers top line trio a little longer to truly bring its A game (at least when one, two or all three members weren't sitting in the penalty box).
Hartnell's goal was scored as a result of Voracek showing some good patience on the power play and successfully working the puck to Hartnell inside the penalty killing box. Hartnell deserves credit for the finish, too. He knew where he wanted to go with the puck and got rid of the shot very quickly before the penalty killers or Miller could adjust.
Voracek has been racking up the assists of late. However, despite many near-miss scoring chances of his own, he had gone six games without a goal. Yesterday, he came close a couple more times and then finally buried a much-needed insurance goal in the final five minutes of play.
Speaking of racking up assists, Giroux had two more helpers yesterday to hit the 50-assist milestone for the season. After getting the secondary assist on Hartnell's goal, he made a perfect feed to Voracek on the goal that gave the Flyers a commanding 3-1 lead. Giroux had actually been hauled down on the rush -- one of the few times the referees did not make a call when a player on either side went down -- but stuck with it and the non-call actually worked out to the Flyers' advantage in the end.
Hartnell won a board battle to get the puck to Giroux. The captain and Voracek took care of the rest.
Video from NHL.com
Facing a two-goal deficit, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Miller on an offensive zone faceoff with about three minutes left. On the ensuing 6-on-5, Simmonds punctuated the win with an empty net goal at 17:06. Vincent Lecavalier and Brayden Schenn got the assists.
Next up for the Flyers is yet another extremely tough test. The Los Angeles Kings, who sport the NHL's lowest goals against average, will come to town eager to avenge a 2-0 shutout loss to the Flyers shortly before the Olympic break.
The Flyers already know the process they'll have to follow to continue their run of success against top teams. Now they have to go out and continue to replicate that process.
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SUNDAY QUICK HITS
* Early in the first period of yesterday's game, Flyers' third-line left winger Steve Downie went down in a heap after being in the receiving end of a check to the head by St. Louis forward Patrik Berglund. The contact to the head did not look intentional, but the end result was scary. Downie was down on the ice for a long time and was very woozy as he went up the tunnel.
The announcement came very quickly that Downie would not return to the game. Afterward, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said the player had an upper-body injury and would be re-evaluated on Sunday.
Downie, who has struggled since December, has already sustained two concussions this season.
* Yesterday's game was a very physical one in general, with the two teams combining for 61 hits (31 by the Flyers, led by seven from Zac Rinaldo in 6:53 of ice over 12 shifts). Many of the hits were board rattlers. Among others, Luke Schenn (six hits) and Nicklas Grossmann (five hits) doled out some serious punishment in the corners and behind the nets.
* The two teams combined for 45 blocked shots (21 by the Flyers, led by five from Andrew MacDonald and four from Michael Raffl). Several players on both sides -- including Raffl and Grossmann for Philadelphia and T.J. Oshie for St. Louis -- came up hobbling on especially painful-looking plays. Lots of ice packs after the game.
* After the game, the Flyers announced that they signed Michael Raffl to a two-year contract extension. The deal carries a $1.1 million cap hit. He can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2016.
* In watching Steve Mason closely from training camp onward, I have been extremely impressed by his work ethic in practice. I have noticed that when he practices well, he tends to play well in games.
Some goalies are not real tuned in for practice but have a way of turning it on when the game starts (for example, Pelle Lindbergh was a notoriously poor practice goalie until near the end of his life). In Mason's case, the goalie's best games often follow along with putting in high-quality practices.
Now, with the game schedule so busy, Mason and goaltending coach Jeff Reese have had to keep sessions short. The team does not want to tire him out before the playoffs. However, the recent practices in particular have been high-quality ones where Mason has really been locked in and paying attention to every detail of his form.
Honestly, I think part of the reason why Mason has been so dominant on home ice this season (.920 save percentage in 31 games) has been the greater availability of practice time. The other part, of course, is team play. For the most part, I think Mason has played well on the road, too, but I think he's been outstanding at home for the bulk of the year.
* In an upcoming blog, I will discuss the contract scenarios for MacDonald (an impending unrestricted free agent) and Brayden Schenn (an impending restricted free agent). Both contracts are potentially a bit tricky, although I think the Flyers will get both players signed when all is said and done.
* During the first intermission yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking to longtime NHL referee Kerry Fraser. He has always been one of the game's good people and, in my opinion, deserves to be the next NHL official selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame. It probably won't happen, but it is a deserved honor. To his credit, Fraser takes it all in stride and doesn't get caught up in fray of all the petty politics that go on behind the scenes.
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