A road trip through Canada that could’ve gone better

Well folks, that swing through Canada was the worst. After a tough shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the Philadelphia Flyers essentially didn’t show up against the Calgary Flames and couldn’t solve Mikko Koskinen the next night in the first truly devastating Flyers’ defeat of the 2019-20 campaign. In terms of process fans of the Orange and Black should have had some confidence in how the team looked during the first and third losses of this current four-game slide. However it’s difficult to be happy about how they looked while they added another shootout loss and just-couldn’t-finish game to the long list of similar losses we’ve seen so often over the last few seasons.

As for the play on the ice this article/podcast will try to breakdown how each line and pair got their advanced stats for each game, as well as mentioning a lot of little plays that had a big impact on the game and that are often overlooked. Unfortunately for this version of the Line By Line I spent too much time ironing out how I wanted to display all the information I gathered and ultimately am not getting all the facts I want into this post. That being said, I think I have a system figured out and hopefully should have Line By Line for the games against Dallas and Vegas up by Thursday at the latest.

For this post I shared the underlying numbers for each line and pair throughout the trio of losses as well as the numbers Philly posted with lines and pairs on the fly. For Thursday I plan on including all the shots, misses, and icings each line and pair were on the ice for in each game. I also plan on including more actual writing in the post once I get a better hang on what should be talked about and what should be written (there’s a lot of words in this one, but it’s mainly numbers). Anyways, let’s get started.

Lines against Vancouver

• The line of Oskar Lindblom-Sean Couturier-Travis Konecny over the last 32:46 of regulation, as they registered eight of the final 10 unblocked shot attempts at 5-on-5 they were on the ice for including a pair of Canucks’ misses in the third period.
• Claude Giroux-Kevin Hayes-James van Riemsdyk couldn’t say the same, as Vancouver had four of the final five unblocked shot attempts while these three were on the ice at the same time. Giroux’s shot on goal with a little over two minutes left in regulation was the only attempt of the five from the home plate area, as the Canucks posted two perimeter shots on goal and two misses.
• Four of Giroux-Hayes-Jakub Voracek’s unblocked shot attempts at 5-on-5 came in a 6:15 window in the first 10 minutes of the second stanza. Hayes provided a pair of shots on goal in the home plate area, while Giroux registered one and Braun missed the net.
• Carsen Twarynski’s shot on goal with 9:44 left in the first period was the only unblocked shot attempt from the home plate area the trio of JVR-Scott Laughton-Twarynski saw in the loss.
• Michael Raffl-Connor Bunnaman-Tyler Pitlick allowed three unblocked shot attempts against in a span of 34 seconds before the 10-minute mark of the first. Hughes missed the net with 10:46 left in the first period before Leivo missed in the home plate area 27 seconds later and Hughes put one on net in the HPA seven seconds after that./

Pairs against Vancouver

• Five of the first unblocked shot attempts the tandem of Ivan Provorov-Justin Braun were on the ice for came inside the home plate area with three belonging to Vancouver, the last of which was a Jay Beagle shot on goal with 12:47 left in the second period. From that point to the end of regulation Provorov-Braun posted a 7-4 shot advantage with the only shot coming from the HPA while the two were on the ice being Konecny’s shot on goal with 4:50 left.
• Despite being on the ice for 19 shot attempts at 5-on-5, Travis Sanheim-Matt Niskanen only saw three unblocked shot attempts from the home plate area. Following a Tyler Myers’ shot on goal 42 seconds into the middle frame, Sanheim-Niskanen were on the ice for a pair of home plate-area shots on goal from Hayes and Giroux on the same shift about eight minutes later.
• After limiting the Canucks to just a Bo Horvat miss with 2:22 left in the opening frame, Shayne Gostisbehere-Robet Hagg allowed a pair of shots on goal in the home plate area from Brandon Sutter in a three-second span with about 3:30 left in regulation./

Lines against Calgary

• Of the eight unblocked shot attempts the line of Giroux-Hayes-JVR saw in Tuesday’s loss the only two in the home plate area were shots on goal from JVR in back-to-back seconds early in the second period.
• Not the best night for Lindblom-Couturier-Konecny who opened the night allowing Michael Frolik’s goal against before they allowed three shots on goal and a home plate-area miss in a span of 3:41 late in the middle period.
• The only two Flyers’ unblocked shot attempts Pitlick-Laughton-Voracek were on the ice for came off the sticks of defensemen, as Gostisbehere had a shot on goal about two minutes in and Niskanen had one with a little over nine minutes left in the second period.
• Hayes had the only two shots on goal from the home plate area for either team while Lindblom-Hayes-JVR were out there.  /

Pairs against Calgary

• Sanheim-Niskanen struggled mightily as they closed out the second period by allowing six unblocked shot attempts with zero for in a span of 5:04.
• A pair of home plate-area unblocked shots in the final shift of the second period helped to boost Provorov-Braun’s numbers a bit.
• Gostisbehere-Hagg were outshot 4-0 in the second period over a 12:17 span.
• The lone shot on goal against from the home plate area for Hagg-Niskanen was Frolik miss 3:12 into the third period.
• Provorov provided the only two unblocked shot attempts for Philly while he and Sanheim were together/

Lines against Edmonton

• Until they were on the ice for McDavid’s goal in the second, Giroux-Couturier-Konecny held a 7-1 unblocked shots-for advantage with four of those chances coming in the home plate area.
• All seven of the total unblocked shot attempts the trio of Lindblom-Hayes-JVR saw at 5-on-5 came from the home plate area.
• The Oilers had the final five unblocked sho attempts over the last two periods while Twarynski-Bunnaman-Pitlick were on the ice with three coming in the HPA.
• Three of Raffl-Laughton-JVR’s four home plate-area chances were shots on goal from JVR./

Pairs against Edmonton

• Provorov-Braun’s unblocked shot attempt totals went 4-1 in the first period, 1-4 in the second period, and 3-0 in the third period.
• Sanheim-Niskanen started the game with three unblocked shot attempts against in a span of 18 seconds (including Leon Draisaitl’s goal), but they closed the game on a 7-1 run over the final 21:42./

Play on the fly

Like I said above, I’m going to try and expand on the action that takes place while the lines and pairs are mixed up midplay, but for now this is how the Flyers did when the expected units weren’t working together.