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Flyers vs. Blackhawks recap: Philly can’t come all the way back

Posted on by Brent Gold

The Flyers ended their season-opening roadtrip with a stop in Chicago, losing a 7-4 decision despite coming back from a four-goal deficit at the beginning of the third.

The Hawks came into the game looking to shake somewhat of a slow start, having dropped two of their first three games on the young season. The penalty kill for Chicago had not been good, with only 46% of all penalties being successfully killed.  Corey Crawford got the start, looking for his first win of the season. The Flyers juggled the lineup in the bottom six with Brayden Schenn still suspended for one more game, and decided to put Roman Lyubimov on the fourth line for his NHL debut.  Michal Neuvirth, who won his only start in the season opener against the Kings Friday night, got the start.  It’s still too early to declare him the starter, but for the time being at least, it would appear that would be the case.

It wouldn’t take long to fall behind.  After a long entry pass by the tastefully named Brent Seabrook, Patrick Kane was able to beat Mark Streit to the far post on a wrap-around after Neuvirth made the initial save just 56 seconds into the game.  Most of the rest of the first period was a defensive struggle, with the Hawks killing a delibrate, perhaps too deliberate, Flyer power play, and relatively few quality chances for either side.  But, with 2:34 left in the first, the dreaded ice monster claimed Ivan Provorov, who fell trying to play the puck, leading directly to a Dennis Rasmussen breakaway which he converted to give Chicago a 2-0 lead.  Chicago would get a power play with two minutes left in the first, and a sweet no-look pass from Seabrook gave noted old person Artemi Panarin a gaping net behind Neuvirth and he didn’t miss.  That made it 3-0 Hawks at the end of one.

The Hawks dominated early in the second period, and were rewarded with a power play goal from Marion Hossa.  The goal came near the end of a Boyd Gordon penalty, and was one that Neuvirth probably should have been able to flag down, but it counted nonetheless and was Hossa’s 500th career goal.  This made it 4-0, and Steve Mason was summoned to relieve Neuvirth.

It wasn’t all bad in the second, as Matt Read made talk of a shutout full of bologna wiht a power play goal late in the second. Jakub Voracek shot past Crawford on the power play with 1:37 left in the second.  Voracek’s shot from the high slot missed wide left, but the rebound off the end board went right to Read who slid it past a out of position Crawford for Philly’s first goal of the game.  Crawford was able to stop a few more Flyer chances for a 4-1 Hawks lead after two.

The third period got off to a better start.  Wayne Simmonds clanked one off the right goalpost within the first few seconds of the period, but very shortly after that Claude Giroux worked his magic.  After taking the puck deep in Blackhawk territory, he found Matt Read who was steaked to the right goalpost and got it by Crawford for his second goal of the night 37 seconds into the third.

After that goal, the Flyers kept pressing and before too long, Nick Schultz (yes.  Nick Schultz.) took a pass from Travis Konecny and made a beautiful pass to Sean Couturier right in front of the Blackhawk net and Coots didn’t miss.

This occurred only 77 seconds after the second Read goal, and it was suddenly a one goal game with almost an entire period left.  They pulled it out of the fire, and it felt like all they needed was one more opportunity to bring it all the way back…

They would get that opportunity shortly afterward as Michal Kempny hi-sticked Voracek, and Simmonds did what Simmonds does on the power play and stuffed a second-effort goal passed Crawford at the 3:49 mark of the third.  With that, they had come all the way back, erasing a four goal deficit in just over five minutes.

But, this is hockey.  Sometimes bad things happen even after you’ve come back from four goals down, and on a broken play, the Hawks got a two-on-one deep in the Flyers zone and with 9:36 left in the third, Artem Anisimov scored to make it 5-4 Hawks.  The Flyers couldn’t convert a power play later in the period, and an errant Provorov pass in the offensive zone sent Kane and Panarin on a two-on-one and Panarin wired it past a helpless Mason to stretch the Hawks lead back to 6-4 with just under four minutes to go.  Anisimov would add an empty netter to make the final score 7-4.

Other quick observations:

  • The penalty kill remains aggressive, which should lead to positive results going forward.
  • On the injury front, Michael Raffl appears to have sustained an injury and left the ice in the second.  He didn’t return to the game, although nothing was apparent looking at his last shift.  During the second intermission, Hextall announced Raffl has an upper body injury and would not be returning to the game.
  • While this loss sucks, it comes with the territory whenever you have key pieces of the team that are this young.  It’s important to realize that the Hawks are still a very good team, and even the ‘77 Habs had games where things just didn’t go their way.  Just as fans may have gotten a little too high following the Kings games, it’s important to realize they aren’t as bad as they showed tonight either.  They fact they came back from four down like they did is a very good sign, but in time they will need to find ways to covert these efforts into wins.
  • Chelsea dagger is annoying./

The Flyers kick off their home slate with a Thursday game against Anaheim at 7 PM.

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