Faced with the decision of either mortgaging the future to add new talent or giving up on the postseason and entering full-on sell mode, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall chose to stand pat at Tuesday’s NHL trade deadline. On Tuesday night, his team did their best to justify their GM’s decision.
Brayden Schenn had his first hat trick of his NHL career, while Claude Giroux added four assists and Wayne Simmonds scored two goals of his own as the Flyers downed the Calgary Flames by a score of 5-3. Goalie Michal Neuvirth had 29 saves in the victory, while Flames netminder Jonas Hiller stopped 24 Philadelphia shots.
The game got off to a late start, due to the Flyers’ Hall of Fame ceremonies for franchise legend Jim Watson. But once the puck was dropped a little after 8:00 PM, the Flyers were ready, pinning Calgary deep in their own zone shift after shift with a punishing forecheck. However, the Flames were able to get on the board first, helped by a Michael Raffl hooking penalty during a rare poor shift for Philadelphia. On the ensuing power play, Calgary would execute a picture-perfect passing play, ending with Johnny Gaudreau setting up Sean Monahan in the slot to give the Flames the 1-0 lead.
Brayden Schenn came ever so close to beating Calgary goalie Jonas Hiller just four minutes after Monahan’s tally, ripping a short-angle shot into Hiller’s right arm. The officials went to video review to determine whether the puck had went in anyway, as Hiller’s arm appeared behind the goal line. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the review did not provide enough evidence to overturn the call on the ice. Undeterred, Schenn got himself another high-quality scoring chance in the slot area on his next shift, and this time he did not leave the decision up to the officials. Taking advantage of a slick play by Claude Giroux, Schenn slid the puck around Hiller to tie the game at 1-1.
But that was just the beginning of the onslaught, with Schenn again leading the charge. He did allow linemate Wayne Simmonds to briefly take the spotlight, breaking the tie with a one-timer courtesy of another fantastic Giroux pass. The power play goal gave Philadelphia a lead that they would never relinquish. The rest of the second period was the Schenn show, as the forward would score twice to complete his hat trick. First, he redirected an Andrew MacDonald slap pass with his foot to beat Hiller, and then crashed the crease and deposited a Mark Streit pass for his third of the night. The hats rained down as the Flyers went into the locker room comfortably in front by a score of 4-1.
Through the first nine minutes of the third period, Philadelphia appeared to have the game on lockdown, pushing forward in the neutral zone and limiting chances from the Flames. But a horrific 50 second span threatened to nullify the team’s strong play in the first fifty minutes. Micheal Ferland cut the lead to 4-2, and soon after, Michael Frolik slipped a weak goal through Neuvirth to make it a one-goal game. Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol called a timeout to try and stabilize his team, and after a few more shaky shifts, they did settle down. Strong play from the Bellemare and Couturier lines with only minutes left helped to prevent any late pressure, and Simmonds finally clinched the victory with an empty net goal.
Questions to Answer:
- Medvedev is probably back in the lineup. How’s his first game in a week or so go? He was whistled for a penalty in the second period, but aside from that hiccup, Medvedev was the Flyers’ most dangerous offensive defenseman all game long.
- Andrew MacDonald has, by a fairly significant margin, led the Flyers in ice time over each of their last two games. Does that trend continue tonight? MacDonald was probably the worst Flyer on the ice last night, with only a heads-up slap pass to set up Schenn’s second goal redeeming his play. He received second pair minutes at even strength.
- Four straight starts for Michal Neuvirth. Four! Any signs of him slowing down? Neuvirth made a number of difficult stops in the second period as the Flyers built a 4-1 advantage, but he needed to stop Frolik’s third period goal. It made the contest needlessly close.
- The Flyers’ depth forwards in the top-9 (i.e. Gagner, Laughton, Cousins) have been stepping it up big time in recent weeks. Anyone in particular among that group stand out tonight? The top three lines were rolling in the first two periods, but the scoring stars (Giroux, Simmonds, Schenn) were the best players on the ice, not the depth guys.
- How many references do we get on the CSN Philly broadcast to Johnny Gaudreau (he’s from South Jersey did you know that???) being from South Jersey? I’d assume there were quite a number of references. Gaudreau looked unsurprisingly great all game long.
Comment of the Night:
REDEMPSCHENN
FTFY
— Bosco 5
