The experts said this would be a rebuilding year for the Philadelphia Flyers. They said that the defense was too weak, the goaltending too unproven, the forward corps too thin.
The players on the roster desperately want to prove those experts wrong.
Facing the second-best team by record in the Eastern Conference and arguably the best at even strength, the Philadelphia absolutely dominated through sixty minutes of play, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 4-2. They outshot the Lightning 40-18, aided by a second period complete with 22 Philadelphia shots on net. Shayne Gostisbehere scored two goals to break the Flyers’ team-record for goals by a rookie defenseman, while Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds added tallies of their own. Steve Mason made 16 saves to earn the victory.
Early on, neither team looked particularly sharp. It was a sloppy and penalty-filled first period, as neither team seemed able to execute consistently on even the most simple passes. The Flyers were unable to take advantage of over four minutes with the man advantage, as the high-powered first unit struggled to even enter the offensive zone. After one such fruitless power play, the Lightning immediately blasted back up ice and made Philadelphia pay. A Slater Koekkoek shot riccocheted off Radko Gudas in front and bounced right to Ondrej Palat, who was given more than enough time in the slot to pick his spot and beat Mason to put the Lightning in front.
To the Flyers’ credit, the final 16 minutes of the period were mostly spent in the Tampa Bay end following Palat’s tally. But Andrei Vasilevskiy kept Philadelphia from tying the score, with his biggest save coming on a golden 2-on-0 opportunity. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare intercepted a Tampa breakout and initated a give-and-go with Wayne Simmonds. The Lightning goaltender was up to the task, however, sliding over to rob Bellemare and preserve his team’s one-goal advantage.
But not even Philadelphia’s late first period surge could have prepared fans for what was to come — nothing less than the best single period that the Flyers have played all season. They blasted 21 shots on goal at Vasilevskiy, and only a Herculean effort from the Russian goalie prevented this from turning into a blowout. Philadelphia were particularly devastating on the forecheck, pinning the Lightning in their own zone and firing away like a prizefighter unloading on a staggered foe unwilling to fall to the canvas. It was rookie sensation Shayne Gostisbehere that finally delivered the knockdown, pinching low to recover a loose puck and snapping it past a sprawling Vasilevskiy.
That finally tied the game, and Philadelphia nearly took a well-deserved lead after Bellemare ripped a slapshot right off the crossbar just minutes later. Still, the Flyers were able to enter the locker room in possession of some unreal even strength statistics. They took an incredible 40 shot attempts at even strength in the period, and allowed the Lightning to generate just 12. They finished with 24 scoring chances — a solid total for a full game, not just a period. With twenty minutes left, the Flyers knew that if they could just deliver a reasonable facsimile of their second period play the rest of the way, they would almost certainly walk away with a much-needed two points.
Tampa unsurprisingly came out with renewed life at the start of the period, and Mason needed to be sharp early in order to keep the game tied. But around the four-minute mark, Philadelphia began to turn the tide yet again. Due to a fantastic shift by the Giroux line, the Flyers earned themselves another power play, and this time, they would not let it go to waste. The captain found Gostisbehere with a beautiful cross-ice pass and the rookie did the rest, one-timing a slapper past Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the game. But the Flyers weren’t done. They kept the pressure up, and after Brayden Schenn and Vladislav Namestnikov traded tallies, Wayne Simmonds finally clinched the victory for Philadelphia with an empty-netter.
Questions to Answer:
- Is there an acknowledgement for Braydon Coburn, even though he’s not expected to play due to injury? No acknowledgement to Coburn, who remains one of the most underappreciated defensemen in recent Flyers history. Maybe he’ll get one when he actually plays in a game at the Wells Fargo Center.
- And how does former Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas, coming off of maybe the best/most eventful game of his career, follow that performance up? Gudas looked fantastic. He had a few highlight-reel hits, but was most impressive with the puck. He showed off some slick breakout moves, and even extended one Flyers offensive zone cycle by kicking the puck back into the corner after losing his stick.
- Steven Stamkos has seven goals and ten points in his last nine games. How does the Couturier line fare against him? The Couturier line mostly was matched up with the Triplets. The Giroux line got Stamkos, and took him and his linemates to the cleaners to the tune of a 73.68% Corsi For percentage.
- Can the power play break through after two frustrating games last week? It didn’t look good after a they struggled mightily in the first period, especially when trying to gain the zone. Then, the Ghost Bear struck in the third, and all was forgiven.
- Tampa’s won nine games in a row, but the Flyers have actually done a better job than the Lightning in recent weeks in terms of possession. Win or lose, can the Flyers skate with one of the East’s best teams tonight? It wasn’t even a contest. Without the heroics of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Philadelphia may have won this game by six goals. Considering the level of competition, it was the Flyers’ best game of the year.
Comment of the Night:
The only way to beat this goalie is to be an invisible Ghost
— Otto29
