108 – the number of shots on goal that Brian Elliott faced during his three games in Western Canada this week, all three of which were, of course, wins.
Between Michal Neuvirth just outright not being good enough and then getting injured, Elliott — who many expected to share the load with Neuvirth throughout this season — has effectively become this team’s starter. And with a somewhat unreliable backup currently behind him in AHLer Alex Lyon, Elliott was unsurprisingly asked to handle both ends of a back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday, after already bailing the team out of its losing streak on Monday.
Three games in four days is a big ask for any goalie. And the Flyers didn’t make things easy on Elliott here, as he faced a lot of rubber. Flyers opponents during this trip tallied 108 shots on Elliott, who kept all but five of them out of the back of his net.
In this decade, only four other times has a goalie on the Flyers been asked to play three games in four days and then faced more than 100 shots on goal. Two of those occurrences were by Steve Mason in the same week back in March 2016 (Mason played four games in six days, and one of those games was an overtime loss in Columbus wherein he faced 53 shots), while the other two were from Ilya Bryzgalov in his only 82-game season with the Flyers.
Elliott, though, is the first one in that group to actually win all three of those games.
Flyers Goalies Starting 3 Games In 4 Days And Facing 100+ Shots On Goal, This Decade
| Goalie | Dates | Shots Faced | Goals Allowed | Save Percentage | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Mason | Mar. 19-22, 2017 | 111 | 6 | 94.6% | 1-1-1 |
| Steve Mason | Mar. 21-24, 2017 | 111 | 5 | 95.5% | 2-0-1 |
| Ilya Bryzgalov | Jan. 5-8, 2012 | 108 | 11 | 89.8% | 2-0-1 |
| Brian Elliott | Dec. 4-7, 2017 | 108 | 5 | 95.4% | 3-0-0 |
| Ilya Bryzgalov | Mar. 15-18, 2012 | 104 | 6 | 94.2% | 2-0-1 |
(Here’s your standard disclaimer that goalie wins, as a whole, are a bad way to evaluate goalies, since they don’t take into account so many different team-level factors that are similarly important in determining who actually wins a hockey game. With that said, if a goalie is facing over 100 shots in just three games, you can be pretty confident that he’s playing a crucial role in dragging his team to any wins that come about, as Brian Elliott clearly was this week.)
With Neuvirth out for likely another week or so, Elliott will probably be leaned on even more in the next few games. Hopefully the Flyers can find a way to make his life a bit easier. Enjoy these few days off, Moose, you earned ‘em.
All data in the above table courtesy of hockey-reference.com’s Play Index.
