Flyers 3, Flames 2: Process is back in big way

The Philadelphia Flyers played host to the Calgary Flames in a battle between two teams already desperately needing as many points as possible in their pursuit for the postseason. It was a game that ramped up to include some physical chaos and some pretty nifty goals.

The basics

First period: Scoreless Second period: 1:55 -- Huberdeau (Kadri, Pospisil), 4:15 -- Frost (Walker, Foerster), 9:13 -- Weegar (Coleman, Mangiapane), 16:06 -- Couturier (Frost, Zamula) Third period: 2:27 -- Konecny (Laughton, York)

SOG: 41 (PHI) – 28 (CGY)

Some takeaways

Morgan Frost tried to do so many things under pressure, and scored. No one came into this game under more pressure to show that he is belonging of his roster spot than Morgan Frost. Well, maybe fellow goalscorer Jonathan Huberdeau trying to make his contract worth it, but nevertheless. For Frost, this game needed to be something. Back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the game prior, the young Flyers center was visibly and noticeably trying to do so many things to get rewarded.

Through the first 20 minutes, Frost attempted three shots -- tied for second on the team during that period -- but had a miraculous 0.03 expected goals for his output, according to Natural Stat Trick. For reference, Nic Deslauriers made one attempt and it was worth 0.05 xG. He just did so much that didn\'t add up to much. Thankfully, for him and his future in Philadelphia, he came out of the first intermission and after Calgary scored the opening goal, ended up scoring the equalizer quickly after.

https://twitter.com/BroadStHockey/status/1743713538168774942?s=20

To just add to his successful game post-scratch, Frost added an assist on Sean Couturier\'s equalizing goal in the second period.

Throughout the entire game, Frost was just going around doing so many different things. The not-so-big center even led the Flyers in hits through 40 minutes. Hits! This guy, was hitting people. He was just doing absolutely anything and everything to stay in the lineup and impress Tortorella enough to do so.

A tale of two boardings As the game went on with a couple goals chipped in, the physicality knob began to turn itself up. First, A.J. Greer runs Travis Sanheim\'s head into the boards from behind during a race to the puck off a faceoff. It was quickly debated to be a major penalty, but was decided to be just a minor boarding penalty.

Then, after the Flames re-claimed the lead, as Cam York was trying to dump the puck into the zone and head off for a change, he was sent into the stanchion head-first after Elias Lindholm decided to finish his check.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1743718932530319722?s=20

It was just an unfortunate collision, in our opinion. York was trying to avoid Lindholm\'s hit, went down too low, and then got his face rammed into the hard plastic shell that laid before the bench. The call was an elbowing penalty, a minor roughing penalty, and a major fighting penalty after Joel Farabee jumped to York\'s defense and dropped his gloves. We loved the fight and Farabee sticking up for his teammates, but after the dust settled, it was decided that the Flyers winger would be ejected from the game with a game misconduct penalty, in addition to the fighting major. The result being, a two-minute 5-on-4 power play for the Flyers.

Philadelphia at this point, began to get more control of the game after a powerful man advantage and the Flames got lucky with cooling them off by disrupting their actual lineup.

Dam broke open with the power kill When the Flyers had a 33-18 advantage in shots on goal after two periods, it felt like a win was eventually coming. In some way, whatever way it eventually would happen, the Flyers would claim the two points because of just how well they are playing and how many chances they are getting.

The pressure was building. The Flames felt more hemmed in their zone with every shift and they were unable to breakout successfully without going through flying orange and black bodies, attempting to disrupt any pass. There was an ultimate hope that the Flyers would eventually be rewarded for their efforts before the hour of action was up. So many times, it has happened that if this team just had an extra five minutes to even the game up or score a winner, they would have.

Well, thankfully the one game state where the Flyers are just simply better than everyone else in the entire league happened, and Travis Konecny scored a shorthanded goal. The 10th of the season for the team and the Flyers now have the most goals scored on the penalty kill in the whole damn National.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1743730084740022582?s=20

Oh, and if Konecny can continue this success, he will just have one of the best shorthanded seasons from a forward in modern NHL history.

https://twitter.com/ryanquigz/status/1743731933773742582?s=20

Back in the process

For what seemed like forever -- maybe because it had the holiday break where we had to spend time with our families in the middle of it -- the Flyers have finally broken out of the slog of not earning many games. Sure, they have been able to scrape by with getting some points on the board here and there, but unlike how they started this season, the underlying process wasn\'t there for many of those games.

Thankfully, this matinee against a visiting Flames team also desperate for points to earn playoff positioning, was the first time in a while where the Flyers fully earned these two points. Philadelphia owned the ice in front of Jacob Markstrom and peppered their way to victory with both quantity and quality of scoring chances.

The Flames suer had some solid chances -- clearly, they scored some goals -- but at 5-on-5, even if the Flyers technically got outscored during this game state, they completely ran the ice. A smattering of chances throughout the zone but the Flames defense just let any offensively minded Flyer right to the face of Markstrom and chip away at it. This feels much better.

Next, they get to host the also-desperate Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night in what should be a fun game if the Flyers have suddenly re-found themselves and their effort.

Talking Points