Uncharacteristically, across the greater Miami area and South-Eastern Florida, meteorologists urged residents to prepare themselves for a frost warning yesterday night.
Though the Flyers ultimately lost 5-2, Morgan Frost, contrary to his surname, was the one warm light in an otherwise brutal affair. Early on, Frost immediately made his presence felt playing in the middle of Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny, having a low shot test Sergei Bobrovsky within the first minute of the game. Frost often involved himself physically and wasn’t afraid to step into battles along the corner boards.
His shining moment, however, came in the second period when Frost cut towards the net from the left side below the circles, twisting around the Panthers’ skaters before roofing a backhand effort past Bobrovsky. Frost’s effort was the first goal scored in a Flyers NHL debut since Jason Akeson did it back in 2013, and it was some goal indeed:
Morgan Frost’s first goal in the NHL is a beauty! pic.twitter.com/YIBGn71gsp
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 20, 2019
In terms of a statistical profile of his debut, Frost garners a very solid pass. He managed to drive possession for the Flyers when they had the puck. His Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 (in 10:45 minutes of ice-time) was 58.62%, good for second best on the team behind fellow first year player Joel Farabee.
The numbers also show that Frost had the highest relative expected goals-for percentage at 42.16%, better than both Konecny and Giroux. Frost’s relative high danger Corsi-for was tied with Konecny and Giroux at 44.23%. That’s…pretty good very good.
By looking at Frost’s individual event map, we can see just how involved and effective he was (at 5-on-5):
Frost generated five shots overall at 5-on-5, three on target, one of which resulted in a goal, and two missed. Two of those five shots came from within the slot and right in front of the net, whereas most of the missed shots came from a bit further out. Don’t take this as criticism of Frost. The fact he was able to generate chances at this level at all in his debut is indicative of how highly skilled Frost is. He also registered a hit behind the Panthers’ net, though he was decidedly more physical than the one hit shows.
Overall, Frost didn’t just have a solid first game…he had an excellent first game. This was a welcome sight to see on a night which did not feature many positives for the Philadelphia Flyers Ice Hockey Club. I’m keen to see how Frost builds on a very positive first performance, and whether or not Alain Vigneault keeps him with Konecny and Giroux.
