The Flyers opened up their second round series against the Hurricanes on Saturday night, and while their last series against the Penguins may have ended with a bang, this one began with more of a fizzle.
Struggling to get their offense going under the weight of the Canes’ forecheck, the Flyers delivered a showing that, while spirited by the end, was ultimately somewhat anemic, and left them with plenty of areas in need of working on ahead of these teams’ next meeting on Monday night.
The Basics:
First period: 1:31- Logan Stankoven (Reilly, Blake), 7:30- Jackson Blake (Hall, Reilly)
Second period: 16:16- Logan Stankoven (Jarvis, Svechnikov)
Third period: No scoring
SOG: 19 (PHI) – 23 (CAR)
Takeaways
A sub-optimal start
The start to this game was ugly. There’s no other way to put it. The Flyers looked woefully unprepared to deal with the speed with which the Hurricanes would be attacking, and they got put back on their heels all but immediately in this one. The early goal against was one thing — a pass got up to the point while the Flyers were scrambling, and then the shot from the perimeter was deflected in front — a tough break, but their process across the whole of the frame was a bit of a mess. The Flyers got next to nothing going in the way of possession, and much the same in chances (just four in total), and for a while were being given fits just trying to get the puck out of their own end.
They were able to find their legs as the game went on, at least to some degree, but even knowing how good this Hurricanes team is, it felt staggering to watch just how throw off the Flyers looked by everything that they were throwing at them.
Pace a real problem
We’ve alluded to it already, but one of the biggest things the Flyers struggled with in this one was the overall pace of play. The Hurricanes were able to deliver heaps of speed right from the jump, and getting right to the in your face style that they’ve come to be known for, and for much of this game, the Flyers just did not have an answer.
And, for their part, the Flyers did get their legs going, that wasn’t the issue in and of itself, but the troubles were more in the fact that the Flyers just didn’t seem to be processing the game as quickly as they needed to in order to counteract the Hurricanes’ forecheck and operate smoothly under pressure. The decision making for a lot of this game was suspect — holding on to the puck too long only to get it taken off them, or making rushed passes into space instead of the tape of a teammate — as the Flyers struggled to get to basics and make a simple, no fuss play under pressure, instead of letting panic creep in.
None of this should have been a surprise, what the Hurricanes were able to deliver, but all the same, this was without a doubt a wakeup call to kick off the series.
Vladar struggles early, settles in
This game was, too, a bit of a lopsided one for Vladar. That first period was a less than perfect one for him, and even though the first goal was more a product of a breakdown in the defensive zone than an issue with his play, the second goal saw him making too aggressive of a play on the initial attempted shot, and left himself open to have the second attempt just slipped in behind him. It was something of an uncharacteristically major gaff from him, and it did prove costly.
Now, the good news here is that after those early struggles, Vladar was really able to lock in and come up with some massive saves through the final two periods to keep this game as close — relatively speaking — as it was. It was just one more goal allowed for him through the rest of the game, and it’s hard to pin that one on him, as it was Noah Juulsen’s big turnover in the defensive zone that made that play happen for the Hurricanes, not much Vladar could have done on that one.
This evening was a challenging one for him, and he did just about all that they could have hoped for from him.
Special teams a wash
After struggling in a big way through just about all of the last series, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see the Flyers continuing to fight it on the power play. And what they delivered tonight was, truly, pretty abysmal. The Flyers got their chances to make things happen, as they were able to draw four penalties on the Hurricanes, but the best they got out of that was a few flashes of sound puck moving on the perimeter and zero shots on goal. We can acknowledge the difficulty of making adjustments on the fly in the playoffs, but things are trending in the wrong direction on them, and that simply is not going to cut it.
On the flip side, it’s worth giving the Flyers a bit of a nod for managing to keep the Hurricanes contained on the man-advantage, taking advantage of what’s been a weakness for them in the playoffs so far and holding them off the board through four attempts. If they’re able to keep that rolling, that will be a big boost, but the more pressing issue remains finding a way to get that power play going.
Barkey, fourth line pop
There wasn’t too much that we could pull from this in the way of positives, but the Flyers, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least acknowledge, that the Flyers did have a few of their forwards who were able to deliver a bit of flash in this one. The Flyers were able to get some good chances created by their fourth line as they made the most of their limited minutes — Sean Couturier generated five of the Flyers’ 19 shots, while Garnet Hathaway added another — and Denver Barkey was able to create a couple of nice plays off of the strength of his motor and competitiveness to hold on to the puck and make something happen (or die trying).
There’s more that we can unpack from all of this — and will before too long — but we can leave this with an acknowledgment that there are others in this lineup who would do well to take some lessons from how this group was able to manage the game against the Hurricanes’ forecheck.
Frustration boils over
While the beginning of this game was all flash and all pace, by the back half of the third period, with the game well and truly, in effect, already put away for the Hurricanes, things devolved into a much chippier affair. After every whistle, it seemed, there was a gathering of players and some pushing and shoving, and the officials got to work in doing all that they could to keep the lid on this one. This meant that by the end, they were generous with handing out game misconducts to any of the bigger combatants just to keep the temperature down (for the Flyers, Trevor Zegras and Nick Seeler both got tossed).
We’re not sure that we’d call this physicality necessarily productive for the Flyers, but it will be interesting to see how or if this carries over into their next meeting on Monday.
