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Takeaways: Flyers rebound and take full control, dominate Sharks 4-1

In the middle of a very busy schedule, the Flyers took full control of this one from the start and never looked back. Travis Konecny picked up the 500th point of his career, and Dan Vladar stood strong once more.

Posted on by Brad Keffer
Heather Cattai / Heather Barry Images

Entering the game with an 8-1-2 record in games following a loss, the Flyers looked to continue a positive trend. While the Sharks opened the scoring, it never felt like the game was out of the Flyers’ control. On Matvei Michkov’s birthday — and Ty Murchison’s NHL debut — the Flyers were able to improve that record to 9-1-2 and skate away with a 4-1 victory over the Sharks.

The basics

First period: 11:33 – Collin Graf (John Klingberg, Will Smith), 18:39 – Christian Dvorak (Trevor Zegras, Travis Konecny)
Second period: 3:20 – Carl Grundstrom (Nick Seeler, Travis Sanheim), 19:48 – Noah Cates (Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale)
Third period: 18:16 – Travis Konecny (Christian Dvorak) (EN)
SOG: 18 (SJS) – 30 (PHI)

Strong first period

We’ve grown accustomed to the Flyers starting slow, but that was not the case in this one. The Sharks may have scored first, but the Flyers were by far the better team in the opening period. It took San Jose over eleven minutes to get their first shot on goal, and the period concluded with the Flyers out-shooting the Sharks 16-3. It was nice to see the Flyers flip this trend and get the better of their opponent from the jump.

The Sharks did score on their first shot of the game, and it was pretty ugly from the Flyers’ perspective. Four Flyers were caught puck watching, with their attentions drawn towards Will Smith. Sanheim and Dvorak both chase up towards the point where Zegras has covered while Konecny watches the puck instead of his man in Klingberg, who sneaks down from the point. This leads to the Sharks basically having a 3-on-1 down low against Seeler, which unsurprisingly turns into a highly dangerous chance and goal.

A bit later, on the first Flyers’ power play of the night, Zegras got robbed right along the post after getting a favorable rebound off of the boards. However, shortly after, Dvorak broke free and after a favorable bounce off of Zegras, was able to put home his breakaway opportunity. This was also Konecny’s 500th point.

After pretty much completely dominating the period, it would’ve been really deflating if the Flyers had finished the period down a goal. It was also great for Dvorak and his line to get one back after their defensive breakdown on the Sharks’ goal.

The fourth line scored a goal!?

It finally happened. For the first time this season, the fourth line scored a goal! Individuals who were skating on the fourth line have scored this season, but this was the first time that the fourth line as a unit actually put one up on the board. And it wasn’t a regular! In just his second game with the Flyers, it was Carl Grundstrom deflecting a point shot past Alex Nedelkjovic to put the Flyers up by one.

Grundstrom gives the fourth line a little something different than the usual suspects of Nic Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Garnet Hathaway, and perhaps this goal will get him a bit of an extended look. Rick Tocchet has strongly defended his use of the fourth line, and maybe Grundstrom can have more of a positive impact for him in that role. The fourth line, Hathaway in particular, has really struggled this season, but this could be a turning point for them. He still remains pointless, but Hathaway looked more effective in this game than he has in a long time.

Michkov’s birthday game

It was Matvei Michkov’s 21st birthday, and early on it looked like he was going to have a strong game. Before the midway mark of the first, Owen Tippett found Michkov breaking out of the defensive zone and sent him in on a breakaway. Michkov didn’t get a great shot off, as John Klingberg was able to get back and disrupt some, but it was great to see him involved early. This continued, with him later being a part of an impressive offensive zone cycle and setting up Andrae for a bomb from the point. He also made a dangerous — but successful — pass in his own zone that Tocchet probably didn’t love.

Unfortunately, Michkov was pretty invisible the rest of the way.

The second period began with him missing from the bench, which obviously prompted concerns. He missed only a few minutes, but still did not play much in the period, with just four shifts and just barely three minutes of ice time. It’s unclear if something was bothering him or if it was a coaching decision, but with him missing the start of the period, there could be something more there. He had a couple of short shifts in the third, and took an unnecessary offensive zone penalty. In a bit of a surprising move, Tocchet didn’t bench him the rest of the way, and actually had him on the ice with the Sharks’ net empty.

Vladar strong again

While Vladar wasn’t super busy with just 18 shots against, he made some huge saves along the way and at important moments. One of his biggest and maybe most important stops came at the end of the first period when he faced Smith on a breakaway. The Flyers had just tied the game late, and if Smith scores there they go into the intermission down a goal despite fully controlling play.

Vladar was also excellent right before Noah Cates increased the Flyers’ lead, stopping Collin Graf during an odd-man rush, and then robbing Ty Dellandrea right in front.

The biggest positive for the Flyers this season has almost certainly been Vladar, and he was the first star yet again tonight. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Sharks only generated 1.31 expected goals, but what made their chances challenging was often their pre-shot movement, which for the most part is something that public expected goals models can’t fully take into account. So while Vladar might not be an obvious star if you were just checking the box score, he was certainly a major reason why the Flyers won this game.

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