16 hours ago
2
After an emotionally charged win over Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs played one hell of a boring hockey game on Thursday night.
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Through 40 minutes, Travis Konecny had tallied the game’s only score, and the two teams had combined for 24 shots on goal.
The third period wasn’t overly eventful, and it looked like the Orange & Black could extend their lead or at least salt the game away with a couple of Maple Leaf penalties on the backside of the 10-minute mark of the third, but Scott Laughton netted a short-handed goal against his former team with six minutes left, and that gave us what was a crazy exciting overtime, unfortunately ended by Easton Cowan to hand Philadelphia the OTL.
First period
Highlight: Not much happened in the first ~17 minutes, but the Flyers’ fourth line had the best shift of the period with about three minutes left, establishing a forecheck, and winning battles to keep possession alive. Nikita Grebenkin had a particularly strong shift holding the puck behind the net and on the wall, eventually spinning and dishing to a drifting Cam York on the back door. York made a move in front but Dennis Hildeby made the stop. Philadelphia built off that momentum on the next couple of shifts, eventually drawing a power play when Troy Stetcher slashed Trevor Zegras with 1:25 left in the period. Unfortunately the Flyers’ power play is still the Flyers’ power play. They’ll have 35 seconds of penalty time left to start the second, but this power play couldn’t have looked less like an advantage against Scott Laughton & Co.
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What I want to see next period: At least establish possession in the remaining power play time, and try to get this forecheck going. Maybe a little more ice time for Grebenkin, who appears to have his game against the team that traded him at last season’s deadline. The Flyers actually took the lead in SOG, 8-6, by the end of the period, but really had nothing going in the first 10-15 minutes of the period. Not that either team had many quality chances, shot attempts were 25-17 with the Leafs missing the net seven times and the Flyers missing nine of their 25 attempts. They have to get pucks into the middle of the ice and get shots on net and to do that, they need more time in the offensive zone.
Second period
Highlight: Travis Konecny lights the lamp on a catch-and-release in the slot on a feed from Christian Dvorak in the LW corner, just 55 seconds into the period to give the Flyers a rare 1-0 lead. I wanted to see them build on what they did late in the first and they did just that. Rasmus Ristolainen got the secondary assist. This is only the 14th time in 42 games Philly has scored the game’s opening goal.
What I want to see next period: I’ll tell you what I don’t want to see, it’s the Flyers sitting back and hoping to just protect the lead rather than build on it. I know it’s easier said than done, and the Leafs have fire power even with William Nylander out, but if the plan is to defend and only play on the minus-side of the red line, it’s going to result in a lost lead.
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There were just too many one-and-done forays into the offensive zone in the second period, and after the early goal and a buzz on the next few shifts, there was very little juice. They’re working hard to keep Toronto to the outside and protect Dan Vladar, but they need to manufacture something to put this game away after managing only three shots on goal and 14 total attempts in the middle frame.
Third period
Highlight: The Flyers got a power play and an eventual 5-on-3 in the back-half of the period and not only did they fail to score, they gave up a short-handed goal to their old pal Scott Laughton in the final 10 seconds of the second penalty. Just an absolutely abysmal power play. It’s truly unbelievable how bad they are with a man, or two-man, advantage. Laughton scored against his former team in his first game back in Philly, netting his 12th career SHG. Ten of those shorties were scored as a member of the Flyers, tied for 13th in franchise history with Konecny and Mark Recchi.
Overtime
WHY CAN’T ZEGRAS SCORE ON BREAKAWAYS? HE GOT A FULL ICE RUSH AGAINST HILDEBY AND GOT STONED! HOW THE HELL?
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After trading rushes and chances back-and-forth the Flyers had another golden opportunity with a 2-on-1 featuring Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov but failed on the rush and follow up, then Toronto came down and scored to end the game.
Final note: The Flyers need to figure out how to fix the power play. I’m not even saying make it “good.” Just not f-ing horrendous. They’re down to 15% on the season after tonight’s 0/3, failing for the second consecutive game to score on a two-man advantage. If they were just 18% they could win the division. This is the most frustrating thing ever.
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