Philadelphia Flyers Lose Tight One to Montreal: Analytics Notebook

In their tightest game of the season thus far, that Philadelphia Flyers fell barely short against the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1

Unlike most the Philadelphia Flyers‘ games thus far this season, this game didn’t feature big ebbs and flows. The Flyers came out and played a steady first period, with neither team finding the net.

It remained tight in the second period, and the seal finally broke when Shea Weber’s point shot deflected and slipped past a completely screened Steve Mason. The Flyers would answer back a few minutes later after some great work by Jakub Voracek.

The Flyers actually played pretty well from there on out, but the game turned on a power play goal by the Canadiens. This one play was enough to decide this otherwise tight game.

Forwards

Second Shall Be First: The trend continued for the Flyers of most good things coming from the second line. They had the best shot numbers as shown above, and the Flyers only goal was all Voracek. Konecny also looked pretty good, adding 5 shot attempts to Voracek’s 6. They really ate up the Canadiens top line with with a Corsi of about 70%.

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Schenn Struggling: Not a great night for the top line. Giroux picked up an assist on the Voracek goal, but there weren’t many chances for this group. Simmonds and Schenn each had 5 hits, but they’re only hitting when they don’t have the puck. No goals, little pressure, and 3 penalties against last night. This line has not been good since Schenn joined it.
Reading Quietly: Matt Read is slowing down a bit after his torrid start. He added no shots on goal tonight and played fewer minutes than previous games.
Clear Bottom Line: Last year it was a bit of an issue that the Flyers didn’t really have a 3rd line, and the line between who was the 3rd line and 4th line wasn’t necessarily clear. That isn’t the case this year. The 4th line is largely a non-factor, other than Gordon and VandeVelde making their real contributions on the penalty kill.

Defense

Russian Rising: Although finishing at -1, Provorov had another good game. He led the Flyers in total ice time at 21:31, and put 4 shots on goal. He and Manning also played the most minutes against the Habs toughest line.
Ghost Still Pushing: Shayne Gostisbehere continues to press the issue offensively, having another night with 9 shot attempts. He’s still not getting the bounces for shots becoming goals, and I’m worried he’s gonna fall over from exhaustion at some point.
Odd Man Out: Both Andrew MacDonald and Nick Schultz had their 5v5 ice time cut, leaving us guessing as to who may come out of the lineup for Radko Gudas tonight. One count working in favor of MacDonald was that he led the team in penalty killing minutes last night.

Goaltending and Special Teams

Steve Mason gave the Flyers very good goaltending last night, scrambling to keep out several doorstep chances by the Canadiens (1, 2). Unfortunately, matching up with Carey Price doesn’t leave any margin for error.

On the special teams front, the Flyers only had 1 power play to the Canadiens 4. The Flyers penalty kill was actually pretty effective, other than the one bang-bang goal of a faceoff. It’s a tough break that that one goal decided the game.

Next: Analytics Notebook: Flyers Come Back on Canes

Up Next

The Philadelphia Flyers are right back at it tonight. They will play the Buffalo Sabres at home at 7:30. Buffalo is 1-2-1 and are without top forwards Jack Eichel and Evander Kane due to injuries.

The big news for the Flyers is that Radko Gudas’ 6-game suspension is finished. We should find out pretty soon how he fits back into the Flyers lineup.