These three players shined for the Philadelphia Flyers in their victory over the New York Rangers.
Aiming for their fourth-straight victory following a shootout win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers returned home to the Wells Fargo Center to take on the New York Rangers. This marked Alain Vigneault‘s first regular-season game against his old squad since becoming a member of the Flyers, as he coached the Rangers for five years before being let go after the 2017-18 season. Carter Hart received the start from AV in-net and opposed Henrik Lundqvist on the opposite end of the ice, who got the nod from David Quinn for the second consecutive night.
The Flyers had themselves a solid opening period, creating shots, chances, and killing off a 1:04 minute 5-on-3 man advantage with the help of Kevin Hayes. The only thing that kept this from being a tremendous frame for the Orange and Black was the fact that they squandered two power-play opportunities of their own. Though they generated a decent amount of pressure, Lundqvist stood tall through it all to keep things at zero after 20 minutes of play. Philadelphia did have the shots-on-goal advantage, though, leading New York 12-7 in that category.
Philly had three more power-play chances in the second, and a goal was scored on one of them, just not the kind they were hoping for. Ivan Provorov committed a turnover at the point, which eventually led to Jesper Fast sniping home a loose puck in the slot to give the Rangers their eighth shorthanded tally of the year. The Flyers did a poor job at covering their own end, with an extra man mind you, after Hart made the initial save and Fast capitalized to give his team a 1-0 lead. Philadelphia did end up responding late, and I mean late, in the stanza as Travis Sanheim scored with just 1.1 seconds to go to tie the game at one heading into the third.
Hayes would give the Flyers their first lead of the night early in the frame, sniping a puck passed his former goaltending teammate to make it a 2-1 affair. Everything was all Flyers after that as Sanheim and Hayes potted their second tallies of the night, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel slammed the door shut with his first NHL goal to push Philadelphia to a 5-1 victory over their Metropolitan Division rival.
Among my standouts for the Flyers in this one, how could I not go with Hayes as one of them? The seven-year, 50 million dollar man was nothing short of stellar for Philadelphia on both ends of the ice, which is something that’s become expected of the veteran centerman since coming to the City of Brotherly Love this past offseason. Not only did he score two goals against his former team, putting on an absolute snipe show in the process, but he once again made his presence felt on the penalty kill.
As I noted above, Hayes, along with Hart, were the mains reasons the team was able to kill off the Rangers 5-on-3 advantage in the first. The 27-year-old’s puck possessing prowess was on full display, as he kept the puck away from several opposing players and created a scoring chance during the two-man disadvantage, to boot. The decision Chuck Fletcher made to bring him in over the summer is looking better and better by the game, and he’s quickly become one of my favorite players to watch night in and night out.
I also have to give a nod of approval to Aube-Kubel. Though I didn’t think he played his best game since coming up to the Flyers this season, I was thrilled to see him score his first tally at the NHL level. The shot itself was a dang ripper, too, as he roofed the puck from the left circle. So what if it was it in garbage time? It still counts, was beautiful, and fooled a future Hall Of Famer in Lundqvist, as well, which put the cherry on top of a mostly fun game for Philadelphia.
Lastly, how about Carter Hart, right? The 21-year-old goaltender was once again brilliant between the pipes for Philadelphia, coming up with big save after big save to keep the Rangers at bay. This was especially true in the middle frame, where Hart stopped 13 of the 14 shots New York put on the net and could’ve saved all of them had it not been for the Flyers and their meddling power-play. He finished the night, making 34 saves on 35 shots and leading his team to victory heading into the holiday break.
The Flyers are now 21-11-5 on the year. Next game is Saturday against the San Jose Sharks for some Flyers After Dark!