Game Observations: Flyers Struggle With Vegas Power Play
The Philadelphia Flyers penalty kill struggled in the team’s losing effort to the Golden Knights.
The Philadelphia Flyers came up short in a 5-4 loss to Vegas Golden Knights. The Flyers were coming off a 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles knights. Philly allowed 4 goals in the first period, and never recovered. The Flyers’ goals were scored by Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier. Carter Hart started in goal.
You cannot give up 4 goals in the opening frame. Period! Giving up 2 goals in the first 20 minutes, it can be very difficult to overcome when you’re already struggling. Add two more to that total and you’ll likely have a very little chance of walking away with a W.
Hart, with experience, must learn how to stop the opposing team from getting the “next goal” on the road. The next goal can be the one that keeps your team in the game or a save the goalie makes with his team shorthanded. When the Flyers scored first, they gained a bit of confidence in themselves. The next goal would be the one that Hart prevents. When Vegas tied the score at 1, Philly lost momentum. He has to prevent the next goal. So what happened next? Vegas scored on the power play. Philadelphia took a questionable penalty and Vegas scored another power-play goal. Vegas went on to net an even-strength goal, and you know the rest.
Odd man rushes usually become goals. All of the Knights goals were scored within a couple of feet from the net I think the way the NHL measures save percentage is not correct. Why should a goal given up on a breakaway be counted the same as one that came from 50 feet out? There should be 2 save percentage numbers tracked for goalies. One of the goals scored from 10 feet in, and one for goals scored where the shooter was 15 feet or further away from the net. I believe It would change the way we view goalies.
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The team has to get back to playing Flyers hockey. If the forwards backcheck and the defensemen block shots, goals are going to be hard to come by. The past couple of games have been hard to watch. If the Flyers don’t turn things around soon, they’ll be well on their way to their usual January slide.