Game Observations: Flyers Have Peaks And Valleys In Back To Backs

The Philadelphia Flyers had their ups and downs in their most recent round of back-to-backs.

The Philadelphia Flyers played two games in 48 hours, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime and then beating the Capitals 3-2 at home. Travis Konecny, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and Michael Raffl scored goals for Philadelphia against the Canes while TK, Robert Hagg, and Kevin Hayes all found tallies vs. Washington.

They say that all you need to win in the NHL is solid goalie play, stars to play like stars, a reliable special team showing, and an unexpected hero to step up. In the win over Washington, they got them all! How about that? Sean Couturier and Konecny played like superstars, Carter Hart was good, the PK killed off all five Caps penalties and even scored a shorthanded goal. The surprise? Hagg scoring his first goal of the year.

Against Carolina, they got one of those four things and it came from the man they call Moose. If you want to see a clinic on how to play goalie, go and watch the first period. Elliott was amazing! He had at least five of what I’ll call “hall of fame” saves. He stood square to every shooter and played with confidence.

If your goalie is making world-class saves, it means that he is facing world-class shots. If you happened to watch the game, you may have noticed that when Carolina moved the puck out of their end, it was mostly stretch passes. The first pass out of the zone almost always wound up creating an odd-man rush for Carolina. If one pass results in an advantage for the opposition, you need to check your spacing and how you make your line changes. The Flyers could stand to do a little less chasing, and keep their sticks on the ice to deflect passes. They could also try to back check a little more aggressively. Against the Capitals, the Flyers were a lot more responsible in their own end, cut down the odd-man rushes, and played with more confidence.

As well as Elliott played, he cannot escape criticism. In the second period, he got beat by a one-timer from the blue line. There wasn’t a ton of traffic, he just missed it. It reminded me of Ron Hextall in the 97 playoffs and Cup Finals. Let’s just say those shots, if they were in the NBA, would’ve counted for 3. In OT, Carolina was in the midst of a line change, and the Flyers let Dougie Hamilton split the defense and beat Elliott from a bad angle. That’s a hard point to give up to a division rival and the type of point you’ll wish you had when April comes around. So, while it was nice to see Elliott and Philadelphia walk away with a point, they very easily could’ve had another had they cleaned up those mistakes.

The Flyers will now host the Tampa Bay Lightning. Can they make it two in a row? Be sure to comment below.