These three players performed well for the Philadelphia Flyers in their loss vs the Montreal Canadiens.
Looking to earn their third-straight win following an exciting overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, the Philadelphia Flyers began a three-game homestand by hosting the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center. This game marked the third and final regular-season meeting between the two Eastern Conference squads, and, as I mentioned in the preview piece to this game, the Flyers were hoping to sweep the Habs for the second time in the last three years. Alex Lyon made his season-debut between the pipes and opposed Carey Price for Montreal. Philadelphia also made a roster move prior to puck drop, recalling Joel Farabee from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms while sending Chris Stewart down.
Montreal carried the play through a large portion of the first period, putting shot after shot on Lyon and keeping the Flyers on their heels in the neutral and defensive zone. Philadelphia would find their footing a bit later on and also found the back of the net while doing so as Farabee capitalized on a rebound attempt in the slot to put his side up 1-0 late in the frame. This tally broke a 15-game goalless drought for the 19-year-old winger and was his first non-empty-netter since the November 5th victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Tomas Tatar put an end to that lead just a minute later, moving his way into the slot and putting Lyon out of position with a shot-fake to eventually score and tie everything up at one after one period of play.
So…the second period could’ve definitely gone better from a Flyers perspective. Ilya Kovalchuk took advantage of a ticky-tack hooking call on Kevin Hayes, netting a power-play goal to give the Habs their first lead of the night. The former Atlanta Thrasher and New Jersey Devil juuuuuust beat Robert Hagg to a loose puck in the blue paint and rammed it home for his fifth tally on the season. Artturi Lehkonen followed that up with a goal of his own only 11 seconds later, gifting Montreal with a quick 3-1 advantage. Philly did generate a high amount of scoring chances and shots in the opposing zone after the two Hab goals, especially towards the back-half of the frame but couldn’t get the puck passed Price as they still found themselves down by two entering the third.
The third period was, in a word, bad for Philadelphia. Even with two power-plays at their disposal, the Flyers were heavily outshot and chanced in the final period of regulation, getting dominated by Montreal in both areas by a 17-5 and 12-1 margin. The Atlantic Division squad basically coasted to a 4-1 victory over the Orange and Black, as Kovalchuk netted his second of the night to all but seal the deal halfway through.
As far as the standouts are concerned in this one, I have to start it out by giving Farabee a nod for his efforts tonight. It was incredibly pleasing to see the young forward break out of his scoring slump to get Philadelphia on the board in the latter half of the first, even with it being on the greasier side of things.
Farabee could’ve easily had another in this game, too, as he narrowly missed the net on a 2-on-1 break in the same stanza. It can’t be easy for a player who’s been used to receiving Top-6 minutes through most of his hockey career to get relegated to the fourth line, but Farabee’s filled the role admirably with his first-rate two-way skillset. I don’t expect the former 14th overall selection to stay in that role very long, though, and his showing against the Habs tonight could force AV to bump him up a line or two in the upcoming games.
Next, Sean Couturier was, once again, on his game for Philadelphia. The front-toothless centerman tied for the team-lead in various categories at 5-on-5, including Shots and Scoring Chances For percentages. The second line combination of Michael Raffl, Jakub Voracek, and himself also had adequate numbers together for the second-straight game, posting a 59.09 Corsi, 57.14 Fenwick, 55.56 Shots, and 54.55 Scoring Chances For percentages at 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick.
While none of that produced a tally for the Flyers or a point for himself, it’s worth noting that Price was nothing short of phenomenal in the net tonight, and sometimes, great goaltending prevails. Simple as that. I fully anticipate Coots to find the scoresheet again if he continues to put up these types of numbers, which is a safe bet if you’ve taken a look at his statistics as a whole n 2019-20.
Lastly, I believe Lyon was better than the four goals he allowed in the game would suggest. I’d even go as far as to saying that half of them weren’t completely his fault, either, as Lehkonen’s deflection was nearly impossible to stop, and Tatar’s was more on a loose-coverage from the defense. The Minnesotan goaltender was nothing short of solid for the Flyers in the opening frame, negating a mostly lackluster defensive effort from Philadelphia with 12 saves on 13 shots in the period. For a guy who’s spent most of his professional career in the AHL, Lyon was perfectly fine and, for the most part, didn’t seem overmatched against NHL opposition.
The Flyers are now 25-16-6 on the year. Next game is Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings.