Flyers Playoff Player Review: Jake Voracek

Voracek’s strong regular season carried into the playoffs as he was one of the Flyers best performers.

In 2020 Jake Voracek had found his game under new Flyers‘ head coach Alain Vigneault. During the season Voracek was playing with an ease, and a delight, that he had not shown in years.

While his scoring pace dipped from it’s peak, he was playing a smart all-around game that had all but eliminated the frustrating mental lapses that had plagued him in recent seasons. Voracek entered the playoffs playing the most mature and thoughtful hockey of his career.

Voracek’s splendid play would continue for the Flyers throughout the playoffs. He would dress and play in 15 of 16 contests, a covid related snafu keeping him out of the line up once, and finish tied for second on the team in goals with four, and points with nine.

Voracek would spend the majority of his even strength shifts with Couturier and Giroux.  The trio would drive play, with each of them recording a 5 on 5 corsi over 55% Voracek finishing just behind Couturier at 58.55%.  While not denting the twine as often one could have expected, they did dominate play and win almost every shift, they were the Flyers strongest puck possession line.

Voracek also played well on special teams. There was not much that was positive with the Flyers’ powerplay but Voracek deserves recognition for his efforts. Overall the powerplay was putrid and only was able to strike for four goals. Of the four goals that the team scored in the payoffs, Jake got three of them.  While there is plenty of blame that could be shared across players and coaches alike, it hard to be unhappy with the Voracek, who accounted for 75% of the powerplay goals.

Voracek was able to provide points, and drive play. He was virtually the only forward to produce on the powerplay. While not as fast or quick as he was in his prime, he was still a monster along the wall, and was capable of dominating shifts.

Jake gave everything you would expect from a top line winger and a little more.  For the first time that I can remember he avoided silly mistakes that often ended in catastrophe.   Having a smart consistent Voracek is a trade up from the younger, more dynamic, yet erratic Voracek of the past.

It is hard to see what more Voracek could have contributed to the team and extremely difficult to find fault in what he did contribute. Voracek played as a leader and a star and delivered in both capacities while other offensive stars seemed to disappear.

Voracek’s impact on the score sheet, on the powerplay, and in overall puck control  dominance all stood out and made him easy to single out as one of the teams best forwards, every night.  When compared to other “scorers” Voracek’s contributions further cement the notion that his efforts that he had a great playoffs.