Philadelphia Flyers Game Five of 56: Pluses & Minuses
By Seth Cooper
My first thought once this game was over was “what a wild game”. Between the third period and the overtime chances, spectacular saves and the shootout and of course Scott Laughton. On Thursday, the Flyers begun their first road swing of the season in a tough challenge facing newly named captain Patrice Bergeron, Tuukka Rask and the rest of the Boston Bruins and this was must see TV.
Possibly one of the best hockey games so far in this young season. With injuries to Morgan Frost and Phil Myers, Philadelphia had to rely on forward Connor Bunnaman and defenseman Mark Friedman who played roles tonight in the top six positions for AV’s club. But they still couldn’t get it done, losing 5-4 in a come from behind game in the shootout for the Bruins. Giving the Flyers a taste of defeat in a tough loss.
Tonight’s Pluses:
Goaltending
No wonder Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault wants to keep his starter under wraps before the second game against Boston on Saturday. How many times did hear Jim Jackson say “SAVE HART,” frantically tonight? I lost count after seven. Anytime you can have two outstanding performance’s back to back from your second and starting netminder that’s something truly special.
Especially with a shutout on Tuesday and only letting in three goals. You can’t draw it up better than that. That’s exactly what Brian Elliot and Carter Hart did on Tuesday and Thursday night. Hart with 35 saves, Elliot with 40 for a combined total of 75 In two games.
While certain areas of the Flyers game struggle, credit the goaltending for a 4-2-1 start. In the first period the Flyers PK was tested early after drawing two penalties but nobody was tested more than Carter Hart. After being pulled on Monday, Hart looked sharp stopping 14 shots in the first twenty minutes and that became the story of the entire game. #70 bailed the orange and black out a lot more probably than he wanted to tonight.
He looked inhuman at times, putting all of his equipment to use. This is why you pay the goalies those max contracts, he can make a break a game or a potentially playoff spot in this case with only 56 games on the NHL schedule. He’s such a mature goaltender for his age to have a rocky start on Tuesday and come in all cool, calm and collected for your first road game of the year. Besides a rough third period, this is what you want out of your goaltender and AV got his wish.
The Captain
Claude Giroux came into tonight’s game scoring 10 goals in 39 career games played against the Boston Bruins. Well now after giving Philadelphia their first goal of the game and their first power-play goal of the season, snapping a 0-9 man advantage streak, make that eleven.
It was his 81st man advantage goal and made him eighth all time by a Flyer. He’s one behind Eric Lindros. The momentum really swung on that opening goal.
This was truly a night and day 1st and 2nd period for the Flyers. The puck was moving fast, passes were on the tape and Philadelphia’s attack zone increased just a bit. This first goal from the captain was truly a game changer. It was only a matter of time before #28 made an impact into the young season. Eight shots for the Flyers in the 2nd frame outshooting the B’s 8-4 in the second. Beautiful.
Minus
Third Period Breakdown
I’m still sticking to my guns that goaltending was a plus tonight. The 3rd period wasn’t all of Carter Hart’s fault. What a nightmare of a final frame for the Flyers. A rollercoaster of emotions of any fan.
The Bruins started to swing the game by first breaking up Carter Hart’s shutout. There were a ton of mistakes in this period by both teams including a massive penalty taken by Scott Laughton in the offensive zone that Nick Ritchie cashed in on. Power-play’s and PK’s weren’t either teams best friends tonight.
Injuries?
Mark Friedman left the game in the second period due to an apart injury caused by Brad Marchand. A scary collision as really unsure what Marchand clipped. Friedman, in his first game with the Flyers this year, went off into the dressing room and never returned.
It doesn’t appear that Friedman may miss any time. Vigneault would speak after the game and said Friedman was kept out for precautionary reasons and was otherwise doing well.
We’re five games into the season and the Flyers depth is getting thin and being tested nonetheless Coots, Frost, Myers were already out. And they were down to five defensemen once again for most of the game.
The next man up for the Philadelphia blue line would appear to be Derrick Pouliot if needed Pouliot was recalled from Lehigh-Valley earlier this afternoon and he might not have to wait long to make his season debut off the Taxi Squad. I flirted with the idea of maybe Morin playing on Saturday on the fourth line but now I’m not so confident in my guessing.
If anything changes and Friedman cannot go on Saturday, that means the Flyers will be recalling another skater from the Phantoms. My guesses are as good as yours. It could be anybody but if I had to make an educated guess it’d be Tyler Wotherspoon. Replacing one defenseman for another.
I said it in my debut article giving the predictions of who we might see on the Taxi Squad this season. So far I’m one of three on my predictions with guessing we’d see Derek Pouliot in a Flyers uniform this season. Shayne Gostisbehere coming off the COVID-19 couldn’t have happened at a better time for the orange and black.