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Flyers Close Out Season With Comeback Victory Over Devils

By Jacob Modugno

May 10, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers left wing Joel Farabee (86) celebrates his goal with against the New Jersey Devils during the first period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers left wing Joel Farabee (86) celebrates his goal with against the New Jersey Devils during the first period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New Jersey Devils at Wells Fargo Center on Monday night to put a bow on their turbulent 2020-21 season. The Flyers were able to close out the last of their 56 games with a bang as they defeated the Devils 4-2.

The game began with little scoring chances and some sloppy play before the Devils suddenly nabbed the icebreaker just 3:29 into the game thanks to Pavel Zacha. Zacha received a beautiful feed from Nico Hischier as Hischier deflected the puck into the air and chased it across the slot before he sent it back in front for a Zacha tap-in past Brian Elliott to make it 1-0 Devils.

New Jersey would get on the board again just 1:51 later after a Nicolas Aube-Kubel turnover resulted in the Devils keeping the puck in the zone. They capitalized quickly as Janne Kuokkanen ripped home a shot off of a rebound past Elliott from a very sharp angle. Aube-Kubel was actually able to block the initial shot by Will Butcher but Kuokkanen stuffed home the loose puck for a 2-0 New Jersey advantage.

The Flyers seemed to be playing very casually with the puck, perhaps a little too casually as they continually coughed up the puck and made a ton of errant passes to no one in particular. They would finally get themselves together with 6:16 to play in the opening frame.

Joel Farabee and Kevin Hayes rushed up the ice and played a little give-and-go before Farabee slipped behind the Devils defense. Hayes sauced the puck up to the speeding Farabee and the sophomore winger deked out Scott Wedgewood to pull the Flyers within a goal at 2-1. Hayes earned his 300th NHL point on the play as well.

The first period would come to a close a few minutes later as the Devils outshot Philadelphia 11-10 with their extra shot being the difference in a 2-1 game through twenty minutes. The Flyers seemed to get better as the frame wore on and they hoped to continue that momentum in the second period.

The Flyers and Devils would continue to trade scoring chances but Elliott and Wedgewood would keep their teams from letting up goals, but the Flyers would eventually break the second period stalemate just past the halfway mark of the frame.

Travis Konecny fired a pass to Claude Giroux, and the captain dazzled us once again as he used his left skate to intentionally direct the puck to a wide-open Sean Couturier on the doorstep. Couturier rammed home his 18th marker of the year to tie the game at 2-2 with 9:54 to play in the second period.

That would remain as the lone tally of the period despite each team’s best efforts as we headed into Philadelphia’s final period of the season in a 2-2 deadlock on Broad Street. The Flyers outshot the Devils 10-8 in the period and took the overall lead in shots 20-19 after a good collective effort in the middle stanza.

The third period played out much like the second in that there were a couple scoring chances and a lot of back and forth play between the two rivals, but nothing resulted in a change of the scoreboard.

Luckily for the Flyers, they would change that on the power play with 7:35 to play in the period. With Michael McLeod sitting in the penalty box for New Jersey, the Flyers went to work on the Devils’ league-worst penalty kill and cashed in. Giroux dished a pass across the ice to Couturier, and Couturier fired a shot that James van Riemsdyk was able to redirect home to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead.

Philadelphia wasn’t done scoring quite just yet as they tallied again less than four minutes after van Riemsdyk’s go-ahead tally. Wade Allison received a nice feed from Hayes and fired a shot on Wedgewood, and the Devils netminder let out a huge rebound in the slot. Farabee was in the right place at the right time and lasered his second goal of the game into a yawning cage to make it a 4-2 game and to give himself 20 goals on the season.

The Flyers would be able to hold off New Jersey in the waning moments of the game, even with Wedgewood on the bench for the extra attacker, and the final edition of this season’s Battle of the Turnpike would belong to the Flyers by a score of 4-2 over the Devils.

POSITIVES

  • Joel Farabee – Farabee scored his 19th goal of the season on a beautiful breakaway move in the first period and netted his 20th on a rebound in the third. Farabee’s 20 goals stand as the team lead for 2020-21 as the season comes to a close with tonight’s win. It was a remarkable season for the 2018 first-round selection, and hopefully a sign of more to come in a full slate of games next season.
  • Kevin Hayes – Hayes earned his 300th NHL point as he assisted on Farabee’s first period goal, and got point number 301 on Farabee’s third period insurance marker. 72 of Hayes’ 301 points have now been recorded in a Flyers sweater, and while he didn’t have as good of a season as he did last year, Hayes reaching a milestone was nice to see in a year where there’s been plenty of negative things happening for the team.
  • Claude Giroux – Giroux reached into that bag of tricks he has and pulled out the soccer-style assist on Sean Couturier’s goal. It was just another fantastic play by the captain that earned him his 42nd point of the season. Giroux finishes his 13th full season season with 43 points in 54 games.
  • Sean Couturier – Couturier, who earlier won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the Flyers’ 2020-21 MVP, netted his18th goal of the season. The goal was also Couturier’s 40th point of the season, so this marks the fourth straight season he’s accomplished that feat. Couturier tops out at 41 points in 45 games this year and was arguably Philadelphia’s most consistent player this season, and had he not missed 11 games, maybe the Flyers’ season is a tad different.
  • Wade Allison – Allison recorded two assists tonight, both on Farabee’s tallies. Allison has been very impressive in his short stint with the Flyers and will challenge for a full-time roster spot next season. If this year was any indication as to the skill Allison possesses, I think Flyers management and fans alike are going to be in for a real treat next year with him.

NEGATIVES

  • The Season’s Over – Yes, this season was a massive disappointment for the Flyers. Fans were upset, players were upset, management was upset. They had plenty of great expectations after last year’s playoff run, and they fell flat. Yeah, they were pretty mediocre this year, and at times just downright terrible, but the Flyers won’t be playing again until the fall and that’s something to be sad about. I live and breathe Flyers hockey, and a longer offseason is never fun, especially when the roster is going to drastically change and plenty of moves will be made. This is the last time we’ll see this collective group together, and while they didn’t play very well, they’re still our Flyers and we still love them.

Well, that’s a positive wrap on an otherwise pretty negative season for the 2020-21 Philadelphia Flyers. While they missed the playoffs, we did get to see players like Wade Allison and Cam York give us glimpses of what’s to come.

We saw Joel Farabee spurt into a player we couldn’t have imagined this quickly. We saw Sean Couturier have himself another elite season on both ends of the ice. We saw Claude Giroux continue to rewrite the Flyers’ history books and continue to solidify himself as one of the top players in franchise history. Sure, they didn’t get it done this season, but hey, some parts of this group showed promise. There’s always next year, right?

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