Flyers trio has massive night in victory over Blues

Ahead of the Flyers' matchup against the Blues, Rick Tocchet made a change to the lines after the offense struggled for long stretches in their last game.

Among those changes was the reunion of the trio of Trevor Zegras, Owen Tippett, and Christian Dvorak. Entering the night, the three had played nearly 80 minutes together. On the surface, the line has the makings of a strong one. Dvorak is a strong faceoff man with a two-way presence. Zegras has the playmaking skill. And Tippett is the scorer.

In those nearly 80 minutes, the three are carrying a heavy amount of the play when they are on the ice together. They held a 54.23 CF% and over 56 percent of the shot attempts. While they had only outscored teams 3-2, they had a 59.31 expected goals percentage. So the trio was working out well for the Flyers when placed together.

Flyers get offensive explosion from Dvorak line in victory

And they proved that in the game against the Blues, combining for all five goals the Flyers scored during the regulation period. Dvorak and Zegras finished with two goals and three points. It tied a career-high for Zegras, and it was the sixth multi-point game for Dvorak. Tippett tied a career-high with four points, ending with one goal and three assists. His goal broke a 10-game goalless drought.

In a game that the Flyers could've found themselves well out of it, that line provided a much-needed spark on multiple occasions. After Jordan Kyrou made it 1-0 early in the evening, Zegras would score the tying goal about seven minutes later. The Blues went up 3-1 almost seven minutes into the second.

23 seconds later, Dvorak scored on a scramble play in front. The goal was important as he had lost the faceoff that led to the Blues' third goal. Toward the end of the period, a Zegras tip-in brought the Flyers even heading into the third period. The Blues would go on to score two goals in the first five minutes of the period, which could've been deflating for the Flyers after battling back.

But that line went to work again as Dvorak scored his second of the night a few minutes later. That was followed by Tippett's goal less than three minutes later. That helped send the game to overtime, the third straight game that needed extra time for the Flyers.

And while nothing was solved in overtime, the Flyers would've never gotten to that point without the play of that line. Zegras had a chance to win the game with a penalty shot in overtime and didn't do so, but he did find the back of the net in the shootout. Unfortunately, that doesn't count for the hat trick. It did win the game, however, so it's just as important.

Overall, that line outscored the Blues 5-1 in the game and held a 12-4 shot advantage in just over 12 minutes of even-strength time. They held an expected goals percentage of 65.43, which actually wasn't even the best of the four Flyers lines. The Noah Cates line was slightly better at 66.96 percent, though they had a smaller sample size in shots.

The stats speak for themselves. This is a trio that the Flyers have a large enough sample size with to keep them together moving forward, or at least whenever they're struggling for offense. There are times when you need certain plays or a specific line to carry you. And that's exactly what Zegras, Tippett, and Dvorak did.