Bill Meltzer’s Flyers blog on Hockey Hot Stove is brought to you by Phans of Philly, by Lights On Electric, by New Balance of Mount Laurel, by Cover All Exteriors, Summit Public Adjusters and our newest sponsors, The Mens and Boys Store and Carl’s Cards and Collectibles.
Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (15-8-3) got back on the winning track on Wednesday. The team notched a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The big difference was a first period explosion of three goals in 59 seconds.
Five different Flyers played chipped in one goal apiece. Travis Konecny (PPG, 6th) ended his goal scoring drought. Philly also got goals from Trevor Zegras (PPG, 10th), Bobby Brink (7th), Noah Cates (6th) and Owen Tippett (9th). Samuel Ersson quietly played a very strong game in goal as he stopped 27 of 29 shots. He saw quiet a few high-danger shots and came up with important saves.
Philly video coach Dylan Crawford also made an important contribution. A would-be Tage Thompson goal in the third period came off the board on a coach’s challenge for an offside entry. It was Crawford who noticed the offside and alerted Tocchet. If the goal had stood, Buffalo would have crawled back within two goals with seven-plus minutes left on the clock.
The Good
- It’s one thing to preach “pucks and traffic to net”. It’s another to actually execute it.
- Balanced scoring. Especially in the absence of Tyson Foerster, that was nice to see.
- Ersson has played well in each of his last three starts. One can’t always go just by stats. The Swedish netminder stepped up when he needed to.
- Power play faceoffs have been a struggle for the Flyers, particularly late. They were much improved in that area against Buffalo.
- Special teams got off to a tough start but ended up being a positive. The Flyers went 2-for-5 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the PK.
- Nikita Grebenkin played well in his first game elevated from the fourth line to the top nine.
The Bad
- Cam York exited the game in the second period with 3:10 left in the second period. He did return. The apparent upper body injury happened in the scrum that broke out after Rasmus Dahlin boarded Zegras.
- Defenseman Egor Zamula had a rough night in his 17:15 of ice time across 23 shifts. In particular, a slow read by Zamula led directly to Buffalo’s first goal of the game. Later, he had a turnover that started an eventual Tage Thompson goal sequence. Fortunately, the goal was disallowed after Philadelphia challenged.
- There were a couple stretches where the Flyers got a little sloppy with a multi-goal lead. They did some running around in their defensive zone at times. At other junctures, the Flyers bottled up Buffalo.
- Matvei Michkov had a couple of nice assists. However, he also took a pair of undisciplined penalties.
The Ugly
- The Sabres gifted the Flyers a free power play on a pointless coach’s challenge for goalie interference on Konecny’s goal. The challenge had almost no chance of working. It didn’t. Philadelphia cashed in on the ensuing power play among their three-goal outburst.
Home › Forums › Flyers vs. Sabres: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly