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, and by Cover All Exteriors.
The Philadelphia Flyers opened a five-game homestand on Saturday. Trailing by scores of 2-0 and 3-2, Rick Tocchet’s team came back twice to force overtime. After a scoreless OT frame, the Flyers prevailed via shootout, 4-3 (2-1).
.Trevor Zegras earned First Star honors. He notched his first and second goals as a Flyer and recorded a nifty assist on a Christian Dvorak goal. Later, Zegras converted his shootout attempt into a goal. Meanwhile, Dvorak finished with a goal and an assist. Matvei Michkov netted the shootout winner.
Samuel Ersson recorded his first win of the season. The Swedish netminder made spectacular lateral saves in the third period and overtime to keep the Flyers alive. Thereafter, he denied two of three shootout attempts to secure the bonus point. He finished with 23 regulation/OT saves, matching Ilya Sorokin’s stats for the day. The difference: Ersson made one additional save in the shootout. The game ended with an Ersson left pad denial of Anthony Duclair.
With the win, Philadelphia improved to 4-3-1 overall. The team is 4-1-0 at home. On Tuesday, the Battle of Pennsylvania renews. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins pay a visit to Xfinity Mobile Arena. Meanwhile. here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from Saturday afternoon.
The Good
- Resiliency. In the NHL, even the bottom teams win roughly 75 percent of the time when leading after after periods. In other words, it’s not easy to play comeback hockey and succeed. The Flyers have had to do it five times in the eight games played to date. The team is 2-2-1 in those games. It’s not something any team wants to rely upon too often. Nevertheless, the Flyers have shown they’re a resilient bunch. As Noah Cates said after the game, “It’s about belief. This team believes in itself.”
- Other lines clicked, The Flyers know they can rely of the line with Cates centering Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink to set a strong 200-foot tone on nearly an every game basis. The trick has been to get other lines going, too. Sean Couturier did it in the home opener against Florida. Now the trio of Zegras centering Dvorak and Michkov seems to be finding offensive chemistry. Zegras and Couturier each have eight points (2g, 6a apiece) to share the team lead.
- Flyers penalty kill. The team has started out the season 27-for-31 on the penalty kill (87.1 percent) on the PK under new assistant coach Todd Reirden. Just as importantly, the Flyers only played shorthanded twice against the Islanders despite a physical and feisty game. Dvorak had an unnecessary stick foul but, otherwise, the team accomplished what it wanted. Philly won the special teams battle by the end of the day.
The bad
- Flyers still need to shoot more often. Entering Saturday, the Flyers averaged a mere 20.1 shots on goal per game. The Islanders play fairly wide open under Patrick Roy, so the Flyers figured to generate both higher quantity and quality of shots. They did. However, they still finished with just 26. By way of reference, Winnipeg ranks 24th in the NHL with an average 26 shots on goal per game. The Flyers still rank last (22.4) after Saturday. This reflects the need to get below and inside the dots more often. On the flip side, Philly ranks 11th in shot suppression (26.5 opposing shots) even after allowing 33 to Ottawa on Thursday.
- First period resembled Winnipeg game. The Flyers only yielded four shots on goal in the first period on Saturday. However, one was a shorthanded goal by Simon Holmstrom. The first period also saw Philly cough up a rare 4-on-2 counterrush and a cross-seam slot pass similar to Ottawa’s first goal on Thursday. This time, the Flyers dodged the bullet and went off trailing just 1-0 at intermission. Nevertheless, the period was too reminiscent of what happened in the home loss to Winnipeg: low shot volume against but dangerously high quality. Later, it took a couple 10-bell saves by Ersson to prevent back-breaking goals. That’s a goalie’s job, but it’s not wise to go to that well too often.
- PP1: This has been a theme too often so far in October. The ostensive first power play unit struggles to get set up and turns pucks over in dangerous areas. The second unit (with the Cates line) keeps things simpler and generates more attack time and pressure. On Saturday, Tocchet and his power play staff (Yogi Svejkovsky and Jay Varady) elected to have the Cates unit start a crucual third period power play. They delivered an ugly-but-good goal to tie the game. Cates initially received credit. However, the scoring was changed to credit Zegras for putting the puck over the goal line first.
The ugly
- Nearly two SHGs allowed. The Flyers have already allowed two opposing shorthanded goals in eight games. It was nearly three. After Holmstrom scored shorthanded on Philly’s first power play, Adam Pellech hit the post on the Isles’ second penalty kill. The shot beat Ersson but drew iron. Had the puck gone in, the rest of the game may have been different.
- Third defensive pair. Philly is still in search of a third-pair combination they can rely upon to hold the fort consistently. On Saturday, they went back to the pairing of Adam Ginning and Noah Juulsen. The analytics matched the eye test. Once the Islanders to the puck in deep against that pairing, Philly got hemmed in. Most of it was perimeter play. Even so, it made for some nerve-racking shifts to watch.
Flyers Fan Club/Phans of Philly Raffle
There has never been a better time to consider joining the official Flyers Fan Club if you’re not already a member. Phans of Philly has donated a fundraising raffle item for the three-game California road trip in March. That will be a fantastic prize for the luck winner.
Phans of Philly, a sponsor of all Flyers- and Phantoms-related content on Hockey Hot Stove, also works closely with the Flyers Fan Club and the Nasty Knuckles podcast. The longest-established and most trusted Flyers fan travel company, Phans of Philly offers three different road trips this season. In addition to the West Coast trip, there’s a flight package to see the Flyers visit the Detroit Red Wings. Additionally, for fans with tighter budgets, there’s a one-game bus trip to see the Flyers take on the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center.
Nasty Knuckles
In advance of the upcoming release of the Pelle Lindbergh documentary on Nov. 7, Riley Cote and Derek Settlemyre invited me on as a guest for their Nasty Knuckles podcast. We talked about Lindbergh (Nasty’s father, “Sudsy” Settlemyre, was among Pelle’s best friends), of course. Additionally, we traded our observations on the early part of the season. Topics include Jett Luchanko, Jamie Drysdale, Matvei Michkov and more.
Lastly, we previewed the upcoming Flyers Warriors Gala aboard the USS New Jersey on Nov, 14. At last year’s gala, my sister and I sat at the same table as Nasty and Riles. The event it always a great time. This year, the Flyers Alumni Association are the presenting sponsors.
