The Philadelphia Flyers bounced back from their winless California road trip with a spirited performance against the Montreal Canadiens. It may have been a case of good timing, catching the Canadiens at a time when they haven't been playing very well, but the Flyers definitely played with more jump.
The new and loaded top line of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds consistently created chances, but secondary figures provided all the scoring.
At one point, the shots on goal were 22-7 in favor of the Flyers, but Michal Neuvirth had a shaky game and allowed two goals on deflected shots. The victory came under greater peril when the Canadiens added a third goal in the final minute, but the Flyers were able to hold on for the 4-3 win.
Game Flow
Forwards
The new look Giroux line had a strong game, creating many chances. They didn't get on the scoreboard, but they had several "A" scoring chances and won the possession battle against the Canadiens top line of Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher. Giroux and Voracek were both minuses, but had pretty good games despite that.
The Sean Couturier line, now with Michael Raffl and Brayden Schenn, provided most of the goals. Schenn got the scoring started with a breakaway goal after Couturier blocked a shot and fed him. Schenn would go on to add two more assists for a three-point night, although both of those were unremarkable secondary assists.
The Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line had poor numbers against the Canadiens top line, but better numbers when playing against Tomas Fleischmann, David Desharnais and Devante Smith-Pelly. Ryan White didn't have a great game, with a weaker Corsi than his linemates and two penalties against. His first penalty was a bit of a turning point in the game, leading to a big Canadiens push late in the second period when they closed the gap to make the score 3-2.
The fourth line had a quiet night but grabbed a goal when Shayne Gostisbehere scored off a faceoff. Matt Read returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch, but his team-worst Corsi in this game will leave a bad taste.
Defense
Mark Streit is back in the lineup and has re-united with Nick Schultz, but Michael Del Zotto and Radko Gudas remain the top pair. Del Zotto and Gudas were asked to play against the Canadiens top line, and successfully held their own.
Streit and Schultz played against the Canadiens second and third lines with decent results.
Gostisbehere and Luke Schenn lagged behind the other pairs. They had worse numbers than Streit and Schultz against the second and third lines of the Canadiens. Regardless, Gostisbehere added his seventh goal of the season by scoring only his second 5v5 goal this year, and tallied an assist when Simmonds tipped in his point shot on a power play.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
