The Flyers were outplayed for most of the game, but still earned a point. A Jakub Voracek shot was deflected in front by Brayden Schenn for his second goal of the game, tying the game up with just under a minute to play.
The scoreboard shows a close-fought 3-2 victory for the Jackets, but the numbers tell a different story.
Overall
The above chart shows each team's shot attempts as the game went along. Columbus is in blue with the Flyers in orange.
The game started with a surge from the Blue Jackets that the Flyers never caught up to. Columbus was cycling in the Flyers zone and generating shot attempts at will. Each team scored a power play goal in the first period with the Blue Jackets playing a much more controlled game.
The Blue Jackets were waiting for the Flyers to make mistakes, and then capitalized on those mistakes to generate shots and chances.
The second period was much of the same, with Columbus controlling much of the play through a relatively whistle-less game. The Jackets added another on the power play here off a controversial scramble in the crease.
The Flyers were lucky to be down just one after two periods, and looked to take advantage of that come the third.
The third period started with a bit of a lackluster effort by the Flyers. However, they had a surge during the middle of the period that created some great chances and nearly evened up the puck possession battle.
After a great penalty kill that generated chances of its own, the Flyers went to work with the goalie pulled and managed to tie the game. The Flyers dominated the third period, with 13 even strength shot attempts to the Blue Jackets 3.
The Flyers had a good cycle going in the Jackets zone during overtime before an ill-advised play launched a 2-on-1 for Columbus. This resulted in the game winning goal.
Overall, the Flyers played much better third period and overtime and ultimately only lost the puck possession battle by one shot attempt, 37 to 38.
Forwards
Corsi For % is the percentage of shot attempts (corsi) for a team has when that player is on the ice.
Offensive Zone Start % is the percentage of shifts that a player starts in the Offensive Zone.
The numbers of this game on an individual level look pretty much how you would expect them to.
The top line played a fairly balanced game deployment wise with some good puck possession numbers. Michael Raffl led the way for this line with over 60% corsi for in a few more offensive zone starts. This can be attributed to shifts after any special teams play while Giroux or Voracek were on the bench.
The second line played phenomenally again. Schenn had two goals and Scott Laughton & Wayne Simmonds combined with him for some great chances at even strength. This group received the most friendly zone starts and took advantage of them with corsi for percentages up near 70.
The third "shutdown" line started just one-fifth of their shifts in the defensive zone, but were able to still manage some decent possession numbers. Sean Couturier was the best of this bunch possession wise, and even chipped in an assist on the game-tying tally. RJ Umberger continues to be a drag on his line mates and the team with very poor possession numbers.
The fourth line was a disaster. They only had two zone starts, with the rest of their shifts coming on the fly, resulting in just a 50% offensive zone start percentage. However, they were poor all around. They were getting cycled on in their own zone and managed just a less than 30% corsi for. Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare was the lone bright spot (if you could call it that) on the line, putting in some penalty killing work and generating a 33% corsi for.
Defense
The defense played a typical Flyers defensive game: poor.
Mark Streit and Nicklas Grossmann received some sheltering but still started more than 55% of their shifts outside the offensive zone. This showed up in the numbers as neither was able to generate a positive corsi for, with Streit managing 45% and Grossmann just 36%.
Nick Schultz and Braydon Coburn played the most minutes at even strength, and manged themselves decently. They started nearly two-thirds of their shifts outside the offensive zone yet Coburn still managed a corsi for percentage close to 50% (46%) in nearly 20 minutes of play.
Andrew MacDonald and Michael Del Zotto were the Flyers least used pairing and most sheltered, by far. They played 3 minutes less than Streit/Grossmann and nearly 5 or 6 minutes less than Schultz/Coburn. The chances they were given weren't squandered. They started most of their shifts and were able to direct most of the shot attempts while they were on the ice towards the Columbus net. If these two can continue to be effective in this role, keep playing them there.
Overall this was a poor effort through 40 minutes that was salvaged by a late 20 minute push.
Ryan Gilbert is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia and can be found on Twitter @RiskyBryzness
