Both the losing streak and road trip are finally over. The only even-strength goal of the game was an empty-netter, so the game was entirely decided by special teams.
Perhaps even more importantly, it was another fantastic performance from Michal Neuvirth for his league-leading third shutout in only eight games. Neuvirth's record is 3-2-1, with his only victories coming by shutout. Hopefully, the Flyers offense can begin to make his life a little easier in the future.
Game Flow
A. 1 – 0, PPG, Schenn (Giroux, Voracek). PHI on-ice: 10, 17, 28, 93, 32
B. 2 – 0, PPG, Simmonds (Giroux, Streit). PHI on-ice: 10, 17, 28, 93, 32
C. 3-0, ENG, Read. PHI on-ice: 14, 24, 25, 3, 55
Forwards
The charts look pretty ugly, although that is skewed by the Flyers earning and keeping an early lead and the Jets pressing to come back. If you exclude the third period, the Couturier line would be positive, and the Giroux line would be even.
The Giroux line had to deal with the Jets' top players; Ladd-Little-Wheeler and Byfuglien-Enstrom. They did just fine against that group coming out slightly positive in direct matchups. It was pretty quiet offensively however, as the trio combined for only 4 even strength shot attempts all night.
The Schenn line also had a fair amount of ice time against the Jets top line. They did not fare as well. Surely on home ice Hakstol would avoid that matchup. As is often the case, this line had the least ice time of any Flyers line.
As mentioned above, the Couturier line had the best numbers, although they had comparatively easy matchups. It's pretty unusual for these guys to see so little of the opposition's top forwards.
Aside from these even strength numbers in the chart, the Flyers power play was the real story. Brayden Schenn sniped one with that quick one-time snapshot at which Scott Hartnell was so dangerous. Schenn and Raffl have never been particularly dangerous in that spot, but for long term power play success they need to be threatening the defense with that play.
Defense
It was a really tough night for Streit-Del Zotto with an approximate Corsi percentage of 25. Their matchups weren't terribly unbalanced against the Jets top players either, so it simply wasn't a great night for them.
The Schultz-Schenn line is having a pretty good run of games here in terms of Corsi. That may surprise a lot of Flyers fans.
Another surprising number is that the Flyers 5v5 ice time leaders were Radko Gudas and Luke Schenn, two players who have been healthy scratches several times this year.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @SuperScrub47.
