Flyers settle for 1 point against Canadiens
Game Events
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Forwards
The Philadelphia Flyers maintained an edge over the Montreal Canadiens most of the night, but ultimately had to settle for only one point after a shootout loss. The Flyers maintained better possession throughout the game, but the game never opened up between the teams whom were each grasping for playoff position.
Looking line by line, the Scott Laughton line turned in a nice performance. They had very good possession percentages, and scored the go-ahead goal in the third period by turning a blue-line turnover into a goal in rapid succession. Even better, many of those minutes came against the Canadiens second line.
The Nick Cousins line added the other goal. It was a soft goal by Mike Condon, but Cousins has been generating a lot of shots recently and you occasionally get lucky. And don't look now, but R.J. Umberger added another point to make it three in his last two games since joining this line.
These goals help offset a so-so performance from the Claude Giroux line. Giroux himself matched the team-high with five shots, but the line finished minus-1 overall, and Giroux took three minor penalties. One of those penalties resulted in the game-tying goal on the ensuing power play.
Lastly, the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare had the smallest role. They played the fewest 5v5 minutes, and played the weakest Montreal forwards.
Defense
First things first, Shayne Gostisbehere extended his point streak to an incredible 14 games. This came on Michael Raffl's third period goal. On the play, Ghost quickly got into the offensive zone after a turnover and fed Raffl for a tap-in before the defense could recover. This was gravy on a night when Gostisbehere and his partner Andrew MacDonald had big possession numbers overall, even if they saw easier duty compared to the other four defensemen. Furthermore, MacDonald had a really good look for the winning goal that was saved by Condon's glove.
The Mark Streit and Nick Schultz had a less glamorous night. Playing against the Alex Galchenyuk line, their possession was only average. Streit individually added five shots while blocking four of Montreal's shots, but he and his partner finished minus-1.
Lastly, it was a solid night for Evgeny Medvedev and Radko Gudas. They had very strong possession numbers, and Gudas didn't do anything insane in over 21 minutes of ice time, which apparently we can't take for granted. Gudas actually led the team in penalty kill time, while he and Medvedev combined for great even-strength possession and a plus-1 while matched against the Max Pacioretty line.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
