Flyers start February with key win over Montreal
Game Story
The Philadelphia Flyers have their back up against the wall in the standings, and began a crucial month against the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night. Both teams need to have a good month in fact, so it's no surprise the game started out relatively conservative.
The first burst of offense came after Wayne Simmonds drew a penalty, and the Flyers applied plenty of pressure on the power play. The Flyers finally broke through on the last rush of the power play, on a perfectly executed rush where all five players touched the puck before Simmonds had an easy finish.
The Canadiens gave some push back after the goal, and Steve Mason had to be on top of his game. After extended Canadiens pressure, a penalty left them shorthanded again. The Flyers converted quickly, this time with Brayden Schenn redirecting the puck in to make the game 2-0. The lead only lasted a few minutes, as the Canadiens continued to attack and Andrei Markov scored from an extreme angle as a shot bounced off the back boards.
The second period continued in the same vein, with the Canadiens on the attack. Jeff Petry tied the game, shooting the puck past a heavily screened Mason on a shot that deflected off a defenseman. The goal and the tie game seemed to wake up the Flyers, who pushed harder and started playing in the Canadiens end a bit more.
The teams turned back to conservative play again in the third period, and it looked like both teams would be content to go to overtime. Simmonds changed that, slamming home a shot after a nice lay off from Jakub Voracek.
The game took a dramatic turn from there, as Radko Gudas injured Lucas Lessio with a hip check. The officials initially made no call, but after a commercial break, changed their mind and tossed Gudas from the game for clipping and gave the Canadiens a five-minute power play. On the ensuing power play, the Flyers had perhaps the two best chances on breaks by Chris VandeVelde and Sean Couturier. With the penalty safely killed, Matt Read added an empty-netter to secure a 4-2 win.
Forwards
This was a pretty quiet game 5v5. Several power plays accounted for most of the scoring, and there were a few periods of 4v4 play as well. As a result, even strength shot attempts were only 35-32, and no players racked up too much 5v5 ice time.
The Claude Giroux line accounted for the Flyers only 5v5 goal, although they didn't have one of their better games otherwise. They'll live with it, as Voracek now has eight points overall in his last four games, and Simmonds has four goals in his last three.
Sean Couturier returned to the lineup on a new line with Sam Gagner and Schenn. The line had an okay game as well. They did well against the Canadiens' second line, but not as good against the top line. Couturier added an assist on the empty net goal, and Schenn picked up a goal and assist on the power play. Gagner finally had a chance in the top-6 rotation, but he was relatively quiet other than drawing a penalty that resulted in a power play goal.
The Flyers' bottom-6 were also shuffled, with a new Scott Laughton line featuring Michael Raffl and Matt Read. This could have been a new third line of sorts for the Flyers, but not so much judging by their ice time and Corsi. The Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line ended up with the best Corsi stats on the evening, in one of their better statistical games in a while.
Defense
Michael Del Zotto and Shayne Gostisbehere stayed together, looking like the new top pair. Ghost is handling the new duties well, leading the team in 5v5 ice time in part because he doesn't kill penalties. Del Zotto led the team in Corsi, while Gostisbehere added a point on the power play, as usual.
Mark Streit and Nick Schultz did not continue their success from the Washington game, having their hands full against the Canadiens' top-6. Streit did look pretty solid going forward, however. Schultz also deserves some credit, leading the team in penalty kill time and finishing plus-1.
Lastly, it was an eventful night for the Flyers' third pair. Gudas started the game very aggressively, if not a little out of control, going for hits and offensive opportunities. He also was ejected for a hit in the third period, although that may have been a harsh decision. This pair was on the ice for both 5v5 goals scored in this game, but Evgeny Medvedev came through again to have a solid Corsi when all was said and done. He performs very consistently in this regard, and on Tuesday night, he was playing in all situations and against all Canadiens lines.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
