Flyers get PK boost to grab important regulation win
As Radko Gudas made an early exit from Tuesday's game between the Flyers and Montreal Canadiens, the Flyers season may have flashed before their very eyes. Just 7:44 separated the Flyers from a key victory to open a month where they will play 15 games.
Now, they had to kill a five-minute major assessed to Gudas. The Flyers penalty kill entered Tuesday's game ranked 26th in the league.
Not only did the Flyers rise to the occasion on that penalty kill, they did in the third period, taking advantage of a scoring chance in a period that featured few of quality.
The win included two power-play goals for the Flyers, but really it was a win for the Flyers defensively while shorthanded and at even strength, two areas where the Flyers struggled in a three-game pointless streak that could have derailed their season.
"We pride ourselves in working and improving in all areas of our game," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Tonight, special teams did a good job. Power play teams set the zone for our team early, PK helped us finish off and close out the game in a big way it was a big penalty kill."
"We stayed strong. We kept our composure on the bench and kept going," Wayne Simmonds said. "That penalty was unfortunate but our penalty killers did a great job. They were unbelievable for us and they allowed us to win."
"That was just a fantastic kill all around," Steve Mason said. "The type of shot blocking that went on, the compete to take time and space away, two huge chances by Coots and, I think Vandy, maybe. Just a great kill, and at a huge point in the game, too."
Simmonds struck for two goals and it was a three-point night for Jake Voracek. Together, the two wingers have helped pace the Flyers in recent games.
Simmonds' success aside — he leads the team with 16 goals — if you want to focus the Flyers strong start in January and their two wins in Washington and at home against Montreal on any one player, it would be Voracek. The winger that took the NHL by storm a season ago is playing with tremendous confidence and is starting to pile up the points.
Voracek has eight points in his last four games.
"I feel like I have a lot more energy than I had the first 15 games, so that’s a good sign," Voracek said. "If we want to make that push it’s going to be huge for us."
"Right now he’s at a high level, he’s making game changing plays," Hakstol said. "I’m sure that’s what Jake expects out of himself and we’re seeing it on a regular basis right now."
The Flyers penalty kill really never wavered all the way through. While allowing a first-period power play goal, the Flyers killed off the remaining two minors and major penalty in the final minutes. The 75 percent rate won't improve their ranking any, but a five-minute kill with time winding down can certainly help boost the confidence of the PK unit moving forward.
"In that situation it builds confidence for the hockey team not just for the guys in the PK. That builds confidence within a team," Hakstol said. "It’s always easy to find the negatives when a goal is scored against or a PK unit isn’t going all that good. You look at our last two games we had a huge kill against Washington at the end of that hockey game and that got us to over time and then we had a big kill today at the five-minute major."
The road into the playoffs isn't going to be easy for the Flyers. But they certainly started the post All-Star portion of the schedule the right way, getting a win in regulation.
By virtue of that win, the Flyers jumped right over the Canadiens in the standings and also benefitted from Ottawa's loss in Pittsburgh. The Flyers are tied with the Canadiens and Senators with 52 points each, but the Flyers hold the edge with three fewer games played than both opponents.
The Flyers will certainly get their chances at the other teams in front of them over this stretch run.
In the month of February alone, the Flyers don't get much relief from one game to the next. Hakstol is prepared for the road that lies ahead.
"We’re not going to have a lot of practice opportunities here especially over the next month," Hakstol said. "It’s about being ready to play on game day doing whatever that takes physically and mentally and we got to do as good a job as we can be fresh physically and allowing ourselves to be fresh mentally. This is probably a typical example of the type of games we’re going to be involved in there’s some emotions involved and there’s a lot of energy spent so, tomorrows a good day to recover and get ourselves ready to go and get on the road and travel."
"Sometimes it’s better when you play every other day," Voracek said. "I don’t like practice as much, I’d rather play the games. It’s good for us, we have to make sure we find a way to win the games like we did today."
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
