The Flyers took a different approach to Saturday's game, opening with a strong first period and scored three goals in short order.
They carried that first period to a 3-1 win over the Devils, their second win over the Devils in eight days, continuing to show that they can come up big in games against divisional opponents.
Let's jump right in with our Postgame Review.
Postgame Points
- Fast Start – After the Flyers turned in a terrible game in New York and nearly ended up on the wrong end of Thursday's game, the third period and overtime of Thursday seemingly set the stage for the first period on Saturday.
This was probably the Flyers best start to a game this season. They were winning puck battles. They were creating turnovers and chances. They took more shots. They made their shots count. And they completely dismantled the Devils, a team that had such a streak of dominance early in the season.
The Flyers first goal came at 3:29 and over the next 10 minutes, the Flyers picked their spots, took advantage of opportunities and opened up a lead.
These kind of starts are what you want to see from the Flyers in games that carry so much meaning.
- TKO – Travis Konecny opened the scoring off a great play by Shayne Gostisbehere. But Konecny's game as a whole has been turning a corner lately.
Since being elevated to the top line, Konecny has started to display more confidence and the points are starting to follow. That's now goals in three of the last six games and nine points over the last 10 games for Konecny.
- Penalty Kill – The Flyers penalty kill had to fend off some big moments for the Devils power play and while they did allow the Devils only goal, they also finished with three successful kills and one that lasted two seconds but still counts as a full kill at the end of the game.
There were moments where the Flyers started to leave the door open for the Devils to get back in the game, and their power play goal was one of them. But in the crucial moments, you saw defensemen sprawling out to make plays, positioning themselves well to block shots and making the necessary plays to clear the puck.
It still needs work, but the Flyers are starting to show signs that the penalty kill is improving.
- Goalie Carousel – Let's start with the Flyers in goal, because Michal Neuvirth was solid in goal once again. This wasn't quite the crazy performance he had against the Leafs, but he had to face some difficult shots in the latter half of the game as the Devils started to push back. He had earned the start today after Thursday's game and looked solid again.
On the other side, talk about a day for the Devils. Keith Kinkaid was playing well coming in, but with Cory Schneider still feeling some ill effects from taking a stick on the bench earlier this week, he wasn't able to dress, which left rookie Ken Appleby on the bench.
Kinkaid didn't look good from the start. The Flyers first shot of the game went in. So did their third. And by the time the barrage of chances that led to Ivan Provorov's goal went in, Kinkaid had allowed three goals on seven shots and was laboring in the goal with an injury.
Enter Ken Appleby. The rookie was making his NHL debut and got his welcome to the NHL moment from another barrage of shots by the Flyers. But he settled in and did his part, keeping the Devils in the game.
- Keeping Pace - Entering the game on Saturday, the Flyers had to look at the schedule and see the importance of this back-to-back. The Devils and Capitals are two teams the Flyers are chasing in the standings. Every game within the division matters.
These are four-point games. Every point you can take away from your competition is critical. For the Flyers, wins are just about keeping pace right now as much as anything. There are so many teams vying for the final playoff spots that it is critical to win these games to even have a chance at the playoffs.
So this has been a good start. They went into the bye with wins over teams like the Islanders and Sabres. They have come out of the bye with two wins against the Devils and a win over the Maple Leafs. The losses in between to teams like Pittsburgh and the Rangers hurt, but to the Flyers credit, they have been scattered. If you want to be in the playoff discussion, you need to string together wins and have the losses be come every once in a while. The Flyers have won six of the last seven games since the 5-1 drubbing to the Penguins.
And this is only the beginning. They face the Capitals tomorrow. They will meet many more divisional opponents in the rest of the games to come this season. Getting points on a regular basis is necessary. And with games like this, the Flyers are at least keeping themselves in the discussion.
Quotable
"I think how the game is played right now, I think all 5 guys have to move in the offensive zone and I think that is what we we’re doing. I gave it to TK, jumped down low, jumped through, he did a criss-cross with Ghost, kept it. I was at the front of the net, he shot it for a tip, I tipped it, hit the goalie, the rebound came, I whacked at it again, it came back on the other side and I put the rebound back in." – Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov
"You can look at it two ways like now were figuring out our starts, but we also know how to play from behind too and find ways to win, but definitely know what we plan on doing, we definitely want to keep rolling with what we’re doing right now." – Flyers forward Travis Konecny
"We got to take advantage of every opportunity, there’s going to be some nights where you’re not you’re best but you have to give yourself the chance to find a win. But, on days like today when we get off to a good start we have to take advantage of that and make sure we close out the two points. Regardless of what the outcome is, if you look at our results here the past week, whether it’s good or bad you really have to be resilient and take a couple of good things and maybe a couple things that you could improve on and then you got to turn the page quickly and move onto the next challenge." – Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol
Play of the Game
A couple of bounces go the Flyers as the puck comes to Valtteri Filppula for the second goal of the game.
By the Numbers
Despite a strong first period, the Flyers only had a 57.14 CF% at even strength in the first period. But the Flyers really clogged the front of the net on the Devils netminders as noted on the heat map below.
