Panthers end Flyers run
Game Events
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Forwards
It was an even, back and forth game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers last night. Neither team could pull away from the other in terms of possession or on the scoreboard. Fittingly, this back and forth game went down to the wire, and eventually a shootout. Perhaps it's best that Flyers fans do not talk about the shootout, however. It goes down as a 5-4 final, with one point for the Flyers and two for the Panthers.
Going into the numbers, the Claude Giroux line isn't finding the scoreboard lately. Their possession last night was okay, going primarily against the Panthers second line, but Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds only mustered one shot each on the wings. That's not great for a top line. On top of that, things were even worse for these same players on the power play. The Flyers' top unit has really struggled against aggressive penalty killing units from the Florida teams this week, and they were missing-in-action again last night.
The Sean Couturier line played a big role last night. The members of this line combined for five points, and they lots of ice time against the Panthers' top line. They won possession against Alexander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr, and did well in a few shifts against the Panther's second line.
The Nick Cousins line was not able to continue their strong performance that they managed against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Cousins grabbed a goal on a nice feed from Sam Gagner, but they weren't entrusted with much ice time and didn't fare well against Nick Bjugstad and Jiri Hudler.
Defense
Andrew MacDonald was a game day scratch, resulting in Evgeny Medvedev returning to the lineup. Playing with Shayne Gostisbehere, the pair had an uneven game. Medvedev struggled with turnovers and pressure, but he always seems to end games on the positive side of possession. Ghost didn't have the same numbers, but he continues to be a gamebreaker. He scored the late, game-tying goal, had a team leading 8 shot attempts, and finished +1.
Mark Streit and Nick Schultz handled most of the work against the Panthers' top line. They broke about even in those matchups. Streit had a busy night, playing nearly 29 minutes total, and had a team leading five shots on goal.
Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.
