Toronto Maple Leafs
The Flyers first opponent of December is a familiar one, a team they faced twice already during November. The Toronto Maple Leafs come back to Philadelphia for the final game of a three-game season series. The first two games went to a shootout with both teams getting one win.
With goals from Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier, the Flyers managed to secure their second shootout win in eight days, this time beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in the shootout and 3-2 in the game. Observations from the Flyers shootout win over Toronto.
Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier got goals in the shootout and Brian Elliott made two saves as the Flyers claimed a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs.
The Flyers are now coming off two wins this week and have points in their last four games, as they travel north of the border to face the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A fortunate goal got the score even and somehow the game was tied after one period. From there, the Flyers played the dominant forechecking game they have proven to be capable of and actually kept the game in their favor for some time. They got the game to overtime, earned a solid point in the standings, before falling in a marathon shootout that went 11 rounds in a 4-3 defeat to Toronto.
In the 11th round of a marathon shootout, Andreas Johnsson managed to beat Brian Elliott for the deciding goal, as the Flyers dropped a hard-fought contest, 4-3, to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.
The month of November is going to be a constant test. The Flyers play 16 games in the month, starting with Friday’s win, and that includes four sets of back-to-backs. The first of the four back-to-backs concludes on Saturday night on home ice as the Flyers take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Last week, it was already known that the President’s Trophy winners, the Tampa Bay Lightning, were eliminated, as were the Pittsburgh Penguins. Six other teams have joined, and many of them were near the top of the regular-season standings.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that tied an NHL record with 62 wins in the regular season, were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in four games. The Pittsburgh Penguins, the Stanley Cup champions in 2016 and 2017, were also swept by the New York Islanders in four games.
Carter Hart made four saves in the shootout, including on attempts by Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander, as the Flyers got the only goal of the skills competition from Sean Couturier to seal a 5-4 win over the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.
