November 23, 2015
Boy, did the Philadelphia Flyers (7-9-5) need this one. Early in the second period, whenever Carolina Hurricanes (7-10-4) goaltender Eddie Lack made a save or a puck sailed wide of his net, you could easily hear the fans’ desperation. The team’s goalless drought was about to reach the running time of The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Wells Fargo Center faithful just wanted a reason to cheer.
They finally got one at 10:20 in the second period (breaking the streak at 167:54) as Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, and Brayden Schenn played tic-tac-toe on the power play:
The streak-breaker is a beaut. pic.twitter.com/8iLQLqApJ4
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) November 24, 2015
"Yes absolutely," Schenn, who missed a penalty shot and a few other close-in opportunities, said when asked if the goal came as a relief. "I felt like I’ve had some chances the past couple games."
As it turns out, the Flyers even added a couple more in a 3-2 overtime win over Carolina. GOALZ = WINZZZ, basic math. Despite a major slip-up in the third period, the Orange and Black responded as Shayne Gostisbehere got the winner on a 4-on-3 man advantage. More importantly, Ghost provided a depressing Philadelphia sports scene with a rare victory (what a novel concept!), which won't help us catch 1972.
Aaron Bracy's gamer is here, and here’s what I saw:
• Great stuff from the Flyers penalty kill, which overwhelmed Carolina’s power play (0 for 5) for almost the entire game. In the second period, Sean Couturier and Giroux combined for a shorthanded goal after an errant dump-in by the Hurricanes:
Giroux goal pic.twitter.com/xXsBW3Rtzt
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 24, 2015
Along with Schenn's goal, Dave Hakstol was happy after the game with the the pressure generated by Couturier and the second power play unit.
"PK, PP made the difference in the game ultimately," Hakstol said.
• Michal Neuvirth’s rebound control looked was a little bit shaky in the third period when he surrendered both goals, but so was the Flyers’ defensive coverage. Brett Pesce was all alone to put the puck in the back of the net with just under four minutes to go. That tied the score at 2.
"You know, the second goal I think I got a handle on the rebound better, but I know we stuck with the system so a win is a win," Neuvirth said.
• The Flyers played a strong second period to build their lead, but they didn’t protect it well at all in the third. Carolina held a 25-13 Corsi advantage in the final 20 minutes of regulation, which ultimately led to them earning a point. Neuvirth was bombarded with good scoring chances, and you just had the feeling that the Hurricanes were going to capitalize.
"I think part of that is we took our foot off the gas a little bit on the offensive side of the red line," Hakstol said. "That's where a lot of that's generated from."
"We'll take a lot of the positives out of this this and we've got some things that we can adjust from and learn from in the third period."
• This was our first look at Jake Voracek on a line alongside Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde. On first look, it seems like they will have to work on their chemistry in the offensive zone a little bit. That’s to be expected, obviously. The possession numbers for that group were about even, something I suspect could get better if Hakstol chooses to stick with it.
"I like the fact that it didn’t really seem to matter who was together in any one line combination tonight," Hakstol said. " I thought, especially for the first 40 plus minutes of the game the guys played the right way.”
• I thought Couturier played another strong game, and he drew the (questionable) penalty during 3-on-3 that allowed Ghost to score the winner on the power play.
• Sam Gagner took a nasty hit from Brad Malone in the first period, and his face was bleeding quite a bit.
Ouch for Sam Gagner. pic.twitter.com/SWOLLUPHkl
— PhillyGirl1437 (@PhillyGirl1437) November 24, 2015
He didn’t return to the game with an "upper-body injury," which I would say is technically an accurate description:
Injury Update: Sam Gagner will not return to tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury. #CARvsPHI
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 24, 2015
The Orange and Black will get back to work when approximately 92 percent of people aged 21-30 are hitting the bars on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. The full squad will get their first look at the ridiculous hockey setup in Brooklyn against the New York Islanders (10-8-3). National television game, so the puck won’t drop until after 7:30 p.m.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
