January 05, 2016
Location, location, location.
After going 0-for-California (or 0-for-3, that also works) on the Ice Capades trip, the Philadelphia Flyers (16-15-7) got back in the win column with a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center.
“We want to make it miserable on teams coming in here night in and night out,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
Shayne Gostisbehere, seemingly everyone’s favorite Flyer these days, bounced back in a big way after being held without a point on the three-game road trip. Definitely inspired by Ivan Provorov’s performance in Finland over the last couple of weeks (OK, not really), the Ghost Bear recorded two points, including this laser from the left point at even strength:
👻🐻 goal pic.twitter.com/75B8pkRwBo
— Stephanie (@myregularface) January 6, 2016
“I’m not going to shoot the puck if no one’s in front," Gostisbehere said. "The goalies are too good in this league. I just wait for things to develop and I put it on net and they do a great job at tipping it in.”
There were a couple of storylines headed into this game, the first one being that Dave Hakstol had shuffled the lines yet again. While the Voracek-Giroux-Simmonds top group got most of the ink (and deservedly so), it was the new second line that did most of the damage.
Sean Couturier (two points) and Brayden Schenn (three points) had big offensive nights for the Orange and Black. Schenn, who was rewarded for trailing the play because of initially losing his stick, opened the scoring on a breakaway after the Montreal defense failed to account for him.
“We need more out of us," Schenn said. "This team is obviously very tough to score on and we can’t rely on G, Jake, and Simmer to score every night."
The Flyers penalty kill, which was hemorrhaging goals out in California (six in total), thwarted all four Montreal power plays.
“I think you look back to our first penalty kill," Hakstol said. "I thought we had some great clears. They weren’t easy clears, but a lot of communication and guys working hard together."
The Habs only managed 24 shots, but it’s not as if Michael Neuvirth was completely off his game in surrendering three goals. Montreal actually out-Corsi’d the Flyers 45-38 at even strength, but they couldn’t put much on net for most of the night. And when they did, a couple of times there were deflections that Neuvirth couldn’t do anything about:
Galchenyuk goal pic.twitter.com/yiSJHPBwBT
— Stephanie (@myregularface) January 6, 2016
The Flyers surrendered a late goal by Daniel Carr — Ghostisbehere's former teammate at Union College — that had to be reviewed, but they held on the last 55 seconds for a one-goal victory. Next up for the Orange and Black is a trip to Minnesota on Thursday night.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
