Streaks And Geeks: Make That 5 In A Row For The Flyers Now
Flyers 2, Sabres 1 | (13-11-7)
Last year the Philadelphia Flyers (men’s professional ice hockey team) became the first team in league history to go on a 10-game winning streak and still fail to make the playoffs that same year. So theoretically speakings, this should also make them the first team in league history to go on a 10-game win streak, fail to make the playoffs that year, go on a 10-game losing streak the following year and then immediately follow up that 10-game losing streak with a 5-game win streak. Basically what I’m trying to get at here is that the Flyers are the most unique team in NHL history. From a week-to-week basis, you never know what you’re going to get with this team. They are a bi-polar hockey club. Sometimes it’s exciting as hell, other times it’s frustrating as AIDS. Regardless, we’re all along for the ride for better or for worse.
The team is now 5-5-5 in their last 15 games. Not too bad considering where this team was just a little over a week ago. 15 points in their last 15 games for a team that didn’t get a win in 10 straight. It could be so much worse for the Flyers right now and after 31 games, they’re only 2 points out of a Wild Card spot in the East.
Now we’ve said this plenty of times before about the Flyers during that 10-game skid. It wasn’t necessarily that they were playing awful hockey, it’s just that they were constantly finding ways to lose games. They’d build up a 2-goal lead and then whether it was mental lapses or what, they’d find ways to let the lead slip away and miss out on the 2-points. That was this team a few weeks ago. Now? Well last night the Flyers found a way to win a game that realistically wasn’t their best effort. Most of that game last night was pretty tough to watch. The first period was a mess from the get go with Brian Elliott looking like he was drunk off his ass for most of the period.
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I mean… c’mon, bud. If you’re going to get out of the crease and go behind the net to play the puck, have some fuckin’ urgency. Girgensons was already at the top of the circle before Elliott decided to play the puck. It looked like Elliott was just couldn’t make up his mind in time if he wanted to go behind the net or not, and then instead of just saying “forget about it”, made his decision at the worst possible time and now the puck is in the net just a minute thirty into a home game. Not good. Even worse is that he almost made the same mistake again just a couple minutes later in the period but thankfully Nolan Patrick was there to bail him out which led to Travis Sanheim scoring his 1st career NHL goal at the other end of the ice.
READ: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Travis Sanheim Era Has Officially Begun
But yeah, outside of that Travis Sanheim goal the 1st period for the Flyers last night overall was pretty… well how do you say…. not good.
Luckily the Flyers were able to come out and absolutely dominate the 2nd period. 14-6 in shots, and I’m sure that all the fancy stats would say the Flyers had the puck for the majority of that period. And then, of course, there was this goal from the best 2nd line in the NHL.
Nobody has had a bigger jump in game play over the last 5 games than Michael Raffl. He always seems to be making the smart, quick decision with the puck in the offensive zone. And when you give Jake Voracek that much time and space to make something happen around the net, you know that he’s going to set up a goal. He’s the best in the league at it right now with 31 assists before Christmas. Not a big deal or anything. I’m pretty sure this line has had a goal in all 5 of the Flyers wins during this streak. Maybe not against Toronto on Tuesday night but Michael Raffl still picked up an assist. Do I want to give Dave Hakstol credit for putting this line together? I don’t know. I think it took him a little too long to realize that he had to break up 28-14-93 if this team was going to get out of this slump. And I also think that you could put anybody out on a line with Jake Voracek right now and they’d produce. But the Raffl – Filppula – Voracek line has been extra incredible over these last 5 so credit where credit is due.
And then after a dominant 2nd period, the 3rd went back to a relatively uneventful game. But the biggest thing to take away from this is that the Flyers played a pretty damn miserable 20 minutes of hockey, then they played a really good 20-25 minutes of hockey, and then they played a decent 15-20 minutes to close it out. And they still managed to hold on to a 2-1 lead and win that game in regulation despite not putting together a full game. Obviously it was against the Sabres which isn’t necessarily anything to boast about. But just a couple short weeks ago the Flyers could play a very good 50 minutes of hockey and still find a way to lose the game in those 10 minutes that they sucked. This is a huge mindset shift for the team in such a short amount of time.
The Other Guys:
– I said this last night but Nolan Patrick looks like he’s very close to being very good. He’s just half a step off right now or something. I don’t know whether it’s his brain moving too fast for his body or the other way around. Either way, it looks like he’s getting closer to finally adapting to the level of play in the NHL and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him really take off after the holiday break. He also saw his ice time go back up after only playing ~10 minutes a night during most of this winning streak.
– Konecny’s a Killer!!!
The Leier – Laughton – Konecny line has been a lot of fun to watch the past 2 games. I think part of what made the Flyers so entertaining to watch in the very beginning of the season was the fact that the 4th line could go out there and fly all over the ice. With Konecny dropping down to that line, they finally have nothing but speed and heart again after having to drag around a guy like Jori Lehtera for a few weeks.
– Brian Elliott settled in after that 1st period and ended up with 19 saves on the net. Still convinced he was drunk during that 1st period but I really hope he is finding himself in a groove here. Keep in mind that the Flyers went on their tear last year while Neuvirth was hurt and Steve Mason didn’t have to worry about being replaced at all. Neuvirth is on IR again and wouldn’t ya know it, the Flyers are streaking.