Final Score: Flyers 3, Red Wings 2 | (1-0-0 under Scott Gordon)

It’s no secret. The Philadelphia Flyers had become one of the biggest laughing stocks in the National Hockey League. The team already fired their GM. They had gone through 5 different starting goalies already. They looked like absolute dog shit during their latest road trip through western Canada where they got steamrolled by Winnipeg, lost in hilarious fashion to Calgary, got worked by Edmonton and then worked again by Vancouver. Even when the Flyers eventually got around to firing Dave Hakstol on Monday, the organization found a way to botch the way it all went down. So yeah, the Flyers were in dead last place in the Eastern Conference and it was clear that this team had reached rock bottom. But the moment that Dave Hakstol was fired, the healing process could begin. And what we saw out of this team last night is that there’s a chance this wasn’t too little too late.

Now the cynics out there will tell you to pump the brakes and that it was just a win over a Detroit Red Wings team that isn’t all that great themselves. But keep in mind that the Flyers are in last place in the conference so technically any win from them at this point is an upset. And considering they were playing with a new head coach making his Flyers’ debut and a new 20-year-old goalie making his NHL debut? A win is a goddamn win. And it wasn’t just the win itself, but it was the way this team won.

For the first time in a while, I was excited to watch a Philadelphia Flyers game. At the same time, I was nervous as shit for last night. Because the game could have either gone one of two ways. It could have gone the way it went last night and we’d all have reason to be optimistic moving forward. Or the team could continue to come out flat, make life way more difficult on themselves than needs to be, play scared hockey and shoot themselves in the dicks repeatedly. And if that were the case last night, well then it would be all the evidence you’d need to say this team was completely broken and it was time to blow up the roster. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case and the team responded last night exactly how you’d want a team to respond after hitting their lowest point. So let’s talk about the game a bit finally here.

America Loves Speed. Hot, Nasty, Bad Ass Speed

One of the things I liked seeing last night the most was that the Flyers just seemed like a faster team out there. Both in terms of general speed and always in the way they were playing. The Flyers never seem to be a team that puts their opponent on their heels much throughout the game but last night was different. They were getting up and down the ice quickly, they were creative through the neutral zone, and then as soon as they entered the offense zone they were creating chance after chance after chance. We saw it here with JvR entering the zone cleanly then dropping the puck off to Konecny to get a decent shot on net.

And then we saw it on the Flyers’ 2nd and 3rd goal of the night. Here’s goal #2.

As soon as Konecny got into the offensive zone, he was looking to make something happen. So he pulled up real quick, served a piping hot saucy dish across the ice, Giroux sets the play up nicely with that fake, then as soon as it gets on Radko Gudas’ stick you know he was going bombs away with that thing. But the Flyers enter the zone cleanly, try to get a shot on net, and it ends up getting by Bernier. Now here’s goal #3.

Raffl with a controlled zone entry, the moment he crosses the blue line he’s looking to make something happen, great drop pass to Nolan Patrick and then even better vision from Patrick to realize he was skating himself into a high traffic area and to kick that puck over to Shayne Gostisbehere for the top bunk snipe.

And that’s what the Flyers were doing pretty much all night. They were generating chances by pushing the pace of play, and it had Detroit on their heels pretty much the entire game. And what that says to me is that the Flyers don’t want to play a conservative brand of hockey anymore. They don’t want to play too scared to take some chances immediately off the rush. Sure, maybe a few turnovers in the offensive zone could come back to haunt them against some better competition out there but I like the Flyers’ chances if they keep playing this way.

Wasn’t Perfect, But They Didn’t Freak The Heck Out

One of the most apparent signs that things just weren’t working in the Dave Hakstol era was the weak mentality of this team. The Flyers had this uncanny ability to always let one minor mistake snowball into multiple larger mistakes. As soon as things started to go poorly for this team, it would spiral like crazy and they’d lose complete control of the game. Now just because the Flyers fired Dave Hakstol wouldn’t mean that they’d just magically become a perfect team out there and make any mistakes. No no no. These guys are still fully capable of playing some bad hockey every now and then. Like take this icing from Andrew MacDonald for example.

I mean there is nobody on him. He had the puck on his stick for a good 7-8 seconds with absolutely zero pressure on him and he still iced the puck. Typically you could see the Flyers getting scored against on the ensuing defensive zone faceoff with tired legs, but that wasn’t the case. Or take this turnover up the boards from Radko Gudas on the penalty kill for example.

The Flyers still probably lead the league in amount of turnovers at or around their own blue line. And typically after a turnover like that which led to Dylan Larkin getting the puck on his stick in the slot with nobody on him, you’d expect that puck to be in the back of the net. But fortunately, Carter Hart was able to square up perfectly against Larkin, play that shot aggressively at the top of the crease and forced Larkin to try to get too cute with the shot. And then finally, take this turnover up the boards from Phil Varone for example (Sidenote: I thought Varone played a great game last night aside from this turnover).

Now granted, this puck did end up in the back of the net right after the turnover. But it was the last goal that Detroit scored on the night. Think about what we’ve become used to seeing out of this Flyers team. They went into the 3rd period holding a 2-goal lead and they get scored on in the first two minutes of the period to cut the lead down to 1. That’s usually when this team starts to freak out the most and I’m sure there were a lot of people out there who were expecting that lead to be gone just a few minutes after giving up this goal. But instead of freaking out and playing scared to lose, the Flyers went right back to dictating the pace of the game and stuck with what got them the 3-1 lead in the first place. Not blowing a 2-goal lead in the 3rd period had to have been a major boost of confidence for this team because I can’t remember the last time that didn’t happen.

Selling Out For The Kid

It was pretty clear that the team wanted to make life as easy as possible for Carter Hart making his NHL debut last night, and it was pretty clear they were playing with some extra gas to make that happen. So here you have Claude Giroux, the captain, giving up his body to block a shot in the slot off a rebound. Hart probably got himself back in good enough position to stop that shot himself but it’s still good to see Giroux bail out his goalie anyway there and take one off the shins to hold on to that 2-goal lead going into the 3rd.

And then you also had Travis Sanheim blocking shots with his dick out there. Sanheim had a great game being paired with Ivan Provorov and if he can become a guy who the Flyers can really rely on to play 21 good minutes out there per game, then this team is in a great spot moving forward. Provorov gives you 24 minutes. Sanheim gives you 21. Ghost gets on the board. Hagg doesn’t commit any turnovers. Once guys like Phil Myers and Sam Morin can come in to take the spots of MacDonald and Gudas, I like where this team is heading. But yeah, I know that highlighting shot blocking is a very John Tortorella-esque thing to do, but it was great to see the boys sell out and give up the body to make sure they made life easy for Carter Hart.

Speaking Of Carter Hart…

Carter Hart got his own full blog last night so if you want to read everything I had to say about him getting his first win in his first career start, go ahead and click the link above. Listen–I still wouldn’t put him out there against guys like Crosby or Ovechkin or Laine. I don’t know if he’s necessarily ready for some of the toughest shots to pick up in the NHL just yet. But what last night’s game proved to me is that Carter Hart can be very much ready for this league very very soon.

The Other Guys

– Big game from James van Riemsdyk last night who was all over the scoresheet. It didn’t start off too well for him taking 2 penalties in the first period. But then this silly tip to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead last night was a total game changer.

If the Flyers didn’t score the first goal of the game last night, who knows how the team or the fans would have responded. Luckily that doesn’t matter because Ghost gets his shot through some traffic and then James van Riemdsyk does exactly what James van Riemsdyk was born to do–deflect pucks into the back of the net. I’d expect a lot more to come from JvR throughout the rest of the season now with Scott Gordon on the bench, who was an assistant coach in Toronto while JvR was putting up 30 goals a season with the Leafs.

– Speaking of Scott Gordon, I thought it was a really great night behind the bench for him. I thought the way he rolled through the lines was really good and he had to juggle a few different line combinations out there for a little when Konecny got hurt in the 1st period. But you look at the ice time distribution and it looks pretty much exactly how it should look for this team to be successful.

– Tomorrow night will obviously be a little bit of a bigger test for the Flyers going up against Nashville. I’d probably go with Neuvirth in that game considering the Flyers play back-to-back this weekend and you’d probably want Carter Hart to start in at least one of those games either against Columbus on Saturday or the Rangers on Sunday. So I’d say 3 starts in 4 games would be a bit much right away, so maybe just alternate starts here heading into the holiday break.

@BarstoolJordie