Flyers Beat The Hurricanes In OT For 3rd Time This Season
Flyers 4, Hurricanes 3 (OT) | (13-12-6)
Shayne Gostisbehere’s first game with the Flyers this season was a November 14th game against the Hurricanes. And in that game, Gostisbehere played a huge role in setting up the tying goal that led to a 3-2 Flyers win in overtime. And last night, for the 3rd time already this season, the Flyers had to play a few extra minutes to take down those pesky Canes and this time, it was Ghost he got the overtime dagger. His 3rd overtime goal already this season in just 15 games. Pretty safe to say that there’s never been a better 3-on-3 overtime player in the NHL before and let’s just a good look at that goal one last time before we get into the rest of the recap.
Now make no mistake about it. This goal was like 95% Jake Voracek (who had himself his best game of the season last night) and only 5% Shayne Gostisbehere. But the kid is a rookie. He’s played less than 20 games in the NHL his entire career so far. But he already knows that if he’s heading down on a 2-on-1 with Jake Voracek, his job is to get his ass to that back post and just keep his stick on the ice. So yeah, unbelievable dish from Jake which we’ll get into later, but 3 overtime goals already in Shayne Gostisbehere’s short NHL career has me ready to finally print the shirt.
Ladies And Gentlemen… Jake. Voracek. Is. Back.
With the Raffl-Giroux-Schenn line playing so well lately, it’s been hard to justify putting Jake Voracek back on the top line. So last night the Flyers moved Jake to the left wing for the first time ever and threw him with Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier. Aaaaaaand yeah, that shit paid off because Pork Chops had himself a 3 point night off of 1 goal and 2 assists. Now I’ll be honest, I liked the way that he was playing with Pebbles and VandeVelde earlier. The line may have not been scoring all the goals, but they were all getting their chances and getting plenty of shots. But the Jake-Coots-Simmer line has an outrageous amount of potential. As soon as they get the puck into the offensive zone, you can almost guarantee that’s where there shift is going to end. They control the puck so well in the OZ and putting a gifted goal scorer like Jake on the wing with two “shut down” guys like Coots and Simmonds means this line will rarely end the night with a minus.
Who The Fuck Reminded Jeff Skinner That He’s A Good Hockey Player?
That is a serious question. Because last night Jeff Skinner scored his second hat trick in just a few days. Remember Jeff Skinner’s rookie season? The former 7th overall draft pick in 2010 was sick. He had 63 points his rookie year and since then, he just sort of turned into a grey guy. I know he’s dealt with some injuries and everything but this is the resurgence of Jeff Skinner. The only thing I can come up with as a valid explanation is that he keeps the ear guards in his helmet. The only other guys that I can think of off the top of my head that have ear guards are Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Vladimir Putin. All some of the best to ever play.
Brayden Schenn Will Be A Philadelphia Flyer Next Season
Brayden Schenn is poised to have the best season of his career so far. He’ll probably end up with somewhere around 25 goals and his previous best was 20 a couple of seasons ago. Schenn becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and during the summer, I thought we were going to see the last of Brayden Schenn in a Flyers uniform this year. But with the way he’s been playing so far this year, I think they get a deal done before the end of the season. It may not be for much. Schenn is currently making $2.5 million and I can’t see him getting Couturier money. So maybe around that $3.6 range will work for Baby Schenn but I just don’t see how you can let him go at this point.
Choo Choo, Bitch
From another angle, that Brad Malone hit on Michael Raffl wasn’t actually that bad. It looked pretty nasty but he actually got him with the hip. That being said, shoutout to Wayne Simmonds for sticking up for his guy and feeding Malone a few fists for that hit. Simmer is old time hockey through and through. The fans can respect that, his teammates can respect that, and it’s why fighting in the NHL is so great.
The Other Guys
– Radko Gudas and Michael Del Zotto led the way in TOI with 23 and 24 minutes respectively. Gudas actually had a few really solid plays to breakdown 2-on-1’s after Del Zotto got caught pinching too far in the offensive zone. I like this pairing together a lot, even though I’ve been pretty anti-Gudas this season. They play well together and are an underrated pairing.
– Flyers were 4/4 at the faceoff dot on the powerplay. They only went 25% last night but the powerplay units (especially that top one) have been area of the Flyers game that has been on fire. If they’re not scoring goals, they’re at least eating up a ton of time in the offensive zone and getting plenty of quality chances. That doesn’t happen if they’re losing faceoffs and giving the other team the puck.
– I swear to god this team needs a 30 minute warm up. I’ve lost track of how many games so far this season the Flyers have given up a goal within the first 2 minutes of the game. Wake up, fellas.
– Not a terrible showing for Neuvirth last night who made his 3rd straight start. I think they have to go with Mason for Vancouver on Thursday though. Neuvirth is GREAT in spurts. But him in for back-to-back games and he’ll make you think that he could be a legitimate starter in this league. Anything longer than that though and I think you’re still asking too much from him. 4 points in 3 games as a back-up though. Not bad at all.
P.S. – See everyone at Barstool @ The Rink this Thursday. Fun. Flyers hockey. Friendship. Can’t wait.