The Flyers Played 6 Whole Minutes Of Good Hockey Last Night In Chicago

Jordie10/19/2016 2:30 PM

Flyers 4, Blackhawks 7 | (1-1-1)

In case you’re new to hockey, let me break it down for you real quick. The game is broken up into 3 periods. Each of those periods last for 20 minutes. There’s always a chance that a game can be tied after all 3 periods are up and it will go to a 5 minute overtime. But every hockey game in the National Hockey League lasts for at least 60 minutes. Last night the Flyers played for 6 of them. That’s not a typo where I just forgot to hit the ‘0’ and my non-existent editor didn’t catch the mistake. That’s six minutes. One-tenth of a game. If you’re thinking to yourself right now that “wow, that doesn’t really seem like a very efficient way to play if you want to win”, well then you’re on the right track.

Sure, they erased a 4-goal deficit rather easily. Matt Read got the Flyers on board with less than 2 minutes left in the 2nd period in what seemed like a pity goal given up by the Hawks. Then he scores again 37 seconds into the 3rd. Then Sean Couturier scores just over a minute after that. And then Wayne Simmonds ties it up on the powerplay just under 4 minutes into the 3rd period. In what was looking to be a complete embarrassment of a night actually turned into a game with 16 minutes still to play in the 3rd period. But when you make mistake after mistake, and have a defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown, climbing yourself out of a 4-goal hole just isn’t enough. So let’s get into it here.

Mailtime Mark Streit

Now this goal right here is a combination of over-aggressiveness from Ivan Provorov (who we’ll get to right after this) and a complete lack of aggression from Streit. Listen, I get it. Mark Streit is 38-years-old. This is probably his final season in the NHL. He’s getting old and his body just isn’t capable of doing the things that it used to be. But the puck is right around the net and it ends up on the stick of one of the most dangerous players in the league. Maybe do a little more than just lightly poking your stick at him because, well I don’t know, Patrick Kane can score from almost anywhere in the offensive zone. Then watch him on this Anisimov goal that put the Hawks back up 5-4 in the 3rd.

Yikes. The back of his skates are basically touching the crease, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? I hate giving other teams compliments but you have to realize who you are playing again. If Panarin sees an inch or two of space, he’s going to get a pass through your stick and feet. So maybe fucking hit LB+RB and dive on this play. Do something to try to take away that pass instead of just being a cone slightly in the way. Now we’ll go to his partner.

Growing Pains

Ivan Provorov is 19-years-old. He’s not going to be a polished NHL player and he’s going to make some rookie mistakes. That much is a fact and it’s what we’ve been saying since day 1 of camp this summer. And I’m even willing to let this play slide since he just caught a bad break. Sure, that’s a dangerous spot on the ice to try to make a play instead of just sending it back up the boards. But he’s usually so good with his hips and edges that he makes that play 9 times out of 10. He just got caught on that shitty 1/10. But this next play from him is the one that he needs to learn from the most.

I get what he’s going for and typically, I’m all for it. I’ll say this until the day he retires that Ivan Provorov will be one of the most gifted puck-moving defensemen to play the game. With that being said, he just needs to be smarter here and understand the situation. It’s a 1-goal game late in the 3rd period. He already has 2 guys ahead of him when he picks up the puck and Voracek is following right behind him. So he knows that 4 guys are entering the zone and there’s only Streit hanging back. That puck HAS TO get deep into the zone and allow that line to set up shop. It’s what Couturier and Voracek do best. Again–he’s young. He’s going to make these mistakes. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that they are two big mistakes.

Comeback Kids

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I know that moral victories are for chumps and losers. Nobody who has ever won anything real doesn’t need any “moral victories”. But you have to at least admire how the Flyers were able to fight back in this one. There BETTER be some video of whatever the fuck Dave Hakstol said to the boys during that 2nd intermission because it seems like he went Halftime Saban on their asses. Down 4-1 heading into the 3rd period to cap off a 3-game road trip to start the season? It’s easy to see how the Flyers would want to just get the last 20 minutes out of the way and head back to Philly for the home opener tomorrow night. But it’s great to see this team has that fight and compete level in them because that’ll make a difference come March/April. Let’s just hope they don’t put themselves in too many more 4-goal holes. (I also thought they responded well after giving up a goal in the 1st minute of the game. Obviously things unraveled at the end of the 1st period but that wasn’t because of the Kane goal).

Neuvirth And Mason Handling The Starting Goalie Position Like…

Every goalie stinks in the beginning of the season so I’m not going to get on Neuvirth for last night’s showing. Especially considering he wasn’t getting much help in front of him. The same thing happened last year. The goalies start off slow, then they find their groove and everybody is happy again. Do I think that either Steve Mason or Michal Neuvirth are elite goalies who you can 100% count on come playoff time? Maybe not so much. But give them some time to settle in before writing angry hate mail to Hextall demanding that one of them be traded.

The Other Guys

I just wanted to highlight this play from Ghost before we wrapped things up. I know Keith didn’t get all of that shot but still, Ghost blocks the shot and then immediately turns it up ice to start a rush. The way this kid so effortlessly turns defense into offense gives me some feelings.

– So where do we go from here? Well for starters, Brayden Schenn will return to the lineup now that his 3-game suspension is over. This is HUGE and now the top line can finally find their game. Not quite sure what the deal is with Raffl’s injury but as long as he’s good to go, slide him down to the 3rd line. Find a way to get Cousins back into the lineup. And as soon as Del Zotto and Gudas are both back, Brandon Manning and Andrew MacDonald should get comfortable in their street clothes. And then that’s all it takes. Having Schenn, MDZ and Gudas back into the lineup solves a lot of the Flyers’ issues that we saw last night. See everybody on Thursday.

P.S. – Captain Claude doing Captain Claude things after Provorov’s turnover.