Flyers Give Connor McDavid His Binky, Complete Two Separate Comebacks To Win Their 7th Straight
Final Score: Flyers 6, Oilers 5 | (16-10-3)
Last night’s Flyers v Oilers game was about as exciting as any regular season hockey game I’ve ever seen. That’s not talking about just Flyers hockey. Or just NHL hockey. I’m talking about in general. The Oilers have been whatever words means “less than irrelevant” for the past decade. They have been a total joke of a franchise and not only the laughing stock of the NHL, but of all professional sports. They should be ashamed of themselves for what they allowed themselves to become. So it’s been a while since I actually cared about any Flyers vs Oilers matchup. With that being said, all it took was one game last night and now I hate their team, I hate their fans, and I finally hate Connor McDavid after 1.25 seasons in the NHL. That’s how you know it was a great game. So speaking of that little twerp Connor McFuckFace, let’s get to the recap.
Thanks For The Free Gas, Kid
If you remember, it was Brandon Manning and the Philadelphia Flyers who broke Connor McDavid last season and forced him to miss 3 months of his rookie campaign. You can go back to watch that collission a million times and the fault will always land on McDavid for how it all played out. With that being said, this was the first time McDavid and Manning had played each other since that incident so tensions were a little high. And they reached a boiling point after McDavid’s powerplay goal where he fist pumped so hard afterwards that I was worried that his poor wittle shoulder was gonna break again.
Listen. I’ve said it on this very website time and time again. Connor McDavid is a legitimate top 3 hockey player in the world right now. The kid’s talent is unbelievable and he is the future face of the league. But he’s still a little 19-year-old snot-nosed brat at the moment. And if you come into Philly acting like a butt hurt little bitch and start yapping after your goals, well then this is gonna happen.
Comeback Kids
bang…. Bang…. BANG. Knock knock, bitches. 3 goals in a minute and 12 seconds. That’s what happens when your good ol’ Ontario boy starts running his little yap out there. You wanna talk, Connor? Okay let’s talk. But first let us dunk on your life real quick. And this is exactly the type of thing that has been going on with this team over the past 7 games. None of it makes sense. It’s like the team has blacked out and they’re just relying on instincts right now to get them through this stretch, and it’s working. Streit gets his first in a while off of a beauty from Konecny, again proving that nobody should ever take a penalty against the Flyers for the rest of their life. Then Bellemare, who had himself a night taking care of the McDavid line, gets his first of the season. And then it’s Santa Claude with possibly one of his most iconic goals yet.
Just Giroux It.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the game and of course, things got even hairier from there.
Steven A. Mason
The Oilers found a way to get the game knotted at 3 before the intermission and then went out to take another 2-goal lead in the 3rd. Now this part of the blog isn’t to rip on Steve Mason. In fact, it’s to do the complete opposite. This is Mason’s 6th start in a row. Also happened to be his 6th win in a row. Over the past week and a half, he’s bailed out this team countless amounts of time. Seeing 40+ shots is a regular for him. So when you’ve been working him like a dog and throw him out there against one of the league’s most potent offenses, obviously it’s not gonna be pretty. But I love Hakstol’s decision to keep him in the game even after giving up goal #5. Because Mason deserved to stay in that game and the team owed him big time. This was a game that the offense was gonna have to go out and steal for Mason. So what happened?
Comeback Kids Vol. 2
Well you had Jake. On the PECO Powerplay because teams will never learn their lesson.
You had Santa Claude with an assist from his little helper, Radko “Good Hockey Player” Gudas
And then you had this gem as your game winner.
Michael Raffl. What more do I have to say about the guy? He pulled the same move against Nashville on Sunday and even though I’ve been a huge Raffl advocate for a while now, I had no idea the kid had this in him. Nice little stutter step, puts the shoulder down and powers through. Sick sick sick. And again, don’t underestimate that assist from Voracek. He puts it off the boards so Raffl can stay to the outside of Klefbom and the touch on it was perfect. Another monster game from Jake. Another monster game from Giroux. And let’s talk about how Ivan Provorov continues to be one of the most impressive players on this team.
Ivan Ooze
Oh look. Connor McDavid ended up taking a star rookie into the boards after a hard play to the net. Maybe we should all bitch and complain that he tried to hurt him on purpose… fucking idiots.
But seriously. Provy HANDLES McDavid along the boards in his own zone. Catches him being lazy through the neutral zone, turns on the jets and almost makes a play that would have resulted in the entire city of Philadelphia being covered in jizz. And that’s just one sequence from Provorov who was making 1-on-1 defensive plays all night. It took him a few games to get himself settled but Ivan Provorov is proving that he can be a #1 defenseman in this league.
Speaking of defensive standouts…
Now full disclosure here, the Oilers did end up scoring like 20 seconds after this play. But last night was a huge game for Pierre Edourd Bellemare. Huge game. He was tasked with going up against the league’s top point scorer. Tasked with being matched up against one of the best players in the world. And he held him to 1 goal on the powerplay and an assist. To make the night even better, he scored a goal of his own. So that’s a confidence game for Bellemare. That’s a game that proves that he can handle going up against a top line if he needs to in the playoffs. Huge night.
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The Other Guys
I get it. Connor McDavid is butt hurt. His team that he’s supposed to be the captain of just blew a 2-goal lead not just once, but twice last night. Obviously he’s gonna be a little upset. And I wouldn’t put it past Brandon Manning to be the guy who started the chirping back and forth between them. But to go out of your way to call Manning classless and then to say that he hurt you on purpose last year? Get a fucking grip, kid. Here’s the clip.
McDavid catches an edge because he’s too fast for his own good. That’s all there is to see there. Sure, Manning doesn’t make the situation better by having a glove on his pants and then falling on top of him. But this injury occurred because Connor McDavid caught an edge. It was last season. Time to grow up and get over it. The kid is supposed to be one of the premier talents in the game and he let’s a 3rd pairing defenseman own an entire community of real estate in his brain? Yikes.
0-1, 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 4-5, 5-5, 6-5…. I fucking love this team.