Looking ahead to tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators, let’s take a look at Monday’s victory against Seattle. The Flyers played a fantastic game, securing two points over the Kraken in a 5-2 win. The evening featured great goal tending, the right moves from Tippett and the continuously successful FCB line, as well as substantial improvement on the powerplay.
First things first, I’m loving this team under Tocchet. As much as Torts helped develop this team, he was too straight-forward to push this team to their full potential. He was not one for rearranging the status-quo, he simply wanted the team to form around the basic lineups. From Tocchet’s first game starting Vladar over Ersson, he’s been willing to switch things up when he sees something playing out well. Giving Vladar our starting spot has done wonders for the team’s goaltending, which has seemed to be in an infamous ongoing drought. Vladar is 3-1 in his starts for Philadelphia and has not allowed more than two goals in a game all year. Monday’s game was no different, only allowing a deflection goal from Eberle and a powerplay goal from Nyman for Seattle’s only two goals on the evening compared to their 22 shots.
Tippett is finally breaking out of his shell and his skills are showing again. His three-game goal streak continued Monday with two goals, his fourth and fifth of the season. Goal #4 came off a Seeler feed from Couturier in the first period to tie the game 1-1. #5 came late in the third period for the final goal of the night with another assist from Sean Couturier. Couturier and Tippett have worked well together as the Flyers starting line, and the pair is certainly working better than Couturier and Michkov. Michkov did however earn the assist on Travis Konecny’s second period goal.
It’s pretty obvious that the Foerster-Cates-Brink line is continuing to shine. The line scored two of the five goals on Monday, both of which were on the power play. Foerster even earned third star of the game honors for his goal and overall encouraging play. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the chemistry on this line is impeccable. Their success is another great example of Tocchet’s eye for chemistry on the team, and it’s working great so far. Both Foerster and Cates have registered five points in 6 games, and Brink close behind has earned 4.
Cam York’s return has also been vital to our powerplay, earning some of our first PPGs of the season. His assist on both Foerster and Cates’ goals has reminded fans of his importance to our powerplay. I’m hoping his skill on the man advantage, as well as the success of our top six forwards will continue to help the team improve the power play, which has been known to be a challenge for the team.
Briere’s offseason moves also need to be noted. Zegras and Vladar have turned out to be valuable assets to the team. Zegras was a highly anticipated arrival with a potentially worrisome outcome, yet he’s recorded five assists in six games. His playmaking has done great things for the team so far, and I expect to see this continue in upcoming weeks. Vladar speaks for himself with a 1.75 GAA and a .929 SV% in four games played. Trading Fedotov and bringing in Vladar has done numbers, literally, on the team’s goaltending. Briere’s negotiation and scouting skills are showing greatly.
The Flyers face Tippett’s original team and former captain Claude Giroux tonight as they take on the Senators on their home ice at 7pm. This is the last away game before a five-game home stretch going into November.
Philly's Next Shift 