After a worrisome weekend, the Flyers bounced back for a 5-4 shootout win against the Canadiens on the road on Tuesday. They came out with a bang, and offensively dominated for the whole game. Our two consecutive powerplay goals in the first period allowed the Flyers to slip into the top 50% of the league’s powerplay rankings. Our once-notoriously-awful shootout seems to be turning a corner, as the Flyers have won three shootout games so far this year.
The Flyers came out on fire after a 0-2 weekend at home. Just under two minutes in, Bobby Brink scored his fourth of the year with the tip-in off of Sanheim’s shot. Just minutes later, the Flyers earned a powerplay after Mike Matheson earned a penalty for Montreal after delaying the game with the puck deflected over the glass. Cam York, a power play weapon for the Flyers, seized the opportunity for his first goal of the year. While this is a known strong suit for York, credit has to be given to Trevor Zegras, who completely rerouted the play by giving York a behind the back pass. With Montreal’s Montembeault scrambling to find the puck, York’s onetimer was all it took to give the Flyers the 2-0 lead.
Not even a minute later, Noah Dobson earned the second Montreal penalty of the night for cross-checking against Bobby Brink. I suppose Brink took that personally and went out for revenge, as the powerplay earned him his fifth goal of the season and second of the night. Brink took the rebound off of Zegras’ shot for the Flyers to earn a 3-0 lead just barely 8 minutes in.
Although scoring paused halfway into the first, they remained dominant the whole period, earning 12 shots compared to Montreal’s 2.
The second period was more questionable, as Montreal scored all 4 of their goals for the night completely interrupted. Vladar was simply too slow to reach the post in a cross-ice play from Montreal earning Kirby Dach his first goal of the night. Just a minute later, Montreal captain Nick Suzuki earned a point with a snapshot off a cross-ice pass from Demidov. I’ll cut Vladar some slack here, it was an impressive play from Montreal.
The second half of the second period was just as productive for Montreal. Kirby Dach tied the game with his second of the night with a somewhat messy play off a shot from Hutson. Dach was right in front of the net with the perfect setup, yet so clear its shocking Vladar didn’t even get a hand on it. Ivan Demidov earned his second point of the night for the final Montreal goal with an awesome feed from Slafkovský.
Our defense is not award-winning. Yet they only allowed 9 shots for Montreal in the period, and Dan Vladar allowed 4 of them. Suzuki’s goal was a great play, but the other three could have been solid saves. Vladar was just slow for the first Montreal goal, something he hasn’t been struggling with so far this season. Dach’s second goal was basically in Vladar’s lap, making that a concerning goal in and of its own. While Demidov’s goal was a strong play for Montreal, it was clear that he was going to make a shot with plenty of time for Vladar to get his head around it. Vladar has been off his last few games, and it shows. He hasn’t been a starter consistently throughout his career, and maybe he’s tired. Maybe he was just hot to start the season. Regardless, we’ll have to keep a close eye on him to see if these issues are a few rough games, or something more permanent.
On the other side, the Flyers had 17 shots on goal in the second period alone. For a team that isn’t known to shoot the puck, a newfound topic this year under Rick Tocchet, this is a shocking number. Of their 11 third period shots, Nikita Grebenkin earned his first NHL goal to tie the game. After 40 regulation shots for the Flyers, the game was going to overtime.
An uneventful overtime allowed only 2 shots each for both teams. In the shootout, Demidov and Suzuki missed both their shots and Vladar saved Cole Caufield’s shot. Michkov and Zegras were up for Philadelphia, with only Zegras scoring in the first round to win the game for Philadelphia.
All in all, the Flyers played a great game offensively. I’m comfortable with the line adjustments made as Tyson Foerster is still on IR, as they’ve generated success both in the one period they were used on Sunday against Calgary and Tuesday against Montreal. Yet Dan Vladar really gave the game away with his performance, allowing four goals on only 20 shots throughout three periods of regulation play and overtime.
The Flyers finish their road trip tonight against the Nashville Predators at 8:00pm as they go into an easy week, followed by two back-to-back weekends on the road across three weeks.
Philly's Next Shift 