Recap as Flyers end their season with a win over Devils
Photo via Philadelphia Flyers' Twitter
While this was a very disappointing season, the Philadelphia Flyers have finished their season with a win over the New Jersey Devils.
Recap:
Period 1
After a ceremony for Brian Elliot as he played his 500th game Tuesday, Jack Hughes won the opening faceoff and the final game of the 2020-21 season was underway.
Nico Hischier gained the puck on a Flyers giveaway. He passed it to Pavel Zacha, who was all alone in front of the net. He tipped it past and Elliot and the Devils had a quick 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, a shot by Will Butcher was blocked by Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Janne Kuokkanen claimed it and scored from the bottom of the faceoff circle. And not even six minutes in, the Devils led 2-0.
The Devils had two goals on their first five shots. Describes the Flyers season.
The Flyers were on a rush. Kevin Hayes shot a pass to Joel Farabee out in front. Farabee made a nice move in front of the net and snuck it past Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood for his 19th goal of the season. It was also his 300th career NHL point.
Pavel Zacha went to the box for hooking with three seconds left in the period. The Flyers got a shot off the faceoff, but didn’t score. So the Flyers were set to have 2:57 of power play time in the second period.
Period stats:
Flyers: 10 shots on goal, 12 hits, 8 faceoffs won, 0 penalty minutes.
Devils: 11 shots on goal, 4 hits, 8 faceoffs won, 2 penalty minutes.
After 20 minutes of play, the Flyers trailed the Devils 2-1.
Period 2
The Flyers had 2:57 of power play time, until it was killed. Flyers had one shot on goal during the power play. They struggled with entries and only got one puck to the net when set up.
The Devils got called for too many men on the ice. The Flyers didn’t score on the power play, but a positive takeaway is they were in the offensive zone for most of the 2:00. It’s a little late to start playing positively.
Travis Konecny shot a pass across the ice. The puck deflected off of Claude Giroux’s skate right to the Bobby Clarke Trophy winner, Sean Couturier, who tipped it into the net to tie the game up.
Damon Severson went to the sin bin for cross-checking. The Devils killed it off without a problem.
Period stats:
Flyers: 9 shots on goal, 6 hits, 11 faceoffs won, 0 penalty minutes.
Devils: 8 shots on goal, 3 hits, 5 faceoffs won, 4 penalty minutes.
After two periods, the two clubs were knotted up at two. We were now heading into the final period of play in the 2020-21 season.
Period 3
Nico Hischier won the opening faceoff to begin the final 20 minutes of the worst season in Flyers history. Well, at least it’s up there.
Aube-Kubel headed to the box for hooking. Devils went to their first power play of the game in the beginning of the final period. The Flyers killed the penalty easily.
Soft slashing call on Scott Laughton. He basically tapped Kuokkanen, definitely not a slash. The Devils headed back on the power play. The Flyers killed the Devils’ power play cleanly.
Referees had to make up the bad slashing call on Laughton, and they certainly did. Michael McLeod gets called for slashing. Couturier received a pass from Giroux from across the ice. He shot it almost immediately. James van Rymsdyk was right in front of the net, and he got his stick on it and deflected it into the net! He gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead with the power play goal.
Farabee got a pass from Kevin Hayes as they rushed the ice. Farabee passed the puck to Wade Allison, who got a shot of that got blocked by Wedgewood. Farabee got the rebound and sniped his 20th goal of the season to give the Flyers a 4-2 lead.
The Devils pulled their goalie with about a minute to go, but it didn’t mean anything.
Game stats:
Flyers: 31 shots on goal, 19 hits, 23 faceoffs won, 4 penalty minutes.
Devils: 25 shots on goal, 9 hits, 21 faceoffs won, 8 penalty minutes.
3 stars:
- Joel Farabee (2 goals)
- Claude Giroux (2 assists)
- James van Rymsdyk (1 goal)
That’s it
Well, that’s it for the 2020-21 Flyers! The Flyers finished the season with a 25-23-8 record with no playoffs. It’ll be interesting how the Flyers handle this offseason, but there are many holes that need to be filled.
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