Vladar Stands On His Head As Flyers Shock Panthers With Late Push
Sam Navarro/Imagn Images
The Flyers will be definitely be giving thanks tomorrow that they won’t have to go back to Florida until the playoffs potentially. They came into the second game of their brief two-game trip to the sunshine state after losing on Monday to the Lightning, who have been playing some of the best hockey in NHL. Tonight, the task gets no easier facing the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers in Sunrise.
The Flyers started the game strong, trading rushes with the Panthers until the fifth minute when Sam Bennett sliced between Flyers defenders to find an open Brad Marchand who wristed a lightning quick shot past Dan Vladar before he could get left. After Marchand’s goal, the Flyers looked like a fighter who took a haymaker and played dazed until the last 3 minutes of the period, where they had their crispest power play this season, though it didn’t result in a goal, the puck movement was some of the best we’ve seen so far. The only reason the Flyers were down by one and not more when the horn sounded at the end of the first was because Vladar was playing on his head the whole period. The Panthers had 15 shots in the first and none of the 14 saves Vladar made were easy. The Flyers have gone down 1-0 in 16 of their 22 games this season, so there was no sense of panic in the game. The second period started at the 5 minute mark with Carter Verhaeghe catching Vladar out of position and wristing a shot into an open net.
As seems to be a huge part of this Flyers team’s make up, they didn’t give up, Emil Andre took a wrist shot at Bobrovsky and he was able to sneak a shot through heavy traffic to pull within one.
Andre had another chance and flung it at the net into traffic, and it somehow passed Bobrovsky, but on further review Matvei Michkov tipped it in for his 6th goal of the year
The third period was not much better in terms of shooting the puck, the Flyers only had 3 shots in the 3rd until the last minute and a half. In that time they turned up the heat while Travis Sanheim held posession long enough for Tyson Foerster to take a slap shot which appeared to hit Aaron Ekblad in the upper body, rebounded right to Foerster, who reset a bit and slapped another shot past Bobrovsky for the third goal.
They added another goal by captian Sean Couturier, which feels like his first in forever, to seal their NHL leading 10th comeback win and their 5th comeback in the third period. The comeback kids completed another one taking the season series from the from the Panthers with a 4-2 win.
Tonight the Panthers were much stronger in transition than the Flyers early on and it showed in the first period. Leading up the the Marchand goal the Flyers allowed too much puck movement in their zone and it felt like as soon as the puck entered the Panthers zone, it wasn’t in the zone for more than 2 passes, and it was heading the other way, often on an odd-man rush. This is what kept Vladar busy the entire first period. Conversely, Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t have any serious shots at him in the first. This is in part because Trevor Zegras was the only Flyer who seemed to have a handle on the puck early on, which truly limited the shot selection in the first.
That lack of shooting has been the one constant for the offense this season, even though the Flyers scored 2 goals, the only had 7 shots in the first and 5 shots in the second, it didn’t get much better in the third with 6 shots. The Flyers have made the best with their shots all season, which naturally makes you wonder how many more goals they’d have, but we can’t waste time thinking about such things. The Flyers had 18 shots all game, and for some perspective, the Panthers had 15 in the first period alone.
The only reason the Flyers took home any points home was thanks to Dan Vladar and the Flyers penalty kill unit. Though there were many heroes in the game, this could have easily been a much bigger hill to climb than 2-0 in the first half of the game. We knew coming in that the game would be physical but in the end the Flyers must come up with an answer to handle these big physical teams before the playoffs get closer. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, getting shots on goal has been a thorn in the side of the Flyers all season so far, and needs to be addressed by Rick Tocchet and the coaching staff.
However they come, wins are wins. The margin of victory is narrow, the shots on goal are few and far between, but one thing is for sure: this team has taken a huge step forward. They play gritty, they never give up, and they play together. They may be slow starters, and they may be accustomed to playing from behind, but they are definitely not boring, and that is a huge step for this young Flyers roster, which is truly living up to the “brick by brick” slogan so far this season.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
Get New Articles Emailed Right To Your Inbox:
