Flyers Get Close to Win Over Golden Knights, But Mistakes Pile Up in Overtime Loss
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Akira Schmidt and Flyers center Christian Dvorak battle for the puck during Thursday night's game. Yong Kim / The Philadelphia Inquirer
Before the game even started, there was some off-ice drama to get started. The Vegas Golden Knights announced that Carter Hart would not be available to the Philadelphia media at any time during the team’s visit to Philly. When the game started, the teams and the arena staff agreed to put additional security behind Hart.
Once the puck dropped, the pace was back and forth until the 6th minute, when Ivan Barbashev dug out a tied-up puck and flipped it to a streaking Zach Whitecloud, who was crashing into the zone up the middle and backhanded a shot past Daniel Vladar for the first goal of the night. Travis Sanheim fed a laser beam of a pass to the left of the net, where a waiting Trevor Zegras banged the puck past Akira Schmid.
Mark Stone took advantage of one of the many Flyers’ penalties tonight. After a shot, Vladar wasn’t able to corral the rebound, and Stone kept whacking at the puck, and it snuck past Vladar for a goal. On one of the prettiest goals of the night, after a heavy Flyers forecheck, Christian Dvorak held the zone, circled around, and found Noah Juulsen for a heavy slap shot, which Schmid had no chance at stopping.
The game went to overtime, and in the OT period, Mark Stone got his second goal after a sloppy play by Travis Konecny. Jack Eichel pushed a perfect pass to Stone, which Vladar had no chance at stopping, resulting in a 3-2 OTL for the Flyers.
Vladar Continues to Shine
Even in the loss tonight, Vladar continued to shine against the high-octane Golden Knights offense. Coming into the season, when the Flyers signed Vladar, there were parts of his game that needed attention. There were two specific areas that Vladar wanted to refine: making saves through traffic and improving his skating to move laterally and be in more control of his large frame.
New Flyers coach Rick Tocchet saw Vladar plenty when they were both in the Pacific Division knew that getting the goalie to go from side to side was the way to get pucks by him. “There was a book on him, how was he laterally?” Tocchet questioned.
This young season has proven that this was an issue in the past, and no longer the book on Vladar. What was once a weakness has become one of his greatest strengths.
Looking calm and under control between the pipes is the byproduct of practice, technique, and good anticipation, and Vladar has shown us both this season. As one of the tallest goalies in the NHL, he’ll never have the quickest feet, but his skating is noticeably more agile and efficient. This is the real reason that Vladar has emerged as a early season MVP candidate.
Ty Murchison Proved it Wasn’t a Fluke in His First Game
Ty Murchison had a very solid first game against the San Jose Sharks, and made decisions tougher for Tocchet for the future defensemen pairings in the future. Tonight, he played very well and made the Golden Knights search for alternate entry points. Once they got in the Flyers’ zone, he kept the puck in front of him all game and tied up well along the boards to slow the puck down to get Vegas out of their game.
As a fellow Arizona State Sun Devil, I saw him play quite a bit at the collegiate level, and what we are seeing now is exactly what we saw last year. He is a true defensive first defenseman and grinds at a high level, which is something we’ve needed to see for the Flyers. I was taken by surprise when he was called up so quickly, but I wasn’t all that surprised. Tonight, he played well and had a +1, which is where you will see him shine. He won’t light up the stat sheet, but the contributions that grinders like him provide rarely show up in stat sheets, other than the +/-.
His emergence will make things much more interesting moving forward, and as far as second or third defense pairings go, he fits the role perfectly. This is a role that has been missing from the Flyers this season, and a second solid game with more shifts gives hope that he is here to stay.
Flyers’ Mistakes Lead Directly to Knights’ Goals and Loss
The Flyers tonight played very good hockey against a championship-caliber team, and held their own, but as Trevor Zegras alluded to after the loss to the Avalanche on Sunday, it’s time for the Flyers to start stacking actual wins and not just moral victories. Tonight, this was a very winnable game for the Flyers. They held their own and played well. This game was about as even as you could get — going into the OT period, the goals were even, the shots were even, and the play was very close.
The main difference tonight was that two of the three Golden Knights’ goals were the direct result of the Flyers’ mistakes and lapses in execution. They were on the power play way too much tonight, and the most hurtful penalty, because it’s totally avoidable, was another too many men on the ice penalty. That can’t happen and needs to be cleaned up immediately. The Flyers’ power play has been very solid this season, but with a team as good as Vegas, you can’t keep giving them too many chances, or they will make you pay. The second goal of the night was proof of that.
In the OT period, the game winning goal was the direct result of Konecny whiffed on a pass which would have cleared the zone, and let the Flyers set up down the ice, but instead was sitting on a silver platter and picked up by Eichel who held the puck long enough for Stone to get into position, sent over a beauty of a pass to stone and the game was over. Konecny’s rare miscue just goes to show that in these close games, the margin for error is razor-thin, and even though the Flyers are a young team, these kinds of mistakes can not continue.
This game must be a lesson for the Flyers; these small mistakes against top-level opponents will almost certainly be the difference between winning and losing games, and in the playoffs, this is the level of competition is what you can expect to see. Let’s just hope that these small mistakes are corrected in practice and the execution tightens up, because this team is too good to lose games like this.
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.
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