Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 6: PHI 2, VAN 1 – Not Your Average Jones
If a game is technically listed and remembered as being played the day before your birthday, but it doesn’t end until after midnight, can you still say they won on your birthday? Asking for a friend. Anyway, the Philadelphia Flyers WIN, 2-1, over the Vancouver Canucks. Despite consistently bad second-period play and consistently excellent power-play set-ups, the Flyers sweep their first of a jaw-dropping seventeen back-to-backs.
As I mentioned early and often in yesterday’s recap, Flyers after dark games are always wild, so the chaos that engulfed Tuesday’s game in Edmonton (especially the first period) shouldn’t have been any surprise. With that out of the way, there was a chance, however small, that the madness may have been all used up. Maybe we could actually expect a relatively final two games of the road trip. It was a nice thought.
It lasted for exactly 22 seconds. The Flyers’ top line turned little things into a big moment to start the scoring for the second straight night. A crafty chip pass off the boards from Claude Giroux sprung Travis Konecny into open ice. Instead of nearly ruining a Sean Couturier goal as he did at the end of Tuesday’s contest, Konecny set up Coots with a beautiful cross-ice past that the Flyers first-line center one-timed over the blocker of Jaroslav Halak. The answer to “Coots, when is it?” is early — very early, to be precise. Once again, the Flyers came out of the gates strong and vaulted to an early lead.
Any thoughts that would be an exception to the rule itself again dissipated in record time. Just two minutes later, Quinn Hughes floated Vancouver’s first shot on goal into the goal through a heavy screen, helped by a fortuitous bounce off the post and the backside of Martin Jones. The dust had hardly settled from that goal when the Flyers turned up the heat with Hughes in the box. Picking up right where they left off from their season opener against the Canucks, Giroux and Couturier executed another gorgeous bank pass, this time with Couturier on the receiving end. Instead of firing the puck in, Coots slid the puck across the crease for a James van Riemsdyk tap-in, just as sources confirmed pre-game. For the second straight night, the Flyers lead 2-1 less than 9 minutes in. Welcome to Flyers after dark; they’re truly here all night.
All in all, this was the most dominant period of the Flyers’ young season since their first first period of the year against Vancouver. Philadelphia finished with roughly two-thirds of the shot attempts and expected goals, drew the only two penalties, doubled Vancouver in chances (10-5) and high-danger chances (2-1). And oh yeah, they also had the lead at intermission. The Canucks weren’t able to even put a shot on goal in the final 11:43 of the first period.
But just like in the season opener two weeks ago, Vancouver woke up in the second. Ex-Canuck Zack MacEwen opened the door with a one-in-a-million penalty for pulling ex-Flyer Luke Schenn’s visor during a fight. And though they didn’t score on the ensuing PP, the Canucks started kicking at that door with vigor. Philadelphia struggled with discipline (taking three penalties to Vancouver’s one) and zone exits, turning the puck over numerous times on the breakout. The only difference between that second period and the first one against Vancouver this season was that instead of Carter Hart allowing four goals, Martin Jones was in net.
What looked like a downgrade on paper turned out to be anything but on the ice Thursday. Jones was undoubtedly the best Flyer in the middle period; the Canucks peppered him with 16 shots and nearly 1.5 expected goals for (all situations). Yet Jones held down the fort, making several impressive saves. Whether it be from close or far, through traffic or a clean look, a stationary shot, or a one-timed blast, the Canucks had no answers for Jones in the middle stanza. You would expect some drop-off throughout the game for a Flyers team playing on the second half of a back-to-back. But not to the massive extent of the second period.
The same was true, albeit to a lesser extent, in the third. Philadelphia played a solid shutdown period at 5v5; despite leading for the entire frame, they were even with the Canucks in shots 8-8 and were just a shade under 50% in expected goals after adjusting for score and venue. However, the Flyers both earned tons of chances to put the game out of reach and handed Vancouver tons of chances to even the score. A five penalty period isn’t what you want to see up to one in the third period. Especially since the Flyers were the guilty part three times.
But goaltending and special teams were there to save the day. Though the power-play didn’t score, they created a couple of nice scoring chances, keeping Vancouver off their toes. Philadelphia’s PK picked up where they left off in Edmonton, killing off all five Canucks man advantages on the night. But the first, second, and third star was Jones, who racked up several high-quality stops on a variety of dangerous chances; none bigger than his mask stop on a Brock Boeser one-timer with less than ninety seconds to go. The Flyers spent the last eighty with Ivan Provorov in the box. But thanks to another clutch faceoff win by Giroux and some won puck battles, the Flyers withstood Vancouver’s final push.
This has already been a solid road trip for the Flyers. Earning at least four points on a three-game Western Canada road trip without your second-line center or top-pair right defenseman (Ryan Ellis once again didn’t play, and it doesn’t sound like he’ll be ready for Saturday’s contest) is pretty impressive. But remember what Claude Giroux said when the Flyers dropped the final game of their season-opening four-game homestand after starting 2-0-1. “If you win this game, it’s a great homestand. You lose it, it’s an ok one.”
The same implications will linger as the Flyers wrap up their road trip in Calgary against the red-hot Flames (pun semi-intended) on Saturday night. Two wins on this trip would be good. Three would be superb. Yes, there is a bit of house money at stake with the results of the last two games and likely missing Ellis again. But you can never capture momentum for too long. And the Flyers are certainly building some up right now.
A loss to the Flames wouldn’t erase all of it. The Flyers don’t want to be just ok; they’ve been trapped in that state far too often over the last decade. They want to be great. Saturday won’t determine whether they are or not, regardless of the outcome. But a victory would go as far as a win in October can towards earning that illustrious label.
Lindies
After a COVID-induced wait, Patrick Brown finally made his Flyers debut tonight, replacing Nicolas Aubé-Kubel on the fourth line. Fun fact: Brown used to be suitemates with Kevin Hayes at Boston College. Brown didn’t particularly stand out to me watching the game, but his underlying numbers pop off the chart; second on the team behind JVR with a 73% Corsi and first with a 78% Expected Goals share. If Brown can be 70% of that consistently, he could make a nice home for himself in the Flyers lineup.
If Charlie O’Connor can successfully predict a JVR goal, I’ll (try) to do the same for Travis Konecny on Saturday. Konecny could easily have three goals so far on this road trip with a little bit more puck luck. The one thing I have noticed is that even though he already has two goals this year, Konecny always seems to be looking to the heavens in frustration or on the verge of snapping his stick after every chance he doesn’t convert. It’s only been six games, and Konecny has played very well to my eyes. Just relax a little bit, and the goals will almost certainly come.
With his helper on Couturier’s 1-0 goal, Claude Giroux is now the tenth Flyer ever to record a point in each of the team’s first six games of a season. The last to do so were Simon Gagne and Peter Forsberg in 2005-06.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team use bank passes behind the net, or even the area below the goal-line period, more than the Flyers have to start the year. Be it Ryan Ellis’ goal against Seattle, Atkinson’s in the season opener, Giroux’s late game-tier from later that same night, or countless near misses, the Flyers sure spend a lot of time in Gretzky’s office. The advantage of that is the goaltender can’t fully track the puck when it’s directly behind him. Especially when it’s moving quickly off a bank pass or a cycle like on Thursday’s game-winner.
Cam Atkinson’s six goals are the most of any Flyer in their first six games. Keith Jones, John Leclair, Todd Bergen, Dave Poulin, and Brian Propp were previously in a five-way tie with five. The Flyers tried hard to get him number seven tonight; they just have attempted to set him up for a one-timer from below the goal line (there it is again!) on the power-play at least three times.
Here’s another fun fact the Flyers broadcast mentioned that I’d heard before but forgotten about — TK and Canucks captain Bo Horvat are second cousins.
Jones will steal all of the headlines, and deservedly so. But Jaroslav Halak was also stellar in net for Vancouver. Halak finished the night with a strong .929 save percentage (26 saves on 28 shots) and .08 goals saved above expected. The latter number undersells his play in my opinion; Halak was sensational throughout the night, making a couple of remarkable saves on Travis Konecny off a rush deflection (1st period) and power-play one-timer (3rd). He played well despite the outcome.
Then again, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised by tonight’s result; after all, Jones practically has his name on the deed of Rogers Arena. He improves to 7-1-1 in the building with tonight’s victory. Just like Hart (who was certainly impressed by Jones’ performance), tonight was a homecoming for Jones and the North Vancouver native certainly made his friends and family in attendance proud. Alain Vigneault called him “an All-Star tonight,” which honestly might be an understatement. Jones also took home the POG Starter Jacket!
Standings: Jones (nickname in progress), Starter Hart, Honey Badger (Cam Atkinson’s nickname, apparently), Unknown – 1
3 Stars
3rd: Martin Jones (PHI) – .964 SV% (26 Saves/28 Shots), +1.64 Goals Saved Above Expected (All Situations)
2nd: Brock Boeser (VAN) – 3 Shots, 20:11 TOI
1st: Claude Giroux (PHI) – 2 Assists (3, 4), 4 Shots
Next
PHI: 10/30, 10 PM EST @ CGY (5-1-1, W5)
VAN: 10/30, 10 PM EST vs. EDM (5-1-0, L1)
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Advanced Stats are 5v5 unless otherwise stated and via Natural Stat Trick
