1st Period
Well, we started out with officially learning Shayne Gostisbehere would be a healthy scratch for this game, so it’s already not a good start, folks.
Anyway, the game began with a good pace but not a whole lot of action, other than Cam Talbot looking like a fish out water starting his first game since March 6. With the goalie looking a little rusty, Ivan Provorov decided to welcome him to the game by serving the puck on a silver platter to a Hurricane right in front. Not ideal!
What is ideal, however is a breakaway, and that’s exactly what Michael Raffl got at the 14:26 mark of the opening period. Would he score against — lol I’m still trying to forget this dude ever played in Philadelphia — Petr Mrazek? No, of course he wouldn’t because Mr. Mrazek effectively decided to wait until he got the hell out of town to be a competent goaltender. Remember the three weeks he was here? Remember how many times he was facing the opposite direction as shots came on goal? Yeah, where’s that at now Petr?
It didn’t help matters that the fantastic, high quality referees the NHL employs gifted Mrazek a quick whistle when he ah, well he never even came close to covering the puck. Look I fully understand hockey has to be extremely difficult to officiate, but this is garbage that should not happen at the professional level. It has to be addressed in the off-season, since I guess they’re not going to bother this season.
Alright so the Flyers had a two-on-one and fam I gotta tell ya as soon as I saw it was Corban Knight with Claude Giroux I was not expecting much. But by god, Corban Knight made the perfect pass and the captain whistled it by Mrazek and gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead. A very nice tip of the cap to James van Riemsdyk as well who made the defensive play to tip the puck to Giroux. Knight made the right decision to to pass and what made the pass work was the fact he didn’t telegraph the pass. We’ve seen that so many times this season with failed odd man rushes and man it has been frustrating.
Knight to Giroux and the Flyers have a 1-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/r8MPYxP8W9
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) March 30, 2019
That good will lasted (/checks notes) all of a minute and a half as a holding penalty to Radko Gudas lead to a power play goal for Teuvo Teravainen to tie the game and oh would you look at that the Canes took the lead. Dougie Hamilton scored just 21 seconds later because why wouldn’t he and just like that Carolina took a 2-1 lead. That would be how the period would end with the Bunch Of Jerks with a one goal advantage.
2nd period
Much like the first, the second period started with not a whole lot of whistles and really not a whole lot of shots. Both teams essentially traded possession of the puck and played keep away for a few seconds until an eventual turnover. This would change though around the 13 minute mark with a great shift from the Oskar Lindblom, Sean Couturier, and Jakub Voracek line. In typical Flyera fashion however, the Canes would come right back with a few good shifts of their own.
As the period progressed the Hurricanes continued to dominate in shot attempts as is tradition with this team, but as tradition goes with this team, they couldn’t finish and the score remained 2-1 despite their flurry of chances. And hey, the Flyers would get a lucky break for once with a, well let’s just call it definitely weak penalty call on Justin Williams. Or, if you’re the Flyers social media intern who is apparently watching a different Flyers vs. Hurricanes game, Jeff Skinner.
Since we’re on the theme of tradition here, what do you think the Flyers did with the power play? Scored a goal? HA, YOU FOOL. No, they would not score on the power play and the second period would end the same way the first did, with the Hurricanes leading 2-1 and the Flyers having just 20 minutes to save their season.
3rd Period
Oh look, another boring start to a period, who would have guessed? Oh, everyone? Alright cool sounds good. The Canes did a solid job to stop any Flyers’ attack, and luckily for them the Flyers really didn’t do a whole lot of attacking early on in the period. Their best chance of the opening half of the final period came from an almost sensational play from the Travii. Konecny found Sanheim with a beautiful feed but Mrazek denied the latter on the shot.
Mrazek robs us of another Travis to Travis connection.
What a pass by TK! pic.twitter.com/jScbtxbxVS
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) March 30, 2019
With just 8:57 to go, Scott Laughton took a cross-checking penalty sending the Flyers to the penalty kill needing a huge kill to essentially save the season. On said power play would be where the Flyers season would effectively come to an end, as Justin Faulk would get the power play tally. Prior to this however, Sean Couturier was tripped up at the other end by Petr Mrazek, and I would just like to say: fuck off, Petr. Thank you for your time.
Jordan Staal would take a penalty but surely the Flyers won’t … oh … well on second thought Oskar Lindblom buried the power play marker and for a brief moment it appeared as though the Flyers season may actually not be done, and it looked even more like that when Justin Williams tripped Ivan Provorov sending them back to the power play. With the goalie pulled though, Jacob Slavin fired the puck down the ice on the PK, into the empty net, and the season was over. Brock McGinn would add another empty netter for good measure, because you know, why not?
It was a wild ride, and the Flyers almost miraculously made it all the way back in the Eastern Conference standings to make the playoffs, but in the end it was too little too late.
