[Boxscore] – [Wire Recap] – [SBN Game Page] – [Florida Reaction]
[Shift Charts] – [Head-to-Head TOI] – [Corsi and Fenwick] – [5-on-5 Faceoffs]
PHILADELPHIA — The Florida Panthers have played the Oilers, Flames, Canucks, Lightning, Stars, Islanders, Leafs, Senators, Canadiens, Thrashers, Hurricanes, Wild and Flyers so far this season. During the third intermission of their game at Wells Fargo Center tonight, one of their TV broadcasters said “this is the best team we’ve seen so far this season.”
Pretty easy to see why he said that. The Flyers rolled over yet another weak opponent tonight, beating the Panthers into submission with a 5-2 win. Claude Giroux scored two, Mike Richards scored two and Sergei Bobrovsky earned his way into the lyrics of a Lady Gaga song with 34 saves. It’s the fourth straight game in which Bob has 30 or more saves.
When we say that they beat the opponent into submission, we really do mean exactly that.
13 goals in two games, after all. The cliche says you’re supposed to take care of teams that you’re supposed to beat and the Flyers have done exactly that in the last two games — and really, for the better part of the last three weeks.
They’re outworking the other team, outhitting the other team and vastly outscoring the other team. Simply put, they’re turning a game against the orange and black into an absolutely miserable experience for the rest of the league.
It’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch. We could get used to this stuff.
A few bullets after the jump, as well as some post-game video, questions with answers and the comment of the night.
– Not a whole lot of bullets tonight. The whole team looks awesome, really, so we’re not going to look at individual performances. Everybody looks great. It’s hard to nitpick.
– Florida’s first goal shouldn’t have counted, according to replay. Cory Stillman‘s stick was above the crossbar. Unfortunately, Bob wouldn’t have picked up a shutout anyway thanks to Mike Santorelli’s late goal. He did get his first NHL point, though.
– Andreas Nodl took a puck off the skate in the second period and never returned. Paul Holmgren said after the game that he took a puck off his big toe (not sure which one) and that he’s 50/50 for Monday’s game against Ottawa. If he can’t go, there will be no call-up. James van Riemsdyk will play if Nodl cannot.
– Jeff Carter said nothing of note about his contract extension. The guy is really boring as rocks.
– The passing the Flyers are employing of late is just so fun to watch. It’s like the biggest, longest most entertaining game of tic-tac-toe you’ve ever seen.
Post-Game Video: Peter Laviolette
Post-Game Video: Ville Leino
Post-Game Video: Kimmo Timonen
Questions with Answers
Do the Panthers show any early fatigue after playing just last night, and if they do, do the Flyers jump on the opportunity? The Panthers were flat just about all night. I really didn’t notice any of them in particular besides the fact that they were just “that other team on the ice.”
Can the dominating offensive performance carry over to tonight? Yes.
The Flyers were successful on Thursday vs Carolina largely because they got bodies in front of the net. Do they do the same thing tonight? They did a bit of that, but most of the goals were scored because they’re just better at hockey than the Panthers. Pretty simple math on that.
Backup goalie night at the WFC for the Panthers. A win might mean that the Flyers have busted the backup goalie curse, huh? The Flyers might have broken that curse now. Stay tuned.
Any extra jump from Carter after his mega deal (not that it’s easy to beat a hat trick or anything)? He was actually one of the quieter Flyers tonight. Good night in the faceoff circle, though.
Comment of the Night
So I guess there wont be any Carter for Vokoun rumors in this thread tonight
>> Prometheus74
