Amidst an uninspiring stretch of hockey, a fragile looking Flyers squad traveled to Raleigh to take on the Carolina Hurricanes Saturday night. The unexpected call-ups of rookies Shayne Gostisbehere and Taylor Leier provided a layer of intrigue for disheartened fans.
Things started off innocuously enough with a pedestrian first 15 minutes in the opening frame. Neither team mustered much in the way of quality chances, but the Flyers came out skating with the Canes and playing relatively mistake free hockey. Couturier’s line continued it’s strong cycle game in the offensive zone with some quality shifts and the young kids appeared to provide some much needed jump to the Flyers game.
Early positive feelings were quickly replaced with that familiar sinking feeling when Carolina opened the scoring late in the 1st. An overly aggressive forecheck from the Flyers top line saw all three forwards caught deep in the zone with defenseman Michael Del Zotto crashing in on a ill-timed pinch. An odd-man rush went the other way, chaos ensued in front of the Flyers net, and the Elias Lindholm picked up the garbage for the 1-0 lead.
There was a palpable deflation in the Flyers game and the Carolina opened up the throttle, carrying play in all phases and heavily out shooting the beleaguered orange and black. The 2nd period began much like the 1st period ended, with Carolina continuing to push the play in the Flyers end. Frustration led to penalties and the Cane’s added to their lead with a power play tally Victor Rask.
Beers were cracked open, expletives muttered bitterly under the breath as fans geared up for another depressing affair. But then, the Flyers did something entirely unexpected. They played really really really good hockey. For a visual of just how dramatically this game turned in the Flyers favor, check out this even strength shot attempt chart courtesy of naturalstattrick.com.
For the remainder of the game, the Flyers held a stranglehold on possession and chances. Finally late in the 3rd period the good guys broke through to tie the game on a Wayne Simmonds deflection. All credit for the goal belongs to Shayne Gostisbehere, who made a gorgeous move at the blue line to keep play alive and force a shot through.
To add to the warm fuzzies quotient in this game, Jake Voracek would finish off the Canes with a slump busting goal in early in the OT period for a final score of 3 to 2.
A few observations and notes
- Excuse me while I gush over the revelation that was Shayne Gostisbehere this evening. Bringing speed, creativity, and game breaking skill, he was easily the Flyers best player on the ice tonight.
- Ghost’s strong play was followed up by another quality performance from Sean Couturier’s line, which looks like a forechecking machine in the offensive zone.
- Ryan White left the game in the 3rd period in considerable pain and favoring his right arm/shoulder after an awkward collision with John Michael Liles.
- Wayne Simmonds tallied his 200th NHL point on the game tying goal. /
Comment of the Night
If Hakstol sends Ghostbear down to the AHL when they get guys of the LTIR, I’m gonna flip tables. ~ PSUwithBigBlue
