I know I’m supposed to talk about how there are no moral victories and the Flyers have zero margin for error. Nobody wants to hear about process trumping results when you’re four points out of a playoff spot.
But the Flyers are playing arguably their best hockey of the 2014-2015 season and that should not go overlooked. They put up 49 shots on Jonathan Bernier, 23 scoring chances, and dominated the flow of this game.
The Flyers won the scoring chance battle in every single situation. On the PK, Bellemare and VandeVelde produced as many scoring chances as the entire Maple Leafs powerplay. They didn’t lose a period in the scoring chance department. What else could they do better?
It comes down to Jonathan Bernier playing out of his mind in net and bailing out the mediocre team in front of him.
Home/Away Chance Locations
Not one forward line lost the scoring chance battle overall. The Flyers Top-6 had copious amounts of zone time and chances at 5v5.
Unlike the game against the Hurricane’s, it looks like Berube was allowed the match-ups he wanted up front. Couturier spent the majority of his ice time against Kessel and company and handily won the match up.
Giroux’s line mopped up against Kadri. The Flyers’ bottom-6 broke even between their mixed match ups and on any given night that’s good enough to win.
It’s much of the same story with the defense. Nearly everyone broke even or better.
The only exception is Andrew MacDonald who somehow managed to be the team’s only minus player overall in dramatically sheltered usage.
- Set Up – The primary pass on a scoring chance, including rebounds.
- Chance – The primary shot on a scoring chance, including deflections.
- Involved – The sum of both set ups and chances.
The Flyers were four players (five if you count Mason) shy of having every single player contribute in at least one scoring chance.
No surprise to see Giroux and Voracek at the top of the least as they were visibly the team’s most dynamic players.
