Saturday’s game was 60 minutes of horrifyingly sloppy pond hockey. We’ve been harping on the Flyers much improved process of late, controlling the even strength chance battle and generally playing solid hockey despite some unlucky losses. Though entertaining from a fan’s perspective, this game was a departure from that process.
The Flyers held their own for the first two periods, trading chance for chance with New York. Things fell apart in the final frame and it was up to Steve Mason to save the day.
Home/Away Chance Locations
Outside of the top line’s stellar two-way performance, this lineup had struggles in the d-zone top to bottom. Read, Couturier, and Voracek were visible creating some fantastic offensive chances, but they fell victim to that up and down pond hockey style.
The bottom-6 was putrid. Schenn’s line struggled all game long to do much of anything. In the 3rd period, a combination of VandeVelde, Schenn, and Lecavalier yielded 5 scoring chances in a single shift.
As is typical when Berube has the benefit of last change, he threw Couturier against the Nash line and let Giroux handle a lesser assignment against the Stepan group.
Schenn’s line, even with limited ice time overall and bottom-6 match ups, managed to be a huge liability throughout the game.
The newly reunited Bellemare line got typical sheltered 3rd line usage and might have gone the entire game without a scoring chance for or against if not for the aforementioned sequence in the final period.
Grossmann’s injury in the second period led to some on the fly combinations on defense and wonky numbers. Safe to say that everyone struggled to varying degrees with the notable exception of Nick Schultz.
- 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.
From a purely offensive stand point, Giroux, Couturier, and Voracek stand out. All three were the main catalysts up front.
