First Period
After starting slow in each of the games on the Western Canada road trip, a strong start was going to be key for the … oh hey they scored already. For the first time since the Devils game the Flyers started strong as the top line of Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, and Sean Couturier combined on a beautiful passing play that resulted in a Couturier goal. The newly reunited top line has looked strong, and here they put the puck in the back of the net.
Pretty passing leads to Couturier’s second of the season! pic.twitter.com/QBTZltXoaE
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) October 19, 2019
Unfortunately, Roope Hintz decided it was a good time to take a man’s soul shortly thereafter. The unlucky victim? Matt Niskanen. Hintz made a spectacular move, was stopped by Hart, but followed up his rebound to tie the game at one. Niskanen has to make a better play, sure, but this was just a great move by HIntz. Jakub Voracek also failed to backcheck tightly enough to secure the rebound.
The Stars would go the power play then and Travis Sanheim took a … less than ideal penalty on a play behind the net, and they wouldn’t let that man advantage go to waste. Esa Lindell, the defenseman in deep, wasn’t tied up in front of the net and deflected the puck by Hart to give Dallas the lead.
Despite the strong start, once Dallas scored the first goal they took over the period. Since the Vancouver game really, it feels like every mistake has ended up in the Flyers net which just can’t happen. At some point either the defense has to recover after the mistake, or the goalie has to make a save. They still did good things in the first, but the pace clearly slipped as the period went on.
Second Period
I mean, I could write words about that period, but what’s the point? That period was like watching paint dry, with both teams struggling to find any kind of offense. The Flyers had some power play chances, as did the Stars, but overall there wasn’t a whole lot of open ice to be found. Good news for the orange and black is that the score remained 2-1 heading into the third, still very much in this game with a chance to win.
Third Period
Corey Perry scored on Carter Hart. Yeah, you sure did read that sentence correctly. Not putting all the blame on Hart, but to quote John Tortorella, “it’d be nice to get the occasional save.” That’s a shot you want your number one goalie to stop, and he just didn’t do it. The Flyers continued to get plenty of shots on goal, and not allow many, but it just didn’t matter. No one seemed to be in position to bury rebounds, they tried stretch passes while the Stars were playing the trap, it was just a completely misleading game.
Dallas would hang on despite being held to two shots on goal for a lot of the latter portions of the game. Overreacting and saying “this team sucks” is still, well, overreacting in my opinion, but my god at some point they have to start finishing chances. Oh, and maybe not having every mistake end up in the back of the net, that would be good too. Stars win 4-1, boo hiss.
Three Stars
HA, you think there was any conceivable way three players deserved to be on here? Nah, not tonight fam.
Answering the Bell
1. Will the real Flyers stand up?
I don’t know. This was another incredibly stupid game of hockey and I’m still trying to hold the belief that once the top six starts scoring like we know they should be able to, they’ll start winning games if they keep playing like this. But hey, they lost 4-1 and looked worse than the stats show, so who the hell knows anymore.
2. Will Ghost show up?
Sadly, no. Gostisbehere didn’t have a horrible game, but he didn’t have a good one either. To speak on the whole “this team needs to start finishing” topic, Gostisbehere is a prime example of this.
Play of the Night
It’s the only Flyers goal which you can rewatch above! Remember those like 40 seconds where we were happy with this game? Yeah, fun times.
