There have been a lot of times I’ve had to stop myself from opening with “what the hell did I just watch,” because I thought I’d opened with it too many times before already.
But Monday night’s game, a 7-4 win over the Minnesota Wild, was maybe the first time this year that my motivation for wanting to ask that question was not how unwatchably bad the game had been. This game was not a waste of time. No, on this particular night, the game was just, well, wild.
Eleven total goals. Replays for offside and goaltender interference. Questionable officiating both ways.
For the first time in 25 games, Nolan Patrick scored a goal — a batted backhand off of a feed into the slot from Scott Laughton. To follow that up, Patrick potted his second goal since November, putting home a Travis Sanheim blast that missed the net and came straight back off the wall through his legs and into the net behind Devan Dubnyk to give the Flyers their first lead of the game.
James van Riemsdyk was credited with a hat trick and suddenly his numbers don’t look so bad. Wayne Simmonds notched his first multiple goal/point game since October. Carter Hart didn’t look great, but won.
Ridiculous night. And that made it a fun night to do the postgame.
