Player of the Game
Martin Jones. He made 31 saves on 32 shots, with 10 of those saves coming on the penalty kill. He was the Flyers’ best player and he needed to be in the third period. Jones is 3-0-0 on the season and is making Chuck Fletcher look good.
Eye Test
On one of the first shifts of the game, Rasmus Ristolainen kept the puck in the offensive zone, got below the goal line and absolutely manhandled Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen. The Flyers ended up getting a scoring chance right after that sequence.
While parts of that show up on the box score and spreadsheet, most of that does not. Ristolainen is a tone setter and needs to continue to play with that disturbed mentality. Ristolainen also recorded his first assist and point in the Orange and Black.
When Ryan Ellis comes back, it’s going to be hard for the coaching staff to put him back with Ivan Provorov because of how good Justin Braun has been. He has 7 points in 10 games and has been a rock on the first pairing.
Martin Jones’ net positioning has been exquisite in the early season. He is just letting the pucks hit him. It took an extremely fluky goal to beat him tonight.
Things I Loved
It was a great tight checking game. Finally, a little hatred between divisional rivals. This game seemed like an appetizer to the rest of the games with Washington that exponentially got more physical as the game went on.
It was a great cycle job done by the Joel Farabee-Cam Atkinson-Derick Brassard line (which will now be called the FAB Line after the Dripsmas event of the season from Nate Thompson’s Instagram story) on the first goal of the game.
Travis Konecny has been a dynamic player this season who has played with pace and grit. It’s been a perfect mix with Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux, who contributed another goal.
The Oskar Lindblom-Scott Laughton-James van Riemsdyk line was solid again. They are so close to breaking through each game. I like that Alain Vigneault is sticking with the same lines. There is not a reason to break up the lines yet. The coaching staff’s adjustment to have the defensemen pinch in the offensive zone during the first two periods was the biggest contributing factor to dominating the game.
Things I Hated
It was a little surprising that Nicolas Aube-Kubel was scratched coming off his best game of the season. When a player has a positive game, it would be nice to see his effort pay off.
Travis Sanheim was completely invisible again in 22 minutes of ice time and I’m not even sure that’s a bad thing. He is under contract for this year and next for $4.75 million per year. The Flyers should hire Dr. Sharon Fieldstone from Ted Lasso to help him with whatever is ailing him. He has the talent to be a top four defensemen.
That was a penalty by Brassard punching Garnet Hathaway from the bench. It was a selfish penalty but it should’ve been the Flyers going to a power play. Travis Konecny got cross-checked four times by Martin Fehervary and Vitek Vanacek on the same sequence. Tom Wilson was also doing Tom Wilson things.
The coaching staff and players must do a better job of limiting Alex Ovechkin taking huge shots from the top of the circle. The 3rd period was brought to you by Pepto Bismol.
Random Thought(s)
The Jack Eichel trade is bizarre. Buffalo trading their franchise player for a hurt 2nd-line winger in Alex Tuch, a very good prospect in Peyton Krebs, a late first in a good draft and a 3rd-round pick swap where they will have the lower pick.
This is why Buffalo has been bad for over a decade and please do not blame this on the owners, the Pegulas, because they also own the Buffalo Bills and they will be in the Super Bowl this year. You must ask yourself why Chuck Fletcher was not in on the Jack Eichel Sweepstakes.
I love Scott Hartnell’s new haircut and this is now a Taryn Hatcher stan account. Both have terrific in-game analysis and will be doing National games sooner than later. The breakdown that Hatcher and Hartnell did on the Brassard goal where they showed how Ovechkin overstayed his shift and was out of position on the goal was next-level analysis.
