Flyers Starter Jacket Recipient
Carter Hart with 33 saves on 34 shots. Hart kept the Flyers in the game in the first period before the alarm clock went off for other Flyers players.
Eye Test
Good thing Johnny Gaudreau plays in the Western Conference and the Flyers only see him twice a year. He is always on his game. Let’s hope he stays in the West when he becomes a free agent at the end of this year, or comes to Philadelphia. He set a career high for shots on goal in the 2nd period.
Jacob Markstrom looks like an all-pro goalie versus the Flyers this year. I’m very surprised that Vancouver let him go and let him go to their rival in Calgary. Markstrom made a great save on the Scott Laughton penalty shot.
Carter Hart looks like the franchise goalie. He is making saves he needs to make and making the saves that you want him to make. His timely saves when the Flyers are down and keeping them in games are the most important aspect of the early season.
This was Calgary’s fourth game in six nights and all have been on the road. The Flyers were a little slow to start but did a good job of battling back. The Flyers came out and dominated the first minutes of the 3rd period. The Flyers stuck with it and ended up winning in overtime with a goal from Cam Atkinson.
Things I Loved
This was one of the feistiest and chippiest games of the season. Playing inter-conference games in a short period of time is the best way to build hate and make the most entertaining experience for the fans. It was ironic that the Flyers were honoring two of the fiercest players to put on the Orange and Black in Rick Tocchet and Paul Holmgren.
The reaction to Travis Konecny getting drilled was proportional to being down 1-0 and needing a power play. Ideally, you could go after the offending player to protect your teammate and not get penalized.
Nick Seeler coming to the aid of Hart after getting slashed by Trevor Lewis was good to see. The slash missed Hart’s glove hand upon further review, but you cannot allow that to go unnoticed. Seeler has been a real solid acquisition from Chuck Fletcher. Something that doomed the Ron Hextall-era was the inability to fill the bottom of the lineup with useful players.
The Kevin Hayes goal was everything. The point to the heavens for his brother, and Rasmus Ristolainen made an amazing play to keep the puck in at the blue line right before Hayes’ goal.
Zack MacEwen showed some creativity in the offensive zone. He is gaining confidence and is a very strong skater. Claude Giroux had an absolute beauty of a dangle and almost beat Markstrom. Patrick Brown got hurt early in the game and did not return. This made the Flyers coaching staff put the lines in a blender and it created excited results.
Things I Hated
Get James van Riemsdyk off of the top line. He is not fast enough to get to the puck or the defender and disrupt the play in the offensive zone. Giroux and Sean Couturier need someone dynamic like Konecny or someone with speed like Laughton.
Speaking of Konecny, he got absolutely plastered into the boards by Flames center Mikael Backlund. I’ve seen less get a 5-minute major and game misconduct. Especially since Laughton got the same amount of time for a cross checking in the 2nd period.
Oliver Kylington showed why you shoot the puck on net with his first period goal. The power play still looks broken. Michel Therrien and the coaching staff needs to figure it out. Matthew Tkachuk was a consistent pain and was all around the Flyers’ net. He is the quintessential “hate to play against him but love to play with him” type of player. It will be a sin against the city for either Tkachuk to not eventually wear Orange and Black. Tkachuk trying the “Michigan” move was straight villainous.
Joel Farabee had a bad game. He had lots of giveaways at the blueline that resulted in quick breakouts for the Flames.
The Flyers still haven’t scored more than two goals in the last six games. Whoever the producers are for the Flyers game were awful. Every time there was a scrum they zoomed in on someone not in the scrum. Show the people what they want.
Random Thought(s)
Rasmus Ristolainen has had some excellent puck clears that stop just short of being called icing. The last Flyer to be able to do that with consistency is fellow countryman Kimmo Timonen. That needs to be a new fancy stat. Defensive zone clears that end up on the opposing teams goal or that did not resort in penalty or icing. Get on it Andy and Rono (please read as Tony Romo).
Sidney Crosby should’ve been suspended 5 times over his career but since he is Bettman’s golden boy he won’t be. If a Flyer did that to someone it’s a one-game suspension easy, maybe more. The wheel of justice spins again.
Speaking of the wheel of justice and analytics, P.K. Subban leads the league in slewfoots. He ended Sammy Blais’ season and didn’t get suspended. Absolute garbage.
Bring the Flyers uniforms from the Alumni game night back immediately. Get rid of the white jerseys.
