Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Flyers were coming into this game at 5-3-1 holding down 6th place in the Metropolitan Division.
The visiting Nashville Predators were also in 6th in the Central division with a record of 4-5-2.
The Philadelphia hockey club was coming off of a big shootout win against the cross-state rival Pittsburgh Penguins. Goalie Dan Vladar was in the net tonight as Aleksei Kolosov filled the backup position for the injured Samuel Ersson. Ersson had just strung together back-to-back shootout victories, terrible timing for an injury. We may get to see Kolosov over the weekend since the Flyers have games both Saturday and Sunday nights.
Philly vs Nashville
This game took a bit of time to find its rhythm. Both teams were having trouble connecting passes or moving the puck effectively. Nashville was the first to find their groove outshooting the Flyers 10-3 in the 1st period. Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar was called on several times to make challenging saves and proved to be up to the task over and over again.
The 2nd period started out as more of the same. Nashville continued to pepper pucks at the Flyers net and Dan Vladar continued to put on a show keeping the door nailed shut. This is not a very good long term strategy, the Flyers needed to figure out how to get some pucks on net. If the objective was to freeze out the Predators goalie they were doing a pretty good job of that. Almost halfway through the game Nashville was dominating the shot total 19-4.
Juuse Saros finally got a chance to prove that he was awake when he stoned Owen Tippett on a :breakaway. He repeated the feat with 7:34 left in the period dispensing of Matvei Michkov in the same fashion.
He shoots, he scores
It was the ever crafty Trevor Zegras who put the Flyers on the board with a wrist shot from the slot. The move the Flyers made to acquire Zegras is paying off big time as he continues his point per game pace. His confidence and patience with the puck just keeps growing as this young season moves along. The assists went to Michkov and Tippet, time of the goal 12:45 of the 2nd period.
Less than three minutes later Michkov picked up his second assist of the night when he made a pass from behind the goal line to Jamie Drysdale who had himself planted at the side of the net. Drysdale banged the Flyers 11th shot of the night past Juuse Saros to make it 2-0 Flyers.
Play till the horn
With things suddenly bending in the Flyers direction Nashville got one back with just 1:57 remaining in the middle period. Nice keep, beautiful pass, perfect shot. Not much anyone could really do about it. All things considered being outshot through 2 periods 24-11 the Flyers were lucky to be headed into the second intermission with the one goal lead.
3rd Period
The Flyers were doing a better job of keeping the Predators pinned to the perimiters at the start of the 3rd period. At 13:00 with the Flyers only seconds into a power-play Trevor Zegras scored his second goal of the game. Noah Cates won the face off to Cam York. York set up the one timer for Zegras who unleashed a rocket from the far side of the circle. 3-1 Flyers.
Emil Andrae was back in the line-up tonight. He looked good, jumping up into plays, and facilitating break outs. He keeps play moving in the right direction. Another player in the line-up tonight that got a lot more ice time than he probably was expecting was Rodrigo Abols. Sean Couturier took a puck to the arm (elbow area) and did not return after the 1st period. Abols did a fine job in Coot’s absence logging over 14 minutes and helping hold up the center position.
Night Cap
Just under six minutes to go and the Flyers find themselves with a two goal lead and a two minute penalty to kill off. The PK opened up with a beautiful glove save by Vladar. He’s getting flashier as his hot streak goes on. He made another big pad save that led to a rush up in the other direction. The Predators with the man advantage and their goalie pulled for yet another skater could not catch up to the speedy Travis Konecny who raced to the open net with the puck extending the Flyers lead to 4-1.
The Flyers won this game 4-1 after being outshot 33-18. This happened in large part to the fantastic goaltending of Dan Vladar. Trevor Zegras had two goals and an assist. Michkov two assists. The Flyers are now 6-3-1. October was pretty good to the Orange and Black. This is turning out to be quite a respectable start.
About Author
Can’t believe how good Vladar & Zegras have been. Flyers are looking good and I’m freaking out. Toccett and the staff deserve credit for this excellent start.
Go Flyers !!