Photo Credit: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Edmonton Oilers slowly put the clamps on the Philadelphia Flyers and eventually squeezed the life out of them by a score of 4-2. The bottom line of this match comes down to Edmonton’s power-play which is the best in the NHL this season. The last time these two teams met the Flyers came away with a shootout win. They also did not take any penalties during that entire game.
Missing Konecny
The Flyers also had to deal with the fact that Travis Konecny would not be playing. He sustained an upper body injury in Calgary and will be evaluated upon his return to Philly. Konecny is in the middle of a break out season and hopefully his absence will be short lived. All that being said Edmonton is a high ranking team 31-19-8 with two of the best forwards in the league in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. So tonight was an uphill battle for the visiting Flyers no doubt about it.
The first two periods of the game looked very promising for the Flyers. They were able to hang tight with the Oilers, they were actually ahead in the scoring until the 3rd period. Noah Cates had a nice wrap around goal to put the Flyers up by one. Edmonton plays the man in their own zone so tight that every move the Flyers attempted had to be made without a second to spare. The coverage was intense but the Flyers did manage to get some chances and the first goal.
Oilers power-play
With just 6 seconds left in the period the Oilers went on their first power-play of the night when Joel Farabee went to the box for high-sticking. It took Edmonton all of 3 seconds to tie the game. In the 2nd period Owen Tippett scored to put the Flyers back in the lead and things held tight until the 3rd. The Flyers looked respectable against the Oilers. Wade Allison had more responsibilities with Konecny absent and he handled it well. Ivan Provorov was a work horse yet again tonight. And Tippett looked sharp as usual.
Up until this point the Flyers had a pretty good grip on Connor McDavid which was a spill over from their last meet up. All of that changed in the 3rd period of this game. McDavid broke whatever spell it was the Flyers had on him and put on a show as his team took over the game. Olle Lycksell took a double minor for high-sticking and the Oilers went back to work on the power-play. Draisaitl scored the goal with assists going to Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid.
A view from above
Things are sometimes much clearer from a distance than they are from on the ice, especially when you are in the heat of the battle. Edmonton started keeping the Flyers pushed towards the center of the ice in their own defensive zone. They kept them away from the boards and forced them to try to clear the zone by breaking up through the top of the slot where Edmonton was waiting for them. This happened over and over again keeping the Flyers spending too much time in their own zone. Eventually McDavid scored to give the Oilers their first lead of the night at 13:39 of the 3rd.
With the way the momentum had swung it did not seem like best time to pull Carter Hart for the extra skater. Especially after Edmonton took a delay of game penalty. Sure that would give the Flyers a 6 on 4 advantage, but it would also give Edmonton the opportunity to shoot at will for the Flyers empty net without worrying about icing the puck. The Flyers did pull Hart and Connor McDavid did score on the empty net.
The dog days of winter
Edmonton slowly closed like a vice on the Flyers until they clearly showed themselves to be the better team. The Flyers may have survived if they had been able to stay out of the penalty box. McDavid played the 3rd period of this game the way you would have expected him to play in the preceding 5 periods against the Flyers. You can only hold someone like him at bay for so long. Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella was pleased with his team’s effort. As I already said, it was an uphill battle, they did what they could. It’s time to come home.
Flyers return home to host the Montreal Canadiens Friday Night at The Farg 7PM
