Date Published: 1-6-2023
Photo Credit: F.N.G.’s Rob Windfelder
Well that sure was fun! Flyers return home to win their fourth game in a row…by a lot. We gotta get through this first period quickly because it’s going to take a bit to get through the second. Arizona’s Michael Carcone scored the only goal. The Flyers outshot the Coyotes 11-5 but went into the locker room down one zip.
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The Flyers absolutely dominated the second period, there’s no other way to describe it. Travis Konecny opened the scoring on the power play for the Flyers. Morgan Frost banked the puck from center ice off the back-boards right to Tony DeAngelo who convinced the goalie to commit before dishing the puck off to T.K. who extended his goal scoring streak to five games. Just over a minute later Nick Ritchie put Arizona back in the lead. Before you could even finish griping about how important the shifts right after a goal are the Flyers offense absolutely exploded. Within a stretch that lasted just over nine minutes the Flyers got goals from; Joel Farabee, Wade Allison, Ivan Provorov, and Kevin Hayes. It was a very welcome change for a team who until very recently has struggled putting pucks in the net. Konecny, Hayes, and Frost each had three points in the period. The power play went 2-3. Carter Hart was back between the pipes after missing three games due to injury. Everything was going the Flyers way, their hard work was paying off, and the hometown crowd was loving it. Shots on goal were 29-14 going into the third, and the Flyers were ahead by a score of 5-2.
The Flyers clamped things down in the final period and were happy to just dump the puck into the Coyotes zone and kill as much time there as possible. There was no reason to do anything otherwise, play it safe, slow it down, and protect the lead. James van Riemsdyk scored the only goal of the period. Owen Tippett and Frost got the assists, giving Frost four points on the night. Flyers win by a final score of 6-2.
Why are things suddenly looking better for the Flyers?
You could dissect this four game win streak in a number of different ways but a lot of that would be pointless. Yes, the Flyers have not been playing against the best teams the NHL has to offer this past week or so but there’s more to it than that. People who haven’t been following the team closely may wonder what the Flyers are doing differently all of a sudden? The difference is they played the first three months of the season missing half a dozen or so key players from their line-up due to injury. Most of these players have recently rejoined the team. During that time period the Flyers were taking a lot of grief for something that was totally beyond their control. The up-side of that challenge was Head Coach John Tortorella having a great opportunity to get his role players ice time and experience that they wouldn’t have seen in almost any other situation. Every player that was pushed into the challenge of “playing over their head” during that time period is a better hockey player now because of it. Let’s see how long this pay-off lasts. The schedule gets a lot more challenging this week starting with a visit from the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday at 7PM.
Extra Credit:
Kevin Hayes is going to the All Star Game!
