Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Flyers were right back in action Thursday night playing a back-to-back one day after their discouraging season opener in Philly. They hit the road to faceoff against the Devils in New Jersey.
Philly vs New Jersey
Jersey came right out of the gate aggressively firing pucks at the Flyers net. The Flyers were doing a great job of keeping pucks from reaching the net, yet their goaltender Joseph Woll was still a very busy man. That would continue to be the running theme all night long.
The Flyers did continue their pattern of getting outshot by double in the opening period 13-6. But shot attempts were even more lopsided with the Devils outpacing the Flyers 31 to 9 in the first period alone.
Nick Seeler absorbed a Nico Hischier slapper to the side of the knee. He stopped a second one before finding a chance to hobble his way to the bench.
On the scoreboard, where it counts, the Flyers scored the only 1st period goal. On a delayed penalty call Rasmus Ristolainen set up camp in the Devils crease and deflected a Travis Sanheim slapper past Jake Allen 11:12 into the period.
2nd Period
Jersey was relentless in the middle period throwing a ton of pucks at the Flyers net. The Flyers remained committed to assisting their goaltender as much as possible but Woll’s workload was heavy.
With just over two minutes remaining in the period Dougie Hamilton was successful with a wrister from the top of the circle through heavy traffic. It was the Devils 30th shot on goal of the contest. Conversely the Flyers had registered only 11 at that point.
- You hear people say you can’t judge a game by the number of shots on goal. Sure there are a ton of variables but no matter what the score SOG will give you an idea of how much offensive pressure is being applied. It will also fill in a lot of info on how the goalies are holding up under the pressure or lack thereof. It doesn’t tell the whole story but it will tell you a ton.
3rd Period
The Devils applied major pressure on a power-play early in the final period. Joseph Wolls was dialed in and made several key saves. His best was a side to side pad stop on a shot that looked like a done deal.
At 5:33 Sean Couturier pulled a puck off the side wall in the Devils zone and dished a pass to Travis Sanheim at the top of the slot. Sanheim unleashed a blast that rang decisively off the far post and into the net.
The go ahead goal gave the Flyer a renewed confidence offensively and they started racking up some dangerous chances. Unfortunately the defense sagged just enough for the Devils to find Luke Hughes all alone on the left hand side with enough time and space to pick his corner and beat Woll high blocker side to tie the game with 10:16 remaining.
Overtime
The Devils pressured early in the 3-on-3 and Joseph Woll continued to be solid. The Flyers also put together some strong chances. Jake Allen robbed Trevor Zegras in close.
But it was the Devils who put together a highlight reel goal at 3:23 of the overtime period. Jack Hughes went coast to coast with the puck. He avoided a valiant effort by Travis Konecny to complete a pass to Jesper Bratt. Bratt immediately sent it right across the front of the net to Hughes for the dunk. All of this took place very quickly on the rush. Unfortunately for the Flyers it was just a beautiful goal, and good luck stopping it.
Takeaways
This was a much better effort on the part of the Flyers. They had to suppress a ton of attempts by their talented opponent. Joseph Woll had a very solid night between the pipes. If he can string together more efforts like this one he could have a huge impact.
Woll kept them in this game time and time again. The overtime game winner came on the Devils 44th shot of the night. It was an onslaught, the Flyers blocked an additional 32 attempts. New Jersey was relentless offensively.
The Flyers deserve credit for their effort in this game. They stuck to their game, they never gave up, and they skated away with their first point of the new season.
Extra Credit: Rasmus Ristolainen may have been the Flyers most dangerous offensive asset on the ice tonight. And that is not a slight on anyone else on the team. Sanheim was a close second.
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