Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Philadelphia Flyers played host to the Montreal Canadiens Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers were coming off of a big win on Saturday edging out the Wild 7-5. A much needed offensive explosion curtesy of team captain Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny gave the team a much needed win after starting the season 2-5-1 coming into tonight’s game. Coots and TK both notched five points in Saturday’s game. Matvei Michkov added a goal and an assist to give that line a combined 12 points in the game.
Tonight marked the first NHL start for Flyers goaltender Alexei Kolosov. Ivan Fedotov has struggled in his three starts this season posting a 5.35 GAA and .821SV%. Emil Andrae has been called up from the Phantoms to fill in for Cam York who has been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss at least two weeks with an upper body injury.
The Canadiens came to town with a 3-4-1 record. They’ve been hit with a barrage of injuries that started adding up before the regular season even got started. The Habs, like the Flyers, are playing their second game in as many days. Yesterday they beat the Blues by the score of 5-2. So both teams came into tonight’s game feeling pretty good about their offense and hoping to continue inking up the scoresheets.
Philly vs Montreal
This game started out fast and loose with both teams struggling to control the puck at both ends of the ice. Early on things broke down into a physical confrontation behind the Montreal net. Arber Xhekaj seemingly unprovoked had Flyers captain Sean Couturier pinned up against the end boards as play headed down the other end of the ice. Xhekaj had Coots pinned and was trying to provoke him. Eventually Couturier reluctantly looked resolved to the situation. He looked more aggravated than angered and his body language was like, ok I guess there is no way out of this as he started to shake his gloves off.
It would have made sense for the on ice officials to jump in at this point but since they didn’t Nick Seeler did. It was a bizarre turn of events and in the end Xhekaj was the only player that went into the box. Two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Canadiens got on the board first 12:48 into the game. The puck was bouncing all around the Flyers zone before Nick Suzuki banged it past Flyers goaltender Alexei Kolosov. Moments later Matvei Michkov had a chance to tie it up but shot wide on a breakaway. This was a choppy period. The puck would not lay down and behave for either team.
Kolosov was called on to make a few challenging saves including stoning Nick Suzuki with a pad save right on the doorstep. With just under two minutes left in the 1st period Travis Sanheim threw a wrist shot through traffic that appeared to hit a Hab in the pants and elude Canadiens netminder Cayden Primeau. The 1st period ended with Montreal outshooting the Flyers 11-8 and the score tied at one.
Second Period Slump
2nd periods have not been kind to the Flyers so far this season and this one was no exception. It started off with Kolosov making a shockingly great side to side save on Brendan Gallagher on a 2-on-1. That exciting moment was followed up by three unanswered Montreal goals.
Gallagher deflected a Logan Mailloux shot from the point up and over Kolosov at 4:48. Cole Caufield squeezed a shot through a sliver of an opening between Kolosov’s blocker and the post to make it 3-1 at 7:12. Then at 16:01 Brendan Gallagher fired a super slow shot across the slot. It was either a pass disguised as a flubbed shot or vise versa. Either way it slowly traveled across the ice and landed on the stick of Jake Evans who snapped it into the net. That quick the 2nd period was out of the way and the Flyers were down 4-1.
The 3rd period opened with another highlight reel save by Alexei Kolosov. This time it was a fantastic glove save on Cole Caufield within the 1st minute of the final period. If the Flyers had played the first two minutes of the 3rd period they way they played the last two minutes it could have been a completely different game.
The 3rd period was not very pretty for the Flyers. The Habs were sitting on a three goal lead and were more than happy to just keep the Flyers at bay. It was frustrating to watch. The Flyers instead of just simplifying things made it more complicated than it needed to be.
Often they were in striking distance and opted to make that one extra pass that put them in worse positioning not better. They were dropping blind back passes that were ending up on Montreal sticks. There were a few solid chances that ended with shots that were way wide of the net. It was that frustrating funky style of disjointed play that has been all too familiar as of late. Head coach John Tortorella seemed uncharacteristically quiet on the bench.
Two Minute Warning
Travis Sanheim who was the most dangerous offensive weapon on the ice all night long scored his second goal of the game with 2:12 left on the clock. He glided across the slot from right to left and unleashed a wrister that beat Primeau blocker side. 4-2 Montreal.
When play resumed Kolosov skated to the bench to make room for the extra attacker. Owen Tippett skated with the puck behind the Canadiens net. He made a wrap around move and sent a pass cross ice through the crease to Travis Konecny who wasted it no time sending it home. 4-3 with 1:40 left.
Montreal iced the puck with 1:27 left in regulation and the Flyers pulled Kolosov again. They managed to keep prolonged pressure up in the offensive zone but could not manage to score the tying goal. The Flyers outshot the Canadiens 26-24 and lost the game 4-3. As far as this game is concerned the numbers make this match seem a lot closer than it actually was.
Next Up: The Flyers will be in Boston to face-off against the Bruins Tuesday night at 7:00 PM.
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