Photo Credit: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Flyers after having run “the gauntlet” of top teams over the past two weeks are into their “easy games”. Spoiler Alert: There are no “easy games” in the NHL. Hopefully the Flyers don’t fall for the hype and find themselves unprepared for the competition over this next stretch of games. Hockey is a great sport we can all agree on that. One of the things that keeps it interesting is the fact that every team has a chance every night in any given game.
If you are a Philly sports fan you are also way too well aware of how things go here. As I always say “Philly is the place where slumps go to die”. It doesn’t matter which sport we are talking about for some reason struggling teams seem to do well against the City of Brotherly Love. The Canadiens are currently in a battle for the basement with the Senators in the Atlantic so look out.
Philly vs Montreal
You would hope the Flyers would come out with the same type of cautious intensity that would match the level they have built up playing teams like Toronto, Florida, and New York. If they came out that way against the Montreal Canadiens it should be no problem right? This game started in a similar fashion to their last “easy game” back on March 12th against the San Jose Sharks. The Flyers ended up winning that one 3-2 but it was a lot closer than it should’ve been. The Canadiens not only kept up with the Flyers in the 1st period, they ran the show.
Nick Suzuki scored his 30th goal of the season at 12:58 of the 1st period on the power-play. Philly has the third best penalty kill numbers in the league but teams have been cracking the code a bit more as of late. Montreal was moving the puck around the Flyers zone quite effectively before finding Suzuki by the side of the net for the dunk.
The Canadiens were doing a good job of keeping the Flyers off of their offensive game. They were making clean entries hard to come by and the Flyers kept going in offsides because of the interruptions. Speaking of “where slumps go to die”, Jesse Ylönen broke a 43 game goalless streak by scoring Montreal’s second goal of the game. It was a short shot off of a rebound right in front. There were plenty of Flyers standing there to witness the event.
Montreal showed up for this game and they were going into the first intermission up by two goals. As time was running out in the period Josh Anderson was taking advantage of the Deslauriers -free lineup by skating around introducing his glove to multiple faces before the teams left the ice.
2nd Period
Both teams were taking turns heading to the penalty box and not scoring on the power-play. The Canadiens again did a good job of containing the Flyers. The Flyers were getting more chances as the period went on but many of their shots were either blocked or forced from low percentage angles.
At one point Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson found himself in a footrace for the puck with Nick Suzuki. The puck was dumped into the Flyers end with Suzuki entering the zone. Fortunately Ersson won the race and knocked the puck out of harms way before colliding with Suzuki in the circle.
Running with the theme here, the Flyers mustered over 40 shots against the Rangers on Tuesday night but found themselves half way through this contest tied at seven shots with the Canadiens. Both chances and frustration were adding up for the Flyers as the 2nd period came to a close.
The give and take
The 3rd period was just getting underway when at 18:17 the Flyers appeared to get a goal as Garnet Hathaway kept plugging away at a Joel Farabee rebound. The initial shot beat Cayden Primeau five hole but did not make it over the goal line. Hathaway stuck with it in the blue paint until the puck finally appeared to be in the net. The goal was reviewed and deemed to have been kicked in and therefore disallowed.
Less than four minutes later the Flyers seemed to score again. Morgan Frost threw the puck from behind the goal line towards Tyson Foerster in front of the net. The puck appeared to have been redirected before it reached Foerster but it clearly ended up in the net behind Primeau. Not so fast. There was some sort of discussion going on, this time the issue was the blueline. The play was determined to be offsides and this goal also was disallowed.
Travis Konecny hit the post on a power-play that registered one shot and made the Flyers 0 for 4 so far on the night. Something else that is so often said, the Flyers power-play could have been the difference in so many close games this season. It has been looking better as of late but is still nowhere near where they need it to be.
At 9:11 Montreal had a goal disallowed because of a high stick and this game just kept finding ways for the score to stay frozen at two to zero. The Canadiens were not credited for their first shot on goal of the 3rd period until there was just 7:57 left to play.
Slipping away
With six minutes left the Flyers had a flurry of chances that just could not find their way to the back of the net. Sanheim, Konecny, Laughton, Foerster all plugged away unsuccessfully at the invisible force-field that surrounded the Montreal net. Cayden Primeau was looking to notch his 3rd straight shutout on home ice. Tippett and Frost ran into the same trouble that has plagued the Flyers all night. It is not like Primeau was playing an exceptionally spectacular game. He was playing just fine, it’s just everything was bouncing the Canadiens way.
The Flyers yanked Ersson for the extra skater with 3:21 left. Montreal won possession of the puck immediately off the faceoff and Joel Armia put the puck in the open net. Owen Tippett ruined the shutout with one minute and one second left to go.
The Flyers spent the final minute relegated to playing along the boards in the Montreal zone with Ersson on the bench. Jake Evans gained possession and looped a lazy backhander from the red-line into the empty net with three seconds to go. Hats off to the Canadiens they clearly earned this 4-1 win over the Flyers. They showed up, they played hard, and they did what they had to to win this game.
Time will tell
Fortunately the Leafs whooped the Caps tonight as the Flyers failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity in Montreal. At this time of year games like this one appear much larger than they actually are. Possibly missing the post season by a point or two takes the entire season to accomplish. But these games at the end of the season are fresh in the memory and easier to point out.
This was a big game for the Flyers. If they had won this game it would not have been a big deal. Two points against a last place team, put them in the bank and move on. But this loss could prove to be huge. Hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite them too hard.
Next Up: The Flyers will host Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night at 7:00 pm. The Blackhawks are the 2nd worst team in the NHL with 21 wins and 47 points. This is another prime example of a game where you don’t get to celebrate too hard if you win, but holy cow the doo doo is deep if you lose. After tonight this stretch of “easy games” that everyone has been looking forward to has quickly transformed into a string of “must wins”.
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