Photo Credit: Our very own Ricky Brown
What a time to be thankful; for here in Alberta their is nothing but blue skies and magpies and get this. No snow!!! Long have I myself seen this kind of weather in October well, honestly, since my youth.
This month’s article is a brief summary of the Flyers opening the month of October and my first-hand fan experience at the new barn in Edmonton. Now some Oil fan’s I can reassure you are loyal like us, but most are a bunch of big kids. Good natured, and some were talking smack with me to start the game. It’s fun and engaging, but not the least amount to mention entertaining. When I was just there to watch the team under the tutelage of Tortorella and Matvei Michkov. Not to mention my boy Samuel Ersson.
Well, Flyers fans, that is what we call a doozy of an opening month of Flyers hockey; spooky in itself too. Considering we, the Philadelphia Flyers have set the right tone to grow our prospect pool over the year’s via the Phantom’s and as such since we’ve done just that. It’s given us a glimpse of what the Flyers were once held accountable for. And that is listening to our fan’s. We were a loud, proud, loyal, and raucous crush em(Orange that is) style of fan’s that literally made the Well so intimidating to play against and it represents the city of Philadelphia great.
Let’s start with Matvei Michkov who started red hot out of the gate and opened up the scoring, his first two goals of his career were against this Edmonton team and what a better way to showcase his talent. His composure in and around the net is what I’m talking about as it was picture perfect as he attacks the puck with such drive and tenacity. That it often drives the Flyers to their constant brink of ongoing failures and progress. Even though it’s what made the team so great in the past. And that’s going to the net hard, and expecting ill results, it’s without this focus, drive, and determination that the Flyers current team will literally skate around each other and ignore the ultimate pay off. A hard nosed in your face, gritty style kind of play that has literally given them numerous successes in the past. Fred Shero is once known as saying, “Arrive to the net with ill humor and good things will happen.”
Well, he is right. And in itself its pretty self explanatory that the Flyers lost their battles within and not to mention willingness to get to the key areas of the ice and without the help of having strong, net front leadership or presence in James van Riemsdyk or Wayne Simmonds to help them they will lose their effectiveness on the Power Play but with having a player like Michkov, a player who skates well. Gets to the grey areas of the ice, and you will see the team’s identity will once be back in top form. He skates really well, and his first goal was a spitting image and what we expect to see of his promising young career, and that’s in your face, nose to the grindstone hockey.
While Samuel Ersson kept them in it, not to mention some key defensive containment play by the Flyers defense. It couldn’t stop them from keeping McDavid and Draisaitl off the the board, as both teams were battling the refs as well, but with Erssons’ vision and key lateral movement, he couldn’t stop the Oilers offense once they got going; as they were gifted Power Play’s by the refs and having one key penalty killer placed in the box in Travis Konecny. At one point, both teams were frustrated with each other and started taking their frustrations on one another. At one point, our very own captain Sean Couturier took advantage of a goal tender playing the puck out of his own goal crease and gave him a gentle nudge and much to Oilers defenders in Troy Stecher’s dismay, Coots hit Stuart Skinner but what I saw was a dive by the Oilers netminder as he flailed backwards a tad and dove. As it resulted in a tilly between Stetcher and Couturier in an already heated game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers.
The game ended on sour grapes as another blown call by the refs went to the Edmonton Oilers as our player was driving the net hard in overtime and was slashed and maybe even hooked a little, this time during a breakdown by the Oilers themselves as Sanheim went to the net on a break but fell down in the corner boards and in turn we were no match for the Oilers speed as we were caught on a backcheck. Oilers got away with two points as they went the other way and got the go ahead and eventual overtime winner. On a miscommunication play. It was a great game overall that had enough tenacity and will but it proved not to be enough for a full sixty minutes of play by the Flyers.
As they say, plenty of hockey left, but it was just that; no full sixty minutes of play. But it’s just the beginning of the season as we look forward to November. A month to be thankful for. Veterans, players, coaches, parents, as well as wives. As we head into this month, need I remind not to put up your Christmas decorations or tree until after Veterans day or Remembrance day here in Canada.
