The first series of the Playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens was a battle. Although, the Flyers were scoring enough and winning games, they were not playing their best hockey. That was shown over and over again. In my opinion, they barely made it to Round Two. Here we are in Round Two, and the Flyers got their butts kicked last night. The Flyers played ridiculously well in the Round Robin, but the game’s apparently weren’t as intense as what they were made out to be. They just cannot seem to get back to the momentum they had before the pause. We see flashes of it at times, and other times not so much.
I had hoped this series against the New York Islanders would be different, but it is not thus far. Yes, it’s only one game, but it looks like the Flyers were deflated. They were being manhandled by the Islanders for large stretches at a time. Andy Greene lit up the score board early at 13:54. The Islanders had out shot the orange and black 13-3 for approximately the first 16 minutes of play. It should not come as a surprise that the Flyers were blanked 4-0.
Flyers Forwards need to be more aggressive, and they need to do a better job at forechecking. Moreover, the defensemen need to take more hits to the body, they need to block shots, and they need to clear the porch so Carter Hart can see the puck. You can only save what you can see, it is basic science. The vets need to start hitting the net. Jakub Voracek and Sean Couturier need to be more of a presence, Travis Konecny and Claude Giroux need to score.
During not just the game against the Islanders, but in other games I kept hearing about Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers. Both of them were all over the ice, and in my opinion they were the best Defencemen. Sanheim has tallied eight goals and 17 assists totalling 25 points in 69 games played. Myers has tallied four goals and 12 assists totalling 16 points in the 50 games played.
In the end, one thing remains, a team cannot win a game where you do not score goals. I do hope they get it together and bring it on Wednesday because this will be a very short series if they do not. And I, for one, do not want to have another season conclude without the Cup.
