One thing the Flyers have been very good at this series against the Montreal Canadiens is playing well defensively. With the Canadiens on the brink of elimination they took the Flyers game, and spit it back out at them.
Defense wins championships, but in game 5 the Flyers played bad defensively. They gave way too much space for the Canadiens players to create, thus making Montreal look like the much faster team. The Canadiens won puck battles, and were physical along the boards. The Flyers had trouble matching their intensity. Carter Hart was peppered right from the start, as he stood no chance on this night.
For the majority of the series against Montreal, the Flyers have done a great job with standing up players at the blue line, thus making it very difficult for Montreal to enter the zone. In game 5, it was anything but, Montreal entered the zone throughout the course of the game with ease cleanly. The Flyers have to be more physical. They were outmatched physicality-wise in game 5.
Turnovers led to goals. For instance, moments after a young Joel Farabee potted his third goal in his young playoff career to tie the game at three. However, a blatant Nate Thompson turnover led to the fourth goal for Montreal just 22 seconds after Farabee tied up the game with his first career Power Play goal.
Many will question why the fourth line was out there in a critical situation. Don’t the benches get shortened in such a big game? Unfortunately, that did not transpire last night, as Vigneault trusts his team to make the right decisions, regardless of what line he uses. This has worked throughout the majority of the series and season for that matter, but it did not work last night, rather it came back to haunt him. Vigneault’s trust in Thompson finally bit hit last night.
The Flyers have to get back playing their brand of hockey in Game 6, which is a defense first style that leads to offense. I’m confident they can do that, as this team is well aware of how pesky the Montreal Canadiens can be.
