The Flyers played one of their best overall games yesterday. Did they get stopped on some breakaways…sure? We have to remember though Igor Shestyorkin is no joke. He is one of the league’s best young netminders. So he is going to make some elite saves like he did yesterday. He however though was outmatched by Brian Moose!!! Elliott. Again and again, as the Flyers backup, Elliott impresses. He made more than a few key saves yesterday, the Moose made 24 saves on 27 shots. The three goals that Elliott gave up were courtesy of Kreider’s hat trick. Elliott could not do much on all three of those goals as the Flyers did a poor job at clearing out the front of the net.
That is one area that the Flyers did poorly yesterday. They played one of their better more aggressive games, and the Flyers got shots on the net and by far had their best shooting output on the season. They were finally just firing shots with traffic in front of the net. The orange and black had 39 shots on the evening. They also as they should dominated the Rangers in the Dot. They won 63.6% of faceoffs to the Rangers 36.4%. For what I believe is the first time this season, the Flyers won each periods shot total. They also had 25 hits to the Rangers 21. This is the type of Physical and shooting style game we need to see going forward from the Flyers.
The Captain is back and back in style. Giroux did not miss a beat in his first game back. He told Alain Vigneault that he was ready to go and it seemed like he was more than ready. The Captain went off for three assists, but he also was aggressive on the forecheck in this game. Giroux’s first assist was on Erik Gustafsson’s first goal on the season on a blast from the point. His second was on a play where Shayne Gostisbehere smartly crashed on a rebound in the high slot to wire it home. Then last but certainly not least on the game winning goal by Kevin Hayes where Hayes called for the pass and got a brilliant pass through a few Rangers defenders and wired it home. Then the Flyers other goal was another brilliant pass to JVR in front from Joel Farabee.
it is safe to say leading in shots all three periods and leading the game in hits is the way to go. The Flyers aggression lead to a great 4-3 result. Hopefully, this style of play while also continuing to win the faceoff numbers sticks. If it does the sky is the limit for this team once everyone is back. Go Flyers.
