Date Published: 11-30-2022
Photo Credit: Our very own Nate Benner
8 seconds, just 8 seconds into the Flyers game last night against the New York Islanders and woolah two fights. Zack MacEwen fought Matt Martin, while Nic Deslauriers fought Ross Johnston. At first it appeared the message was if you can’t beat them, beat them literally.
The tone was set and the Flyers broke the franchise record with two fights in 8 seconds. This was numbers 16 and 17 fights on the season for the Flyers, they had 23 fights last season.
Unfortunately, Rasmus Ristolainen took a bad penalty which led to the first goal by Noah Dobson on the Power Play. However, John Tortorella spoke very highly of Travis Sanheim before the game and said he was starting to find his game offensively, well for his efforts Sanheim notched his first career short-handed goal to tie the game up at one. He really is starting to find his niche with 2g,3a in his last six games.
From there Lukáš Sedlák continued to impress with threading a nice pass to Kevin Hayes for a 2-1 lead. Hayes managed to chip in an empty netter for 24 points in 23 games played (8g,16a). Sedlák looks to have resurrected his NHL career as he has had multipoint games in back-to-back games for the first time in his career (1g,3a during that span). Fir his efforts, Sedlák is one of the best play drivers the Flyers have had within the past five to six games.
Carter Hart shut the door from there as he made 23 stellar saves for a .958 Save Percentage. Hart also help from Nick’s sealer blocking shots and Egor Zamula saving a goal in the third period, “Oh yeah, him and Seels both. I owe them both dinner. It was a huge, huge save by both of them. A couple blocks,” Hart said following the game.
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The entire team bought in to Torts’s system last night, and they prevailed against a very good Islanders team. Scott Laughton returned from a shoulder injury that kept him out about a week, in his presence was felt on the ice, “He stabilizes. You see where I put him in. Double shifted him and Catesy at the end of the game when we were protecting the lead,” Tortorella said. “He’s a good penalty killer. He’s an inspiration. Not so much talking-wise, but just the way he plays. He’s a bona fide National Hockey League pro. He needs to be around some of these kids for them to learn off of him, so it’s good to have him.”
Fortunately the 10 game losing streak is in the rear view mirror, as Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher recorded his 500th career win as an NHL GM. He became the 33rd GM in NHL history, to reach 500 victories, per NHL stats.
Extra Credit:
Tony DeAngelo missed last night’s game with a lower body injury, and that injury was sustained in the loss on Saturday night while blocking a shot. He was banged up from that. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, as the Flyers are starting to get healthy for once. Cam Atkinson may return tomorrow night.
The Flyers will practice today at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, NJ at noon. It’s free and open to the public.
