Anthony Mazziotti
There really isn’t much to it: the Canucks beat the Flyers in every aspect of the game on Tuesday night. Clearly they were the better team offensively and on special teams. Their penalty kill outplayed the Flyers second power play unit, one on of the power plays the Canucks outshot the Flyers. Let that sink in.
Despite the Flyers finding a way to put damn near 40 shots on net, there were only a handful of true scoring opportunities. The first goal was well done, there was a lot of traffic up front and Ivan Provorov’s slapshot bounced off a Canucks defender and into the net.
— Nick Piccone (@nickpiccone) November 22, 2017
The second goal was a nice play by Travis Sanheim, Claude Giroux, and Jake Voracek. It was arguably the best play the Flyers had in the game.
The dish by Giroux ?
The goal by Voracek ? pic.twitter.com/LJMkEgOJV6
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) November 22, 2017
Aside from this, there wasn’t really much to write home about for the Flyers. In the word’s of Brandon Graham after the Sunday Night football beat down, “They got their butt’s whooped.”
If I had to take something away from this game, it’s that something needs to change with this team. Outside of the top line there is no chance of scoring. Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, and Jake Voracek account for 70 points. (22,22,26 respectively). The other nine forwards that played tonight (Jordan Weal, Nolan Patrick, Wayne Simmonds, Michael Raffl, Valtteri Filppua, Travis Konecny, Taylor Leier, Scott Laughton, and Jori Lehtera) account for 50 points. That is pathetic, the Flyers can’t have any long-term success with the other three lines hardly producing any points.
It’s not like the Flyers don’t have the talent. Weal proved in a short period of time last year he has offensive upside, Simmonds put up 31 goals last season (32 the season before, 28 the season before that one), Filppula has been known to create offense in the past (he has two season over 50 points, and one at 48), even Raffl put up 21 goals in a season before. Then there are young guys like Nolan Patrick and Travis Konecny who have both shown flashes of being offensive lightning rods; then add in Scott Laughton and Taylor Leier give the fourth line a skillset that hasn’t been seen in Philadelphia in a long time. This is a group of players that are underachieving. I don’t know if it’s the coach or the players but something needs to be done and fast.
Outside of Nolan Patrick, Konecny has the most upside of the bunch in my opinion. He notched an assist on the Provorov goal and created a handful of quality scoring chances tonight. He just needs a little more work. He is still very green with only 91 professional games under his belt.
Now that the bad (and the obvious) has been stated, let’s look to my one bright spot of the game: Travis Sanheim. Sanheim has been playing solid hockey in his first season in the NHL. While he has been known to be an offensive minded defenseman, he is playing a pretty conservative offensive game; he is trying his best to stay in position on the blue line. However, he isn’t afraid to crash the net or chase a loose puck into the corner. I love the style of game he plays and he keeps getting valuable minutes night in and night out. I was happy to see him get a point tonight on the Voracek goal.
The Flyers return to action tonight at the Nassau Coliseum against the New York Islanders. Puck drops at 7; here’s hoping the Flyers bounce back and get a big win against a Metro Division rival.
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