Anthony Mazziotti
Sublime. That’s the only word I can come up with to describe the feeling in the Wells Fargo Center after the Flyers overtime win on Eric Lindros night.
The night started out beautifully, Orange Lindros shirts covered every seat in the Well with the exception of four pairs of 88s made of black shirts like in the cover photo. The crowd rejoiced when Lindros was introduced by Paul Holmgren. They cheered louder than I’ve ever heard before at this arena. The video collage was beautiful, Lindros spoke very well, and no one cursed out Scott Stevens. The number 88 is now in the rafters forever, right next to Bobby Clarke’s 16. 88 FOREVER!
The first period started out slow, and kinda sloppy. Not a lot happened. The Flyers went on a power play with 1:59 left in the first but nothing came of it.
The second period is where half of the action went down. Roughly 13 minutes into the second period there was some chippy play at center ice where Zach Hyman literally laid on top of Travis Konecny for a few seconds. No call happened despite a referee being a foot and a half away from the event, and Connor Brown put up a goal to take a 1-0 lead. Not even a minute after that Frederik Gauthier scored for the Leafs to take a 2-0 lead. The second period ended with some nice pressure by the Flyers.
The third period started out picture perfect for the Flyers. Just over a minute and a half into the third, Nolan Patrick picked a Leafs players pocket and scored a pretty goal to cut the lead in half.
Nolan Patrick with the effort goal as he scores for the first time in 25 games.
Presented by @SkiJFBB. pic.twitter.com/Bha6uCa78Y
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) January 19, 2018
Not even two minutes later, Valtteri Filppula led a short handed, two on one rush and fed the puck to Simmonds for the short handed game tying goal!
Down a man, but on the scoreboard.
Simmonds scores the shorty to tie this one up! pic.twitter.com/qpA8cv9xJL
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) January 19, 2018
The third period ended with some flurries by both teams and a couple beautiful saves by Neuvirth.
Eighteen seconds into overtime Travis Konecny fed the puck beautifully to Sean Couturier for the game winner.
It was an all around great night at the Wells Fargo Center. Here are three takeaways on the Flyers overtime win. One for each goal.
1. What is Hakstol thinking?
I’ll get my negative takeaway done first. Tyrell Goulbourne was recalled from the Phantoms and played 3:11 in Thursday night’s game. WHY? Why willingly play man down for pretty much the entire game? You could chalk it up to his line not playing much, Scott Laughton only had 7:40 minutes and Jori Lehtera only had 9:34. I’ve said it before about Travis Sanheim (I’ll get to him in a minute), if you’re not going to play him, send him down. You already have a right winger who should be getting ice time in Taylor Leier.
Ditto pretty much everything I said about Goulbourne for Sanheim. Number 6 was a healthy scratch again tonight. It’s not like all six of the Flyers defenseman are playing lights out; Gudas looked rough out there tonight, Manning looks human as ever, and MacDonald is MacDonald (good one minute, bad the next). Sanheim should be playing somewhere.
2. The kids are all right.
Travis Konecny: Konecny, much like Weal, played a great game. Generated a lot of offense with his speed and played scrappy on defense. He had beautiful assist on Coots’ game winning goal. I love him on that top line. It’s still really early but I see some Danny Briere in his game. (No jinx!)
Nolan Patrick: The second overall pick showed why he was taken so high. He played a very smart game and scored the Flyers first goal of the evening to get the momentum swinging back in his team’s direction. Here’s hoping he can build off Thursday’s performance.
Robert Hagg: Hagg is a stalwart defensively. He plays a super smart game and is very physical. He won’t light up the stat sheets but he is a force defensively. I love his style of play.
Jordan Weal: While he didn’t end up on the stat sheet he generated a lot of offense. He’s very fast and smart with the puck. He’s a damn fine player and a difference maker when he’s on the ice.
3. Michal Neuvirth should start a few in a row.
Neuvy played a phenomenal game on Thursday. He saved 29 of 31 shots and had a few beautiful saves on shots that should have found twine. Check out this save on Patrick Marleau:
Late in the third.
Tie game.WHAT A SAVE! pic.twitter.com/Rf8N0BxljX
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) January 19, 2018
He should be able to build off Thursday’s performance which would be good for the Flyers in two ways. One: they have a hot hand they can go to at goaltender which is huge considering they’re pushing for the wildcard spot. And two: It can give Brian Elliott some much needed rest. He played 25 more games than Neuvy so far this season. Some rest could go a long way for Moose.
The Flyers walked away with two points on the night they retired number 88. They did good by “Big E” and inched closer to the playoffs. That’s a win-win if you ask me. The Orange and Black return to action on Saturday to face the Devils at home at 1:00.
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