“Lines move all the time in hockey. All the time.” That was coach Peter Laviolette’s way of telling the fans and the media to chill out after the Flyers loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. It’s only been one game since, but it’s difficult to complain about the results when Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell break their season long scoring slumps with two goals apiece, leading the Flyers to a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The first goals from both Jagr and Hartnell came on the powerplay- Jagr’s blocker side on a smooth breakaway and Hartnell with a diving poke in the crease. The seconds came from assists from Hartnell and Giroux, respectively. Hartnell scored his 200th point as a Flyer and Danny Briere his 600th point in the NHL as well.
Needless to say, this line will remain together for another game.
“It’s a long time coming, I guess. It’s been awhile since we both scored and it’s nice to contribute finally,” said Hartnell (courtesy of CSNPhilly). “You work hard and get rewarded for it.”
The Maple Leafs were not the pushovers some may have expected tonight either, especially back-up goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, who was under heavy fire from the second period on. The Leafs are still rebuilding, but they have managed to assemble two threatening top lines with the likes of Phil Kessel, Matt Lombardi, Mikhail Grabovski, and former Flyer Joffrey Lupul.
Threatening is a particularly apt description, as Grabovski and Lupul did their best to take out the orange and black with embarrassingly reckless high sticks to the face.
Chris Pronger left the game screaming “my eye, my eye” after taking a vicious high stick to the right eye courtes
y of Grabovski. The referees elected not to call a penalty, following a rule that states incidental contact with the face during a shot follow-through is acceptable. The referees “set things right” by calling a subsequent high sticking by Lupul that cost Matt Read some teeth, but the damage was already done.
After the game, general manager Paul Holmgren discussed Pronger’s injury. He suggested that Pronger should be alright in the long-term, as his vision did come back, but he will likely be out for the next ten days to two weeks.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy, in his second start of the season, played well. The first Leafs’ goal was the result of a deflection off Matt Walker’s skate that bounced right onto the stick of Kessel, left open by Brayden Schenn. Dave Steckel’s goal, though, was the result of mis-play with Bobrovsky’s stick as he slid across the crease and accidentally batted it in. He hasn’t stolen the show yet, but he has shown that he is more than capable of handling the back-up role.
It was a game filled with terrifying moments and milestones, but the Flyers will have little time to think about either as they travel to Montreal to take on the Habs on Wednesday. This will mark game #9 of the season, after which the Flyers will have to decide if they want to burn a year of Sean Couturier’s entry level contract playing with Jody Shelley for eight minutes a game.
The Flyers will also have to regroup on the back end, likely pairing Andrej Meszaros with Andreas Lilja and Walker with Braydon Coburn while Pronger rehabilitates. The team has no cap space to call up a seventh defenseman, which may be the impetus to send Couturier back to juniors.
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Personally would not send Couturier to jrs for sake of limited cap space. He’s already proven himself as good penalty killer… with O skills. This team isn’t ready or experienced enough to reach finals this year (unless there is monumental step forward in 2nd half) so let the kid stay up to build his endurance and bite the bullet on cap space. Haven’t had so much fun watching rookies (and other youngin’s) play since the days of Tocchet and Zezel.
Really glad to see Jagr (and Hartnell) break into the scoring column finally. Jagr still has IT.
Hartsmell, needs to be traded. He is a goofy, stiff!