Post Game Notes from Flyers/Panthers and Flyers/Senators

As of tonight, the Flyers have now won the 8^th and 9^th games of their last 10 with blow outs against the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators. The Panthers aren’t a particularly good team, but the Senators have been firing like playoff contenders as of late. The Flyers rallied against their opponents 5-2 and 5-1, respectively.

Against the Panthers:

 

• Forward Andreas Nodl looked jumpy early in the game, but settled his game down to set up the first goal of the game, holding the puck in the offensive zone until Mike Richards was about 10 feet from the net to take the pass. Richards roofed it over back-up goaltender Scott Clemmensen, giving the Flyers an early lead.

  Nodl ended up taking a puck to the foot early in the second period, at which point he left the game. Paul Holmgren told reporters after the game that initial x-rays came back negative, but there was considerable swelling. He was “50/50” that Nodl would be fine, but the implication in the locker room was that James Van Riemsdyk would be on the ice against the Senators (which he was).

• The Flyers powerplay was 2 for 4 during the game, continuing the success of their special teams unit.
•  The only area of criticism that was discussed in the locker room was the team’s inability to play a solid 60 minutes of hockey after gaining the distant lead. Kimmo Timonen spoke at length about the issue, pointing out that when you’re up “five-nothing after half the game,” it’s difficult to put in the same effort. “Obviously it’s hard to go forward, 60 minutes in those kind of games, but we can still improve our game. That’s one of the things we can do.”

Against the Senators:

• The first two goals came within seconds of the Flyers winning offensive zone faceoffs. In both cases, a shot was taking from above the blue-line and tipped in. The Flyers have been middle of the road in the last few years in faceoff percentage, and the importance of winning those battles was on display tonight.
• The Flyers once again limited their penalties to just one tonight (tripping call on Danny Briere). You have to believe that coach Peter Laviolette is getting through to this team after they started the year with so many stick infractions.
• Despite taking the loss, Senators goaltender Brian Elliot was great in net tonight. This game could have been much more embarrassing without his performance in net.
• Mike Richards had his 300^th, 301^st, and 302^nd NHL point with an assist to Claude Giroux’s goal, a highlight reel shorthanded goal, and a second goal about 1:30 later.
• Dan Carcillo left the game early. I didn’t see what caused the original injury, but Tim Panaccio of CSN tweeted that he has the ever popular “lower body injury.” If Nodl isn’t ready to return to the line-up, Eric Wellwood may get his second shot to stay with the team.

 

The Flyers head to Montreal tomorrow night to conquer les Canadiens. Like the Senators, the Canadiens are a team that has been playing good hockey this season and will be a good test for the Flyers. I’m concerned that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky may be risking injury or fatigue if he continues to start every game, but he will likely get the call in net tomorrow.