The Flyers posted a quality win against a quality opponent last night in their 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Scoring first was huge, and the Flyers got better in the second period. Things got a little tense in the third period but, in the final few minutes, Philly closed the game out with authority to win going away.
The Flyers got a second straight excellent game in goal from Ilya Bryzgalov to open the second half of the season. What was most encouraging about this performance is that Bryz looked very big in his net, and was not trying to do too much. He was square to the shooters, tracked the puck well and made all the momentum saves the team needed.
No save in the game was bigger than when Bryzgalov stoned David Legwand from the slot when Nashville had a chance to tie the game in the third period. Not long after that, the Flyers earned a power play and cashed in on the opportunity -- via Wayne Simmonds' second tally of the game -- to restore their two-goal lead.
Without question, the biggest play of the game was the sequence leading up to Matt Read's goal that made it a 2-0 game in the middle stanza. Read turned defense into offense in a flash, racing past Kevin Klein and soloing up the ice to snap a shot past Anders Lindbäck. Think Flyers' rookies have stepped up for the club? Read's goal made it 10 of the last 11 games (and 13 of the last 15) that at least one Flyers goal has been provided by one of their rookies.
Simmonds was a tiger of a power forward in this game; not only scoring his 14th and 15th goals of the season (on a career-high 10 shots on goal), but also winning lots of battles on the boards and making life miserable around the net for Lindbäck. On a similar note, Zac Rinaldo's aggressiveness was put to good use in his return to the lineup.
The victory was punctuated by a very unselfish play by Jaromir Jagr. The future Hall of Famer passed up a potential empty net goal to dish the puck to Claude Giroux so that his All-Star center could end a month-long goal scoring drought. G's biggest issue of late has been his own tendency to pass rather than shoot when he has a good look at the net, but looks close to breaking out on a goal-scoring run again even apart from the ENG.
With two points last night, Giroux moved back within two points of Evgeni Malkin in the Art Ross Trophy race. He also went 11-for-18 (61 percent) on faceoffs last night, which is the 10th game of the last 11 that he has won at least half his draws.
Good stuff. Now the Flyers need to clone this sort of effort and repeat it tomorrow against the Devils and on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
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You never want to point fingers at one player when an opposition goal is scored. It's usually a series of small miscues or simply a great play by the other team that leads to a goal. That said, I would not be shocked if Harry Zolnierczyk got an earful for the sequence that led to the lone Nashville goal and cut Philly's lead to 2-1. Harry Z tried to do a little too much and left the team vulnerable to a counter-attack at a time in the game where they needed to think defense first.
Hey, things like that happen sometimes, especially with rookies. Harry Z will bounce back, although he has been on the bubble of being a healthy scratch with Tom Sestito having played generally solid hockey for the big club.
Last night, rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson was a healthy scratch. Veteran Andreas Lilja was back in the lineup for the first time since Jan. 12.
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I corresponded yesterday with a longtime NHL pro scout about Nashville's Ryan Suter. His take on the All-Star defenseman is that while Suter would be an asset on any team in the league, Suter is not a franchise player like Shea Weber.
Thus, if it comes down to keeping one player or the other for the long haul, it would be Weber he'd hand a blank check to and work the team's cap management around both him and Pekka Rinne.
As for Suter's pronouncement that he wanted to wait until after the season to talk contract and focus only on hockey, the scout gave a very blunt assessment.
"That means he's as good as gone this summer," the scout wrote. "When a player really wants to stay and just focus on hockey, he has his agent negotiate an extension before he hits the free agent market. But this is a business. He's going to make a lot of money, and get paid like a franchise player."
I asked the scout if he would consider Suter an upgrade on Matt Carle if the latter were to depart Philadelphia via free agency this summer.
"Yes, Suter is better but Carle's pretty good, too. I think he's stepped up without Pronger this year," he said. "He's another guy who is line for a big payday."
Carle, who had a three-game point streak ended last night, has eaten up 23-plus minutes of ice time in eight straight games before playing 21:26 last night.
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The Flyers made a minor league trade yesterday, sending defenseman Kevin Marshall to the Washington Capitals in exchange for right winger Matt Ford. The new player was immediately assigned to Adirondack.
Marshall has had difficulty progressing since the Flyers moved up in 2007 Entry Draft in order to acquire the second-round pick they used to take Marshall. After two-plus full seasons in the AHL, he earned his first callup to the big club this season, along with Marc-Andre Bourdon.
While Bourdon made the most of the opportunity, Marshall struggled a bit in 10 games of limited ice time prior to being returned to the AHL. In 32 games with the Phantoms this season, Marshall has five points, 55 penalty minutes and a minus-six rating at even strength. Decision-making has always been the biggest question mark with Marshall, and remains so. A change of scenery may do him some good.
Ford, a 27-year-old California native and University of Wisconsin alumnus, is a good two-way player and depth scorer at the AHL level. He'll help the Phantoms but has little shot at the big club. He scored a pro career-high 26 goals last season.
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