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Meltzer's Musings: Five-of-Six from a Three-in-Four

November 16, 2013, 12:25 AM ET [135 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
If you knew before the start of the Flyers' road trip that they would take five of a possible six points from a three-games-in-four-nights gauntlet of playing the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets, would you have gladly taken it?

I know I would.

However, it is galling any time a third period lead slips away. The Flyers carried a 2-1 lead into the final six minutes of regulation but were unable to nurse their skinny lead through a penalty kill. Philly hung on (by a thread) to at least salvage one point.

For much of the third period, the Flyers looked to have fatigued legs and played like they were mainly concerned with avoiding getting players caught up ice or otherwise out of position with no chance to recover. As a result, any semblance of forechecking pressure disappeared.

Some of that is to be expected. Any time a club is in the final game of a three-in-four on the road, the third period is often a hang-in-there scenario. Even more so than usual, it's ideal to have at least one insurance goal to work with rather than trying to nurse a one-goal lead for too long.

The Flyers' best chance to put the game away came when they had a third-period power play of their own. Philly converted its first power play of the game (for the fourth time in their last five opportunities up to that point). They didn't score on the second one but moved the puck well and came close multiple times. The third power play went nowhere in a hurry, and the Jets were the team that drew the momentum from it.

As soon as the Flyers' Steve Downie got away with a penalty and then another Jet fell down a few moments later (on his own, but with the home crowd groaning even louder), it was almost inevitable that Winnipeg would get a power play in short order the next time a Flyer did anything remotely close to a penalty. That was especially true if the perpetrator was Downie. Sure enough, seconds after play resumed, Downie got nabbed on a hook.

Penalty killing has generally been one of the Flyers' biggest strengths this season. Meanwhile, the Jets entered this game ranked dead last in the NHL on the power play -- coincidentally enough, so did Detroit entering the game in which the Wings put up a three-spot on the man advantage against the Flyers. On this night, the PK failed the Flyers as Dustin Byfuglien turned two of the Winnipeg power plays into goals.

The first power play goal, scored at 5:36 of the opening period came on a sequence where Byfuglien got wide open and was able to pick a spot as he received a pass from Devin Setoguchi and shot from the right circle. The second one was a blast from the point with a screen in front of the net.

Once the interconference game got to the four-on-four overtime, the Flyers' players switched gears. At worst, they already had one point in the cash register and there was no real concern about risking Winnipeg winning on an OT counter-rush (ala Carolina last week in a divisional game). The Flyers went from passive offense/prevent oddman rush mode to an ultra-aggressive forecheck that included activating the point man to pinch.

As a result, the ice tilted the other way. Philly ended up dominating the extra frame to the tune of an 8-3 shot advantage. Defenseman Braydon Coburn in particular had multiple good looks at the net on plays where he joined the attack.

Unfortunately for the Flyers, all the scoring they got on this night came back in the first period. Scott Hartnell answered Byfuglien's first power play goal with a wraparound goal less than a minute later. Not only did the goal knot the score, it was also a momentum changer in that portion of the game as the Flyers had spent most of the first five minutes hemmed in their own end. Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux received the assists.

Midway through the opening stanza, the Flyers took the 2-1 lead they'd hold until the latter stages of the third period. Kimmo Timonen got a center point shot on the net and Scott Hartnell kept the puck alive near the net. The disc went directly to an alert Wayne Simmonds, who ripped the loose puck past Ondrej Pavelec (32 saves on 34 shots) for his second goal of the season. Both of Simmonds' goals have come on the power play.

Steve Mason (36 saves on 38 shots) was once again the Flyers best player on this night. As the game rolled along, the Flyers relied on him more and more to protect their one-goal lead and the netminder answered the bell each and every time. He was heavily screened on Byfuglien's eventual tying goal.

Once the hockey portion of the game ended in a tie, a pair of Winnipeg shooters (Setoguchi and Blake Wheeler) converted their chances by shooting high to Mason's blocker side. The only one of the four Philadelphia shooters to score was Claude Giroux, who dribbled a shot over the goal line when Pavelec was unable to hold onto the handle after seemingly having made the save at first.

The Flyers return home next week for three games. They will face Ottawa on Tuesday, Buffalo on Thursday and the New York Islanders on Saturday.

NOTES:

* The Jets entered this game ranked as the worst faceoff team in the NHL but Winnipeg ended up winning 56 percent of the draws in this game. It would have been much worse for the Flyers if not for Adam Hall, who continued a red hot streak at the dot with a 9-for-11 performance. Hall has gone 30-for-35 (85.7 pct) over the last five games.

* This game was far and away Luke Schenn's best performance of the 2013-14 season to date, at least in the first two periods. He hit everything that moved (getting credited with a game-high nine hits) without drifting out of position. He also was credited with a blocked shot. Teammates Nicklas Grossmann and Erik Gustafsson lead the club with three blocks apiece in this game.

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COMING ON SUNDAY: A look at Steve Mason and a prospect update.

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