Quick Hits: March 29, 2024
1) The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1, at Bell Centre on Thursday evening. A poor start to the game put the Flyers in a tough position. A desperation charge in the third period -- hindered by two disallowed goals and strong goaltending by Montreal's Cayden Primeau -- fell short. The Flyers continued their late-season penalty killing struggle and were also 0-for-4 on the power play. For an in-depth recap, analysis, stats and more, see the Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com:
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2) The Flyers dominated the third period on Thursday but had two would-be tallies disallowed: one by Garnet Hathaway for kicking the puck into the net on a scramble in the crease and other by Morgan Frost for Tyson Foerster going a half-stride offside as Frost entered the attack zone. The Canadiens later had a goal of their own disallowed as Nick Suzuki batted a puck well above the crossbar. The two Flyers goals were initially signaled as good goals but then disallowed on replay. The Suzuki play was waved off immediately.
Montreal scored two late empty net goals, making the score 3-0 and then 4-1. Owen Tippett cut the gap to 3-1 in between ENGs by Joel Armia and Jake Evans.
3) The Flyers at least temporarily remained in third play in the Metropolitan Division, but virtue of the Washington Capitals losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday. The Capitals will host the Boston Bruins on Saturday, while the Flyers host the Chicago Blackhawks.
4) Noah Cates was unavailable to play in Thursday's game for personal reasons. Cam Atkinson re-entered the lineup, skating 10:54 across 11 shifts (one shot attempt, three credited hits, one blocked shot). Atkinson also had an "accidental blocked shot" as a Ryan Poehling salvo from the deep slot deflected off Atkinson in front of the net and went out of play.
5) I don't think it would have had any effect on the final score, but I am curious as to what happened to the plan -- stated at the trade deadline -- to give Denis Gurianov a down-the-stretch audition before he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. Gurianov has only dressed in three games (March 9 in Tampa, March 12 vs. San Jose and March 14 in Toronto) since being acquired from Nashville. He's been a healthy scratch in each of the last seven games.
6) On Friday morning, the Flyers made it official: goaltender Ivan Fedotov has arrived in Philadelphia. There will be an 11 a.m. EDT press conference today at the FTC in Voorhees with Fedotov and general manager Danny Briere. More details are to come later.
7) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (27-26-8) are on the road on Friday to play the Syracuse Crunch (36-21-6). The Phantoms enter the day one point ahead of the Springfield Thunderbirds for the final Calder Cup playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. The Thunderbirds (28-29-5) are on the road on Friday to take on the Hartford Wolf Pack (30-23-9 but just 2-6-2 in their last 10 games).
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