Flyers win third straight in best effort of season
The Philadelphia Flyers took care of the New York Islanders in commanding fashion Saturday afternoon, shutting out the Metropolitan Division rival for the Flyers’ third straight win. Steve Mason earned his third shutout of the season in the 4-0 effort, making 20 saves. But it was the team in front of Mason that truly shined at the Wells Fargo Center.
After a rough California road trip that resulted in three road losses to the Ducks, Sharks and Kings, the team has rebounded nicely with three straight victories including Saturday’s dominant performance against the Islanders. The Flyers are now 3-1 in 2016. But most importantly, the Flyers are getting goal support and zone time from all four lines, something the team has lacked for the majority of the season. The second line, in particular, has been outstanding over the past few games, taking some of the pressure off the new-look top line of Jake Voracek, Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds.
Head coach Dave Hakstol deserves a lot of credit for making the necessary line adjustments that have contributed to this current winning streak, featuring wins against three teams in playoff positions, including Montreal, Minnesota and the Islanders. Moving Simmonds up to the top line and putting Michael Raffl and Brayden Schenn on Sean Couturier’s wings has allowed Couturier to really show off his offensive skills that have been inconsistent in his career thus far in the NHL. Also, the strong play from the current checking line of Chris VandeVelde, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Ryan White frees up Couturier to focus more on his offensive game rather than just on shutting down the other teams’ top players.
In today’s effort, the Flyers got goals from Raffl, Evgeny Medvedev, Matt Read and Couturier.
Couturier tallied his ninth goal of the season and his sixth goal in the past ten games. In fact, Couturier has scored 12 points in his past 10 games.
Read finished the game with three points as he assisted on the Raffl goal and the Medvedev goal. Read was a healthy scratch in the Jan 2 game against Los Angeles, the first time he can remember missing a game while being healthy in his hockey career, so it’s a great sign to see him respond with such a strong effort.
“Took a game off to realize where my game was and get back to playing smart and play with speed,” Read said. “Maybe that’s something I lacked the last little bit. Just focused on skating well and supporting my linemates. Last game in Minnesota and tonight, things are going our way. We’re in the offensive zone a lot and we’re getting chances.”
However, Read does tend to play well against the Islanders. Today was his third three-point effort against the Islanders in his career. Read is currently playing on the fourth line with R.J. Umberger and Scott Laughton, but the line has generated many chances over the past few games and was finally able to capitalize. But Read knows he has to be better and more consistent moving forward.
“All season I’ve been feeling good,” Read said. “Every game I feel like I’m skating well. From being healthy, just kind of concentrating on getting back into skating and creating ice with my feet rather than use my brain to try to find ice. I’ve just got to create it for myself.”
Matt Read’s full locker room interview
The Flyers got good pressure from all four lines today, and everyone throughout the lineup seemed to be contributing to the effort. It certainly seemed like the most complete effort put forth by this Flyers all season.
There was some concern headed into the game with rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere out of the lineup with a lower-body injury, especially since he has had such an effect on this team since getting called up in mid-November. However, Brandon Manning took full advantage of his chance to get back into the lineup. He had an excellent game, finishing with two shots, one hit, two blocks and a fighting major.
The one drawback of the effort was the Flyers’ inability to light the lamp on the power-play. This has been an ongoing issue for the Flyers of late, even with the red-hot and clutch play of Gostisbehere. The team went 0 for 5 on the man-advantage this afternoon, but the team generated enough pressure in the offensive zone throughout the game that it really didn’t detract from the overall momentum and progress of the game.
The power-play is definitely something the Flyers need to address moving forward, however. The team currently sits 28th in the league in power-play percentage with a 15.8 percent success rate.
Today’s game was Flyers defenseman Nick Schultz’s 999th career game. The Islanders out-hit the Flyers 42-25, and the three stars of the game were Matt Read (1), Steve Mason (2) and Evgeny Medvedev (3). Jaroslav Halak was in net for the Islanders, who now sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 49 points and a record of 22-15-5.
The Flyers take on the Boston Bruins in Philadelphia on Wednesday, the Rangers at home on Saturday and the Red Wings in Detroit on Sunday.
Featured image credit: Len Redkoles-NHLI via Getty Images
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Categorized:Flyers