Saturday night’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning took some time to digest. The Lightning are one of the hottest teams in the NHL, winning their previous eight games before heading to Philadelphia for their showdown with the Flyers.
The Flyers really hung in with Tampa, at least for the first 40 minutes. While the score may have shown a two-goal deficit after 40 minutes, just watching that game, it felt much closer. It had a playoff game feel, as the physicality and animosity were high, they were playing a high-quality opponent, and the building was loud.
The Flyers put together a really quality effort, but they just ran into a scorching hot goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
For 40 minutes, it felt like a really good game. But something happened in that third period, and that good game vanished, and it turned into a domination. The Lightning took over, scoring four goals in the third period. Philadelphia did not have an answer for it.
One period of hockey changed the entire outlook of the game.
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There was no answer for Nikita Kucherov
Nikita Kucherov is a unanimous NHL superstar. There is no refuting that. He showed just why he is one of the most dangerous players in the league from the very beginning, and that forced the Flyers to make adjustments.
Head coach Rick Tocchet put the Flyers’ lines in the blender early on, and it almost seemed as if it was to find a match for the Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov duo, which also happened to feature Gage Goncalves, who scored twice on Saturday.
We saw Noah Cates playing with Christian Dvorak and Carl Grundstrom. Sean Couturier was moved around, though the trio of Couturier, Denver Barkey and Owen Tippett was for the most part the most consistent line combination.
That left Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, and Nikita Grebenkin as the other top-nine line, with Nick Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Garnet Hathaway remaining the same.
Despite moving players around and finding the right match, the Flyers still had no answers for the Lightning’s top line.
Bad night to be in goal for the Flyers
Sam Ersson needed a big game, and did not get it on Saturday. It was very clearly not his best night. It was a night to forget for the Flyers’ netminder, who is not having the season he was hoping for.
The Lightning only had 23 shots on goal, and still scored 7 goals. That’s not very good.
Ersson was nowhere near where he wanted to be in the game. I am sure Ersson shoulders the blame for this one, but if you ask his teammates, well, they’d tell you the team let their netminder down.
“We’ve got to be better in front of him,” said Owen Tippett. “These are tough games to play. Obviously, he deserved better… We’ve got to do a better job in front of him and not put him in those situations.”
Defensively, the Flyers did not give Ersson much help, but that was not the only reason.
Flyers too lose with the puck
At the beginning of the game, and even throughout most of the second period, the Flyers were playing with stronger structure. They were still sloppy, but they were able to hold possession and maintain pressure.
As the game went on, you could see the Flyers growing more and more sloppy, and the Lightning just took advantage of it.
Three of Tampa’s four third-period goals were initiated off Flyers turnovers in or near their offensive zone. That led to rush opportunities, leaving Ersson on an island with the defense not there to help him out.
Tampa’s fourth third-period goal also came off the rush, but it did not start off a turnover.
It got to a certain point where the team just seemed reckless, trying anything they could to find a spark to get back into the game, but it kept on backfiring.
They might finally have something on the power play
If we’re going to take anything positive away from Saturday’s game, it’s that the Flyers might have finally found a power-play unit that works.
Tocchet used Cam York, Christian Dvorak, Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, and Owen Tippett on the same unit, and it looked the best the team’s power play has been all season.
York is not afraid to shoot from the slot, which created plenty of dangerous chances. Michkov and Zegras, who both play on the flanks, are so creative and dangerous with the puck that they draw plenty of attention. They are either open for the shot or can find someone who is. Tippett looked like a natural in the net-front role, or can use his massive shot as well. Dvorak is great off the draw, which is always important on the man-advantage.
The Flyers’ power play has been struggling for a while. When Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny return, they’ll both assume a role on the power play, but I would not mess with that top unit.
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