The runners up to the Stanley Cup Championship of the last two consecutive seasons met up last night in an intense battle on the ice. The Philadelphia Flyers, who lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Final hosted the losers of the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins in the Vancouver Canucks. The interesting point spoken through the play of this game is that these two teams could very well meet again in the Stanley Cup Finals this year, as they both are packing a lot of punch this season. The Flyers carried on with a dynamite start to the 2011-2012 season in their home opener, as they went on to a 3-0 record for the eleventh time in franchise history.
Many new faces debuted for the home crowd. Gone are Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, as they’ve been replaced with new faces in the form of big names like Jaromir Jagr, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, and Ilya Bryzgalov. All of the above produced, along with first round draft pick Sean Couturier to give the 20,000 home fans the show they had hoped for.
"The guys seem to fit into what we want to play right away and that's huge," Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk said.
Claude Giroux carried on strong in the game, picking up the game’s first goal on a fortuitous bounce to net his third of the year in three games. Giroux has been the Flyer’s best player by far, and seems poised for a career year with the Flyers. Giroux was the player of the game as he tallied the first goal of the game, and added two helpers. He moved into a nine-way second placed tie for points with five, and is in a five-way tie for a league lead in goals with three.
Giroux and off-season superstar acquisition Jaromir Jagr assisted captain Chris Pronger’s powerplay slapshot goal five minutes later in the opening period. It was the second of four goals to be scored before the buzzer ended the first period. After Vancouver’s Sedin twins collected assists to Mikael Samuelsson’s first period goal , Philadelphia’s young James van Riemsdyk scored his first of the year, once again assisted by team points leader Claude Giroux. van Riemsdyk collected a rebound from a Giroux shot, and lifted past the sprawled out Luongo to extend the lead.
The Canucks entered the third period down 3-1, but definitely not out. Henrik Sedin would tally his first of the year before newly acquired Flyer Jakub Voracek would do the same. The precision on Voracek’s shot showed how truly ready he is to be a major contributor in the NHL in the goals scoring department, a huge boost for the Flyers’ organization. With under five minutes remaining in the second, Chris Higgins would once again breathe life into the Canucks to make it 4-3.
Any time the Sedin twins take to the ice, they’re often times the players to keep your eyes on. Daniel Sedin placed a perfect shot on target during a perfectly executed powerplay. The Canucks had come back from the 3-1 deficit to tie the game 4-4.
Defenseman Andrej Meszaros would play the hero just 59 seconds after the Canucks tied the game up, taking the life out of the Canucks. Meszaros scored his first of the year on a beautiful snap shot, and from there it would be up to goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who denied countless scoring opportunities by the Canucks through the remainder of the game. The undisciplined Flyers took three consecutive late-period penalties against one of the league’s deadliest powerplay units. Bryzgalov won his third straight game in a Flyers jersey as he backstopped the team with 36 saves.
"I think there were some good tests in the game tonight," said Flyers coach Peter Laviolette. "Penalty kill was one, our resiliency was another. Protecting the lead through the third. Bryz got a lot heavier workload tonight then he had the previous two games and he answered. There were some positives to take from that."
The Flyers were heavily outshot by the Canucks 40-27 come the end of the game. The Canucks outshot the Flyers in the second period 14-6, and 17-7 in the third. The Canucks’ powerplay came into the game just one for seven in powerplay conversions, and left with two powerplay tallies on seven chances.
"Two goals is pretty good in a game, but still we got to step up when we need it the most and that's late in the game, so that's our responsibility and we didn't do that," said Daniel Sedin. "We had enough chances to score but we got to put it in."
"Five power plays in the third is going to give them a lot of momentum," said Pronger, who led the team in time on ice with 23:41, 7:39 of which was shorthanded. "They've got the players that can work it around. Bryz made some good stops, we had some blocks in front of him. … You look at their power play, it's scary-good out there. They've all been together, some of them since birth. That gives them pretty good knowledge."
"We just need to continue to work on that consistency and make sure night in and night out it's wave after wave," Pronger continued. "We want to pound teams and get on the forecheck and skate."
While the Flyers struggled with discipline, the score sheet will bring smiles to the coaching staff and management group after their overhaul on the offseason. Ten different players tallied on the score sheet for the Flyers last night.
"I think it says we've got great depth," said newcomer forward Wayne Simmonds, "We're a four-line team. Whatever line you put on the ice is going to create offense and be strong defensively as well. That's great going forward."
The Flyers have now defeated the recent Stanley Cup champions and their runner-up rivals early in this season as two of the teams to beat in the league, along with division rivals New Jersey whom they defeated 3-1. The Flyers’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as they take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, one of the West’s strongest teams early in the season. It is also the team that now has their captain of last year, Mike Richards. Richards and Simmons are set to face their old teammates for the first time since the blockbuster mega deal during the offseason.
"We played some good teams here," said van Riemsdyk, "but it's still early.. it's good to get off to this start. We want to be in this position, but we can't stay complacent. We have to keep getting better. … Just because we got off to a decent start so far we can't get complacent. We've got to push the envelope."
- Kendall Grubbs
No comments:
Post a Comment