October 9th, 2019 – Flyers 4/Devils 0
Pigeons, I have to apologize that it’s taken extraordinarily long to get this post-game write up done and posted. Wednesday 10/9/19, we here at the Pigeon Coop hosted our first-ever event, the Flock to the Flyers tailgate. The wind and the rain put a damper on our day, but thankfully the Flyers were able to bring our spirits way up with how they played.
Wayne Simmonds came back to town with his new team, the New Jersey Devils, and got a beautiful standing ‘O’ during his tribute video. In true Philly fashion, it was all boo’s after that for Wayne (and P.K. Subban, Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and the rest of those losers).
The 1st period featured some great back and forth play, with the Flyers clearly dominating the pace but getting nothing to show on the scoreboard. This continues until the halfway mark in the game when Ivan Provorov rockets a one-timer from the point far-side past Cory Schnieder’s glove on the powerplay to open up the scoring for the game with 10:09 remaining in the 2nd.
With 2:30 remaining in the 2nd, the Flyers take 2 penalties almost simultaneously giving the Devils a full 2-minute 5-on-3 power play. First to the box was Sean Couturier, our top PK player, then Kevin Hayes joins him on the ensuing face-off due to a face-off violation. Despite being short our 2 BEST penalty killers, Carter Hart calmed the team and showed the world why we’re so hyped with a beautiful save flashing across the crease and stopping a Taylor Hall blast from the circle to keep the score at 1-0 Flyers to end the 2nd period.
Twenty seconds into the 3rd period, Sami Vatanen send the Flyers back to the PP. 13 seconds after that, number 13, Hayes scores our 2nd PP goal off a face-off to give the Flyers a 2 goal lead. Couturier extends the lead even further twenty-four seconds later by cleaning up a loose puck in front of the net turning a 1-goal lead from the 2nd into a 3-goal lead less than a minute into the 3rd. I guess they felt bad about putting us at a disadvantage so they went out and made up for it. It’s safe to say the ice was fully tilted after intermission.
In years past (under Dave Hakstol especially) this is when the Flyers would start playing more conservatively –“turtling” to protect the lead. Alain Vigneault’s Flyers don’t turtle, they kept the pressure up and kept play in the Devils’ zone for most of the 3rd. With just over 8 minutes remaining, Travis Konecny picked up a turnover in the Devils’ end and makes them pay, putting the Flyers on the board again for a 4-0 lead. The Devils do get some pressure in the last minute, but still, have no answer for Hart who stood tall and earned his first-ever NHL shutout.
3 Keys to the game:
- Carter Hart and his monster effort stopping all 25 Devils shots.
- A full 60-minute effort from the whole team, something we Flyers fans have been waiting a long time for.
- The aggressive penalty kill that is markedly improved from the passive kills we’ve had in the past.
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