Flyers fans were looking for relief (for now) – through to the 2nd round!

08/22/2020 Business, Sports


BOX SCORE

The Flyers were able to carry the Canadiens and their postseason series to a 3-2 win Friday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, taking the best-of-seven first-round set in six games.

For the first time in eight years, the Flyers advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Next up are the Islanders.

Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes and Michael Raffl scored goals because the Flyers never ran in Game 6.

Their child in net was also pretty good against his idol of children.

Suffice it to say that Philly is envious of a run; it’s been a while.

• Provorov’s goal was a massive tone-setter as it came 28 seconds into the match. After such an emotional and hostile Game 5, losing some early pressure all, starting all with an early goal and the Flyers got it, improved to 7-0-0 when they first scored in the 24-team tournament of the NHL.

• For a span of seven seasons, the Flyers had completely lost their playoff success. Inconsistent regular seasons result in poor matchups and early oysters. That stretch consisted of three layoffs after the season and no series wins.

It took some time (and eventually some serious changes), but the Flyers are back in the business of legitimizing controversy. This marks their first win of the playoff series since 2012, when the club beat the Penguins in six games before bowing out to the Devils in five games in the second round.

Chris Pronger was the captain of the Flyers, Claude Giroux was 24 years old, James van Riemsdyk turned 23 in the Devils series, Jakub Voracek was 22 and in his first season with the club and Sean Couturier was a 19-year-old old rookie.

The core has grown, has some kids and additions around it and now the Flyers are back on a viable postseason run.

• While the Flyers went through a phase of play irrelevance, Alain Vigneault had taken the Rangers three times past the first round after coming to New York in 2013-14. The 59-year-old banker now has nine first-round wins in his career and has won at least one series in all of his four appearances in year 1 – Montreal, Vancouver, New York and the Flyers.

The Flyers brought Vigneault on board to fight their lawsuit for controversy. His resume to produce immediate results was appealing to the Flyers and they got what they hired.

“My focus here is not just to win the first round, but it’s the first step of course,” Vigneault said in mid-July during the club’s two-week training camp.

Was this victory of the first round a little more satisfying considering the stop and circumstances?

For me, I think what matters most to me is people in Philly, Flyer fans, and people in the province of Quebec, Montreal Canadien fans, have had a chance to watch hockey. We try to do our part so that people can think for a few hours a day about something other than COVID, trying to get their lives back to normal. I hope people enjoyed the series, there were definitely some entertaining parts in it. And we will get ready for the next one.

– Vigneault

• Carter Hart will always remember his first-ever series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 22-year-old confronted the goalkeeper he looked up to as a child and was able to produce the all-important four wins, also marked by two shutouts.

Hart made 31 saves in Game 6 and 133 stops on 143 shots in the series.

Through the tournament, Hart has conceded two or fewer goals in six of his eight starts.

Carey Price, who turned 33 in the series, held the Flyers to five goals over the first four games. The Flyers have been able to score six on him over the last two games. He made things terribly difficult on the top-seeded Flyers after eliminating the Penguins in the qualifying game.

For him to come over and congratulate you in the handshake line – he said a hell of a series and that he will see, “Hart said postgame in a video interview.” That is very special and definitely something I will not forget.

• Travis Sanheim made a great play about what turned out to be the Flyers’ winning goal. Raffl scored it and has three goals in five tournament games. Important role player.

• With a lot of play, Montreal strikers Nick Suzuki and Jonathan Drouin gave the Flyers serious problems in games 5 and 6.

The 21-year-old Suzuki had an impressive game with two goals and Drouin recorded two assists. Suzuki, a nice young center, kept coming behind the Flyers, finishing with three goals and four points in the last two games. Drouin put up six helpers in the series.

On Friday, the two stepped up when Brendan Gallagher was out due to a broken jaw, an injury that created a war of words leading up to Game 6.

With Matt Niskanen retiring, Shayne Gostisbehere jumped into the lineup and showed hope that Vigneault would love to see the puck-moving defender.

To ignite the Flyers’ second goal, Gostisbehere made a clever rush-up ice in which he decapitated a Canadian and allowed the Flyers to set up shop in the offensive zone.

Hayes, who has been brilliant through the playoffs (one goal, six assists, plus-7 rating), finished the sequence with a goal. Including the regular season, the Flyers are now 20-0-1 when Hayes lights the lamp.

But back to Gostisbehere. He has been a good example of why depth is so vital at the back end. The Flyers were able to win a series of clincher without a top-pair defender. If Gostisbehere is considered the Flyers’ extra blueliner if everyone is healthy / available, then he is the most gifted seventh defender in the tournament with 24 teams.

He also delivered a good, clean hit in the second period on Suzuki, which had attracted some unnecessary attention with its Hart head pat in Game 5.

Gostisbehere was solidary in place of Niskanen, but seems like the odd man out to start the second round.

“Ghosty apparently wants to play every night,” Hayes said in a video interview. “If he’s not in the lineup, he’s working his ass off.”

• Voracek had an enormous series with seven points (four goals, three assists). He will be just as important against the club’s second – round opponent, who plays a style similar to the Flyers’.

• For a third straight game, Nicolas Aube-Kubel was suspended. Although it is not indicated, he is clearly not fit to play. The 24-year-old winger was a significant depth forward from mid-December and could suffer some sort of injury when he blocked two big shots in last Sunday’s 1-0 Game 3 win.

Van Riemsdyk came in to replace him. Connor Bunnaman had to leave the fray for the last two games for unknown reasons.

• The second round of the playoffs begins Saturday.

The Flyers will face the Islanders, who were the sixth seed in the first round and beat the fifth seeded Capitals in five games.

In the regular season, Vigneault’s club went 0-2-1 against Barry Trotz’s Islanders and were outscored 13-9. The Flyers lost on October 27 to New York, 5-3, coughing up a 3-0 lead from the third period for a 4-3 shootout defeat on Nov. 16. And lost a wild, 5-3, on Feb. 11.

Here is the series schedule:

Game 1 – Monday, August 24 7 a.m. ET
Game 2 – Wednesday, August 26, 3 p.m. ET
Game 3 – Thursday, August 27 7 a.m. ET
Game 4 – Saturday, August 29, noon ET
Game 5 – Monday, August 31 TBD
Game 6 – Wednesday, September 2, TBD
Game 7 – Thursday, Sept. 3, TBD

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