October 13, 2015
The Flyers’ penalty kill didn’t get the job done against the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, surrendering three goals on seven power-play opportunities. Back in Philly for the second half of the home-and-home, it was the main reason they were able to get two points.
Just over a minute into the game, Michael Raffl’s high sticking double minor ensured they would get some extra practice early on. After the Flyers killed the four-minute penalty, the home crowd went bonkers. Less than a minute later, Brayden Schenn scored the game’s only goal.
“I think you see that happen in the game of hockey,” Dave Hakstol said. “There’s different ways to swing momentum and a good penalty kill is one of them, because it’s effort related.”
The Flyers perhaps went to the box a tad too much, but they managed to kill all six Florida penalties. In a game that was fairly evenly played throughout, that was enough to earn the first win of the season in gritty fashion.
Sometimes practice pays dividends. After the Flyers’ morning skate, the team had a meeting specifically to address the penalty killing. For a team that finished 27th in that category last year, a slow start is a cause for concern. For now, the Flyers can operate that the disaster down in Florida was a blip on the radar.
“It’s little things and it’s a game of inches sometimes,” Hakstol said. Saturday, not a lot of things went right we were a foot or two off of two or three plays on Saturday night. Tonight, we were in pretty good position we were pretty scrappy.”
At least early on, it has been noticeable how Hakstol is utilizing Claude Giroux more on the PK than his predecessor Craig Berube (who just so happened to be at the rink on Monday night scouting for Hockey Canada). He’s really good at it, too. Check this play out (via @JoeR35h93):
Giroux can do more than hold the puck with his skill and waste time on the kill. He’s also good at quickly starting a short-handed odd-man rush after a turnover. He credits a former Flyer that has been in the news a lot lately, and it’s not the worst comparison in the world.
“I’m not looking for offense right away,” Giroux said. “If you play good defense, your chances are going to come. One guy I used to look up to when he played on the PK, Mike Richards. He played good defense so that’s how he would get those chances.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
