March 03, 2016
There's no way to sugarcoat this one for the Philadelphia Flyers.
They hit three posts and experienced some close calls against Edmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, but when playing against the team with the second fewest points in the NHL at home, you simply need to take two points from that game. Instead, Edmonton cruised to an easy 4-0 win.
The first period wasn’t quite as bad as the disastrous first 20 minutes in Edmonton back in November (when the Flyers were outshot 19-2, a ludicrous margin), but it wasn’t kind to the Orange and Black, either. The Flyers got out-Corsi'd 22-13 at 5v5 in the first period, and outside of Shayne Gostisbehere, they looked sluggish.
They responded well out of the dressing room, but despite driving the lion's share of the play in the second period, two mistakes (one by Gostisbehere) ended up in the back of Michal Neuvirth's net. A third period mistake by the man they call Ghost Bear led to an Edmonton shorthanded goal.
It's safe to say the clothes stayed on in the stands.
The Flyers are admirably in the hunt for a wild-card spot, but tonight showed that they still have a long way to go. As for the 2015-16 season, this was a killer night as Boston and Pittsburgh both picked up big wins.
1-0 Oilers, Nail Yakupov (11:20 1P). In basketball, we would say that Connor McDavid put Evgeny Medvedev “on skates” here. Considering everyone is on skates, let’s just go with “made him look really bad”:
2-0 Oilers, Taylor Hall (14:22 2P). Not the best moment of Shayne Gostisbehere’s young career on this play, but credit to Taylor Hall for an excellent finish:
3-0 Oilers, Patrick Maroon (16:11 2P). Of course it’s the former Phantom who put the nail in the Flyers’ coffin:
Lauri Korpikoski added a shorty in the third period to make it 4-0 Edmonton.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
