Fast Start: Uptempo Flyers Blank Devils

Share

The orange and black have raced out to a 2-0 record in impressive fashion, capitalizing on sustained pressure at both ends of the ice to eventually break the New Jersey Devils' will, and skate to a 3-0 victory on Saturday night.

Three different Flyers got on the board, including Claude Giroux's second of this young season, and the franchise ended a disturbing trend that had been developing in their own net for far too long.

Claude Giroux found twine in the first period on a beautiful feed from James van Riemsdyk. The Devils chased Jarmoir Jagr and JVR behind the goal line, forgetting Giroux in the face-off circle. Riems dropped the puck, and Giroux blew it by Martin Brodeur's far side as the goaltender slid across the goal mouth.

A couple of quick scores in the third put the game out of reach. Matt Read notched his first NHL goal, snapping one past Brodeur, and Wayne Simmonds piled on a short time after, doing the dirty work in front of the net to ram home his first in a Flyers uni.

Not to be lost in the shuffle, Ilya Bryzgalov earned a shutout for the orange and black, the club's first since May 10, 2010. The defense didn't give the Devils a ton of great scoring chances, but when Jersey did have decent opportunities, Bryz calmly steered the puck away, often making it look simple in the process.

No matter how you slice it, there is a whole different level of confidence with a proper goaltender back there.

As the Flyers pulled away in the third period, the tone of the game changed, and you started to sense that despite all the turnover on both benches, these rivals still have a healthy distaste for one another. There were 10 total penalties in the final frame, eight of them charged to New Jersey.

After back-to-back unsportsmanlikes, David Clarkson finally was successful at picking a fight with Simmonds (and promptly lost) to pick up a 10-minute misconduct, and teammate Eric Boulton added another minutes later.

Expect there to be some bad blood when the Flyers welcome NJ to the Wells Fargo Center on November 3.

Contact Us