In Which It All Finally Goes According to Plan

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There was a stretch of games in January during which the Flyers were dominating opponents, playing up-tempo hockey and scoring at will, sending opposing starting goalies to the ends of their benches with regularity. This is it, we thought. This is how this team was built to compete, and how it can look under this new guy Peter Laviolette's system. 

The rest of January went fairly well, aside from losses to Washington, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and ugh... the shutout to the Maple Leafs. February wasn't bad either, two losses that stung a little, but then four straight wins in back-to-back home-and-home series against the Devils and Canadiens. Again it felt like this team could win, it would be better now. But since the Olympic break, the team has been an embarrassing shadow of the one that skated the month and a half before. Five wins against ten losses in the month of March, with only one of those wins—the wild Saturday finale against the Blackhawks—standing out as any kind of a statement (it would quickly prove to have been only a blip). Then last night, amidst possibly their worst slump of the season (they've played badly before, but not with so much on the line), they went out and stomped the division-leading Devils, 5-1. 

The question now is, will this be like the Blackhawks win? A blip that only serves to renew our interests while the Phillies prepare to head north, only to burn us a few days later? Or is this the game we talked about in last night's gamethread, the one where they open the floodgates and remember that they're actually capable of beating most of the teams in this league every night, and all of them on any given night?

Here's a look at a few of the things that went right for the Flyers last night, as well as some extras if you don't need a refresher of how awesome the game itself was. 

The lines, once again new for this game as Lavvy has been switching them up regularly in hopes of finally finding something that will click offensively, did just that. 

Danny Briere centered Simon Gagne and Ville Leino. Lots of scoring touch, speed, and playmaking ability on paper, but not necessarily something we've seen every night out of each of these guys individually. Hell, Leino has barely seen the ice since we got him for OKT before the break. Last night though, they played off each other nearly perfectly. Leino had his best game as a Flyer, making a few jaw-dropping moves, and setting up Gagne with a perfectly delayed pass, as well as scoring one of his own. His best move would come on a drive that Martin Brodeur was able to stop, but it still showed what this guy has in him. 

Gags was on fire last night, picking back on defense and creating rushes the other way, and finding open shots that had the Devils on their heels. Briere, aside from taking yet another blatantly obvious stick infraction, looked on-point as well, and the Devils had no answer for the passing generated by this line around their crease.

Mike Richards was flanked by Dan Carcillo and Claude Giroux. Carbomb and Richie have seen a lot of ice time together this season, and they can be tough to manage as a pair because they're both physically dangerous yet can also score. They don't jump out as offensive threats lately, but the minute they're left alone, they'll bury a goal or at least test the goalie with something tough. Giroux's placement here was interesting, as he more fits the mold of the first line we mentioned—the gifted passer and skater. This line didn't generate any scoring, but they buzzed around the net their fair share and notched quite a few of the Flyers' hits on the night; Giroux had the most with 4, and only Darroll Powe had more on the night (6).

With those two sets as the top scoring lines, that obviously means Scott Hartnell was a third liner. We've been hoping this would be where he'd land eventually, with the scoring all but gone from his game in '09-'10 but the grind still there most nights. The line of Hartnell, Powe, and Asham accounted for the game's first goal, which came less than a minute into the first period. They finally found a way to create an open shot on a great angle, passing several times in the zone, with each player curling to take a puck on their backhand, then flip it across the lane. Asham found Hartnell, who dropped it back to Matt Carle, who blasted it past Brodeur. Powe was in front of the net, clearly a distraction for Marty. 

Two other defensemen would score in this one, Lukas Krajicek with a blast through traffic and Kimmo from the point on the powerplay. It really was as the title would indicate. Everything went right. 

Riley Cote dressed for this one, but saw less than four minutes of actual ice time, mostly at the end after play had gotten good and rough. The other fourth liners got big minutes on the penalty kill, because once again, the refs were hot with the whistles. Despite the Flyers amassing 34 PIM (10 of which were on a match to Dan Carcillo, served by Cote), the Devils didn't score on the powerplay. Blair Betts and Ian Laperriere were machines with the shot blocking, and they weren't alone in that. Five Flyers were credited with three blocked shots apiece, and that doesn't factor in how many more shots were just not taken because defenders had laid out in front of their lane to the net. It was an absolute clinic, despite all the injuries we've seen coming on blocked shots lately; they were playing some fearless hockey.
This may all sound like a bit of hyperbole, a fan desperate to say good things about his team after watching them soil the bed linens for a solid month. Maybe that's true. But I just didn't see them do much wrong at all. Dan Carcillo may have crosschecked someone in the head, but we're not going to hold that against him. 

Last but not least, Brian Boucher had a great game in net while Brodeur spent the third period on the bench. Boosh's team didn't allow too much pressure on him in this one (one of the unsung keys to great goaltending), but when they did, particularly on the powerplays, he was there every time. His positioning was a lot better than we've seen lately, as was his rebound control. He even made two saves on his own guys; both Hartnell and Richards dumped the puck back to him pretty rapidly to reset the play, on net each time. Maybe he called for it? Either way, it was a little out of the ordinary to see, but he managed the puck each time and let the lines change up. 

That's how they beat the Devils yet again this season. Jersey came in needing to win in order to stay ahead of the Penguins in the Atlantic and not fall two spots in the standings. There was plenty on the line for them too. Instead we saw them lose to the Flyers, an oddly familiar sight this season. The Flyers won five out of six in the season series, decimating Brodeur along the way. For the first time in more than 10 years, this is the team the Flyers should want to see the most in the playoffs.  

Photos by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images

The aforementioned extras:
Those hip to the twitter saw a lot of play on a post by Wayne Fish of phillyburbs.com last night after the game. The highlights are that the Flyers are once again linked to goalie Robert Esche, which makes sense given the fact that they had a kid out of college swinging the door last night. If acquired, I'm fairly certain Esche wouldn't be eligible for postseason play though. 

Fish also notes that Braydon Coburn isn't interested in talking about a contract extension until the season is over. No big surprise there either. He's had a rough season, seeing decline for a second straight year, only this time more sharply than the last. Perennially strapped for cap space, Homer probably won't be willing to blow him away, nor should he. Too early to speculate on what happens with Coburn. Fish has a brief overview of the other pending RFAs as well. 

Remember how the Flyers telecast featured some girl yapping for half of the third period? Her name was Allison Baver, and she's a US Olympic speed skater... who looks like this:
More from that photoshoot here.  
 

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