The Philadelphia Flyers collected a crucial point against the Carolina Hurricanes as they forced overtime in a strong performance against a red-hot Canes team.
The Philadelphia Flyers collected a crucial point against the Carolina Hurricanes as they forced overtime in a strong performance against a red-hot Canes team.
Thanks to a number of standout individual performances, along with results from other teams around the league, made it so the Flyers continue holding on to their playoff spot.
Welcome Back, TK!
Travis Konecny had been having a worrying stretch of games since returning from an upper body injury on Mar. 7, having not scored a goal since coming back into the lineup. He broke that drought against Carolina, slotting home a between-the-legs pass from Morgan Frost to tie the game at 2-2 and force overtime.
It's a much-needed piece of offense from Konecny, who has badly needed a boost like this. Concerns started to arise that the Flyers had brought back their star player too early, While this game proved that Konecny is still dealing with something that's hindering his game, this tying goal was huge and well-deserved.
Big Night For Bobby Brink
Simply put, Bobby Brink had a great game against Carolina. His one assist on Scott Laughton's goal, while incredibly important, doesn't completely reflect how huge of an impact he had last night. Brink was flying up and down the ice, putting in the work along the wall, and just generally having the ability to show up in ways he hasn't completely been able to do in previous games.
Laughton made a point of praising Brink's game against the Canes, saying, "I thought that was one of Bobby's best games tonight. He won every battle along the wall, made it really easy for me to keep pucks in...[Brink and Farabee] both made great plays."
Care To Explain?
John Tortorella wasn't available to answer questions after the game (assistant coach Brad Shaw appeared instead), but there was still no explanation as to why the Flyers' most effective offensive producers—like Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Travis Konecny—didn't appear at all when overtime came around.
Instead, the Flyers started OT with Tyson Foerster, Ryan Poehling, and Travis Sanheim, before switching out to Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton, and Cam York. Overtime essentially looked like a penalty kill shift, and Seth Jarvis was able to exploit that to net the winner for the Hurricanes. To not have any explanation as to why Tortorella chose the units he did for OT is unfortunately becoming more common for him, and it's a worrying trend for media to not even have the chance to ask for his thought process behind his decisions.
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