As the Flyers start to look more complete from a personal point of view, they are starting to put together a few complete games, the kind of effort that led the team’s race last season.
With four players back in the roster, the Flyers overcame the Sabers to win a 3-0 win on Saturday afternoon at the KeyBank Center.
The Flyers (10-4-3) claimed at least one point in three of the four games (2-1-1) of their seven-day break at COVID-19, which had the squad pretty much wiped out when the club returned.
The Jack Eichel-less Sabers (6-9-3) were defeated by Flyers 39-23. Buffalo’s central playmaker, 24, lost the game because of an injury to his lower body.
The Flyers made 39 shots, the best of the season, in consecutive games. The Rangers did not have Artemi Panarin on Wednesday and the Sabers were losing their best player on Saturday, but the Flyers’ process took good steps.
• Jakub Voracek, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom and Justin Braun returned to the formation of the Flyers after long periods on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. They missed the Flyers’ first three games after the mandatory closure of the team’s COVID-19. Before Saturday, the four had not played for almost three weeks.
Their returns were enormous.
Voracek, Laughton and Lindblom played on the same line and produced a kind of sweeping goal just 1:06 before the end of the second half. Voracek started the streak with an outgoing pass to Lindblom, who made a perfect pass to launch Laughton into the 3-0 goal.
Both Laughton and Lindblom had skated only once in 18 days before playing this game. Voracek had skated only twice.
Laughton has become such a valuable striker that he can play up and down in the Flyers squad. In the last two seasons, the 26-year-old has scored 18 goals, 19 assists and a score of 20 more out of 63 games. In this period, he is the fourth in the Flyers in goals of strength even (18).
• Brian Elliott continued to do what he wanted with Buffalo.
The 35-year-old veteran entered 14-2-2 with an average of 1.78 goals conceded and 0.941 percentage points saved against Sabers. He increased his winning total to 15, his highest number of wins against any NHL team.
Elliott has closed Buffalo twice this season and won five of his six games so far in 2020-21. He has been one of the most important players in the Flyers.
Sabers goalkeeper Carter Hutton converted 36 saves into 39 shots.
• The defense of the Flyers as a whole made it one of the best games of the season. The team’s blueliners scored five goals in the first 15 games; they have three in the last two tours.
Braun played his effective game of taking the body and suppressing moves. He won 2 in over 21 minutes.
Travis Sanheim made an intoxicating and skillful move to set the opening goal for Sean Couturier’s game.
Ivan Provorov blocked a pair of kicks and played 24:57.
And Shayne Gostisbehere scored his second goal in so many games. Gostisbehere seems to be moved by his creative confidence, since he has three points (two goals, one assist) and 12 kicks in the last two games.
Coach Alain Vigneault made an interesting move on the blue line by sitting Philippe Myers. The 24-year-old is one of the best and most versatile bluelin players. The Flyers started a hectic six-game period in nine days and Vigneault said he could run some players behind and in front.
Still, Myers is becoming a guy who should probably play every day, unless his performance is really bad. Do not expect him to sit for a long time.
• Since returning from a costochondral separation that kept him away for 10 games, Couturier has added nine points (four goals, five assists) in five games. Ho-hum to the team’s handyman center.
• Claude Giroux played the 904th game of his career, taking second place on the organization’s list of all-time games. He passed Bill Barber and is now behind Bob Clarke (1,144).
• Travis Konecny has been on the list of COVID protocols since 14 February.
• Flyers and Sabers are back on Sunday afternoon in Buffalo (3 pm ET / NBCSP).
The Flyers win 2-0-0 in the second game of two sets, while the Sabers are 1-4-0 in those games.
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