Five straight victories highlight Philly surge
There hasn't been much positive to talk about in Philadelphia for the last three weeks. After three weeks of losing records,the Flyers finally showed signs of life. Their spot in the standings hasn't changed,they are still 9th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 29-15-2 for 60 points, 46 games played. They did have five starts this week winning all five. Gone are the gawdy shot totals, they were also outshot in two of the games, but we are talking 30-28 and 34-31. The Flyers did however score 4 + goals in four of the five games and finally the home fans had something to cheer about with three wins coming at home.
Game 1- at Florida, a 2-1 win, the Flyers did not give up an even strength goal and Crawford stopped 29 of 30 shots by the Panthers.
Game 2- Tampa Bay in Philadelphia, Flyers outshot the Lightning 37-21 and were rewarded with a 4-0 victory, Corey Crawford earning the Shut out,Conner McDavid with a goal and a helper.
Game 3- Minnesota at Philadelphia, Flyers win a very close highly contested game 4-3, shots were in favor of the Flyers 32-28. Nice team effort. Flyers scored 4 in the 1st and hung on for the next two periods as the Wild made a game of it. Conner McDavid with a goal and two helpers.
Game 4- Boston visits Philadelphia and out shoot the Flyers 34-31, the Flyers come away with a 5-2 victory, defensive 3rd line forward Antoine Roussel led the charge, with a goal, an assist,4 shots and 4 hits.
Game 5- Philadelphia travels to La Belle Provence to play Montreal. If you remember the last time these two met the Flyers outshot Montreal 64-15 and barely escaped with a win. This time the shots were 26-21, but the Flyers managed to get a few past Quick and then Nilsson,Flyers win 5-2 with young Christian Dvorak leading the way with a goal and two assists.
It was a positive week,with no change in positioning but a change in feeling, the Flyers got off the snide and maybe the bullseye is off their backs,lets just see how next week goes?
The Flyers topline has slipped in recent weeks, McDavid is 3rd in scoring league wide with 60 points, Saad has dropped to 22nd with 47 points and Oshie who still leads the league in hits at 208, just past the halfway mark is sitting 48th with 42 points. The production is still among the better lines in the league,but a far cry from where they were a month ago.
Flyers hope to keep the momentum going, but are still cautious after all it has been one decent week after three horrible weeks.