Was it the Canadiens who were good, or the Flyers who were bad?
Both.
The Habs players were fast, dynamic and creative. Those of the Flyers skated at times as if pulling a trainload of lead ingots. “Boooooooh,” booed the sparse Wells Fargo Center crowd. Once. Twice. Thrice. The Flyers reacted with a small spasm in the third period. Too late. The Canadian easily won, 5-2.
“One of our best games of the year,” enthused Josh Anderson. “There’s not much in that part that you can’t like,” added Martin St-Louis. Unless you’re the head coach of the Flyers, of course. “Let’s say it wasn’t an effort by our whole group,” dropped John Tortorella, without naming the culprits. “Nobody was lazy. But some nights there are guys who play hard, and some guys who play HARD. There were shortcomings…”
For the Habs, the first line, the second line, the third line, the fourth line, the power play, the recovery of the defenders, the goalkeeper, absolutely everything worked. “Really, we were connected and balanced on the ice,” noted Martin St-Louis.
Mayonnaise particularly lifted during the two power play occasions. The first time, the first unit had five shots on target in 55 seconds. The second time, she scored in less than 20 seconds, on a very creative game. Josh Anderson, posted behind the net, went to hide behind Ivan Provorov. Nick Suzuki spotted him and served him a caviar. Provorov, surprised, just had time to extend his stick… to deflect the puck into his own net. With this goal, the Canadian now has a success rate of 31%, in February, in numerical superiority. This places it among the top five clubs in the league for this period.
“It’s a progression,” commented St-Louis. I’ve been here for a year. We have a lot of things to work on to really have an overall game. To be organized defensively, offensively, on special teams. There are so many categories, you can’t all of them [les travailler] at the same time. The offensive zone, the power play, these are things we spend a lot of time on, and it shows. »
Martin St-Louis was also satisfied with the effort of his team at even strength, from the first to the fourth line. The Plumbers contributed offensively. Jesse Ylönen scored his first goal of the season, and Chris Tierney quickly made new friends in the locker room, scoring his first goal in a Montreal uniform.
“Our fourth line has given us very good performances lately,” said St-Louis. Especially with the game [Michael] Pezzetta and [Alex] Belzile. There you bring a guy like Tierney, who has played over 500 games in the NHL. It seems why. He has good touches, he is very smart on the ice. He knows where the guys are, and where they’re going. I was well impressed. »
While Tierney wasn’t particularly emotional after the game, his former junior teammate, Josh Anderson, was more talkative. “I have known Chris for several years. He is a very good friend. When I saw that the Canadian had claimed it [au ballottage], I was very excited. He played very well, and was rewarded with a goal. »
Tierney was mainly employed in defensive missions. Of his 12 face-offs, only one took place in the opposing zone. He ended the evening with an 83% pass rate.
A quick note in closing about the Flyers. It’s a team that is looking for itself a lot. In turn to ask the big question: should we rebuild or not?
Already on Friday there were a lot of empty seats in the arena. Not as much as the Expos in their worst years, but enough to be able to stretch their legs without worrying about annoying their neighbors. What will it be like if the club embarks on a total reconstruction of five, six, seven years? In a city where three franchises (the Eagles, the Phillies, the Union) have just participated in a championship final, and could remain at the top for a few more seasons?
Not sure that the supporters of the Flyers will be as patient and understanding as those of the Canadian.