9 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

the 24 blocked shots is key. The shots on goal could have been much higher if not for that being over double what the Habs had. Add on the habs hit some posts which greatly benefited us tonight. 

They hit the post at least 3 times, maybe 4.  Think we only had the 1 on TK's PP shot.  So add those on and attempted shots would be 51-31 to the Habs.  They had the better of the run of play, but we had more grit and Lady Luck was in our favour this night.  Won't always be that way as She's a fickle thing.  

 

13 minutes ago, Green_Guinness said:

Stats:

attempted shots:  Flyers 30, Habs 47

shots on goal:  Flyers 20, Habs 23

faceoffs:  Flyers 32, Habs 31

hits:  Flyers 36, Habs 23

shots blocked:  Flyers 24, Habs 10

PP:  Flyers 0 for 6, Habs 0 for 3

Couldn't find any stats for quality shots or scoring chances.

 

From Evolving Hockey, all stats score adjusted and for all situations:

Corsi For 

Flyers: 52.6

Canadiens: 54.3

So the canadiens had a slight edge in play driving, and if you look at non score adjusted they have a huge edge which is to be expected because they were trailing the entire game. It was fairly close until about last 5 minutes or so of the 2nd and through the end of the game when they had to turn it up in desperation mode.

Expected Goals for

Flyers: 2.13

Canadiens: 1.43

Like I was saying earlier, the canadiens didn't create any more scoring chances than the flyers did. They actually generated slightly less.

This wasn't a bad game by the flyers. It obviously isn't great but they played hard, showed way more energy than last game, and came out on top of the expected goals battle. They deserved to win this game. 

6 minutes ago, Green_Guinness said:

They hit the post at least 3 times, maybe 4.  Think we only had the 1 on TK's PP shot.  So add those on and attempted shots would be 51-31 to the Habs.  They had the better of the run of play, but we had more grit and Lady Luck was in our favour this night.  Won't always be that way as She's a fickle thing.  

 

I was concerned since about the second period of game one. I don’t think the Flyers are playing well. We’ve scored 1 goal in seven periods and our power play looks nonexistent. That said the Flyers all season had problems with the Canadiens. So it really shouldn’t be that big of a surprise because the two wins the Flyers had During the season came in overtime and the one loss came in a blowout. Very similar to this series  

i really do believe though the habs having to play a playoff series before getting to the flyers help them. They had to play with that type of intensity for four games before getting to the Flyers which helps. You have to play your best to advance and were thrown into the fire with intensity. they had to do that so they’re already in that mode.

Rough game.  Lot of sloppy play on both sides.  Also lot of good defensive play.  But as Pocono said, a win is a win.  2-1 baby.

I don't think either Couturier or Giroux are in game shape yet.  I know, they've been playing the whole time.  But neither is moving as fast as usual or getting to pucks they normally get to.  I'm hopeful they catch up sooner rather than later.

Think Raffle gave his line a boost.  Feels like NAK kind of feeds off guys like Raffle.  And Hagg was solid.  I just don't understand Provorov sometimes.  So much talent but he makes some of the dumbest decisions.  I hope they just keep telling him to get the puck at the net.

And obviously, we won because of the shutout!  Don't underestimate what a huge bounceback game that is after Friday.  For a 22 yr old no less!  Just crazy.

So Tuesday...  and another 3pm start?!  Least it's not a Friday again.  I'm liking our chances for 3-1 if we continue the physical play and just sharpen up the passing game.

1 hour ago, Green Dog said:

Rough game.  Lot of sloppy play on both sides.  Also lot of good defensive play.  But as Pocono said, a win is a win.  2-1 baby.

I don't think either Couturier or Giroux are in game shape yet.  I know, they've been playing the whole time.  But neither is moving as fast as usual or getting to pucks they normally get to.  I'm hopeful they catch up sooner rather than later.

Think Raffle gave his line a boost.  Feels like NAK kind of feeds off guys like Raffle.  And Hagg was solid.  I just don't understand Provorov sometimes.  So much talent but he makes some of the dumbest decisions.  I hope they just keep telling him to get the puck at the net.

And obviously, we won because of the shutout!  Don't underestimate what a huge bounceback game that is after Friday.  For a 22 yr old no less!  Just crazy.

So Tuesday...  and another 3pm start?!  Least it's not a Friday again.  I'm liking our chances for 3-1 if we continue the physical play and just sharpen up the passing game.

I believe it’s back to back days game 4 and game 5.

winning game four could be absolutely huge in the series. You get the momentum from game four and the very next night you can bring that momentum into that game. For the Flyers if you’re up 3 to 1 might just unravel for the habs the next time due to the low of emotions. 

1 hour ago, RoadToHell said:

Habs have all the confidence after this game. They are playing better. They will come out game 3 full force . we have to have an answer

Actually, MTL has to be extremely frustrated.  They were in the bottom third of the league defensively all year and are trailing the series 2-1 after giving up a total of 3 goals in 3 games.  It’s not likely going to get better for them as they’ll start giving up more goals the more they press, and they simply don’t have the offensive skill players to keep pace for a whole series.

They won Game 2 because they won all the races for loose pucks, outskated and outworked the Flyers.  If Vigneault doesn’t allow that to happen again then the Habs will need Price to steal the series — hard to do when the guy at the other end is posting shutouts.

Schenn wins it for the blues.

21 hours ago, Shocker54 said:

You quote and talk abou me more than anyone on here. Rent free

Haha

9 minutes ago, Shocker54 said:

This is a big game tomorrow. You go up 3-1 you're in command of the series. 2-2 it becomes a closer contest. 

 

All kidding aside though, game 4 due to it being back to back night situation is pretty huge And could be a huge emotional letdown the following night if you can beat the habs. If you win game 4 and go up 3-1, Montreal has 24 hours to regroup and they might be deflated at that point emotionally. I think having a day off to regroup and gather themselves if they lost would be way more beneficial to help avoid being emotionally spent.

Also don’t want to go into an overtime marathon game and lose in just over a 24 hour turnaround that could change the course of the series. 

Good thread by Charlie O Connor at the Athletic

 

2 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

He's delusional.  Thankfully the Habs committed so many penalties, which the Flyers did nothing with.  That hurt Montreal as far as possession time.  They hit 4 posts and Hart made some nice stops, but nothing earth shattering.  They played a better defensive game and made it more difficult on them and their speed.  But offensively they are lost.  In a tight game you cannot get 3 SOG on 6 Power Plays.  That is abysmal.  Full strength they weren't much better.  I don't know what these advanced stats you guys are talking about.  Expected goals?  WTF is that?  LOL.  That sounds like some made up Gabe Kapler bullish to me.  Puck possession, they sucked at.  Passing, they sucked at.  Loose pucks, they were better but still should be a lot better.  Getting out of their own zone, they were a little better but still not good.  I don't need some made up BS stats to tell me what I can see with my own two eyes.  Sloppy play.  Disjointed and predictable power play.  Which they should be spending all day today on.  Grioux and some of the other Vets are major disappointments.  Hayes seems like the real leader on this team.  

He isn't delusional, like I said last night the Canadiens didn't really have a lot of high danger shots and we had more of them. You can have 400 shots but if they're all perimeter shots with no screens what does that do for you? Shot quality, that's what expected goals takes into account.

Montreal isn't interested in setting up in the zone and passing around and the flyers figured that out and blocked 24 shots. They throw pucks and bodies at the net hoping to score a couple garbage goals and lean on price to win the game. 

The flyers didn't play a great game, but they played well and clearly well enough to win. Night and day from game 2 where they were stuck in their own end for the entire game. They generated more actual scoring chances with less shots. They also proved they can beat montreal's bush league game plan which hopefully leads to improved performances going forward. Canadiens forechecking was way less aggressive last night than in game 2

At some point if you’re a contending team you have to exert your will on the opponent — especially an opponent that only won 31 of 71 games through the season.  What is supposed to make the Flyers formidable is balanced scoring and young talent.  They had 4 players score 20+ goals during the season — Konecny, Hayes, Couturier, and Giroux.  Those 4 guys have combined for 0 goals against MTL.  Konecny and Couturier especially need to be much, much better.

Two guys who were brought in on big money contracts — Hayes and JVR — need to start using their size to get to the net.  Neither one has come close to scoring; Hayes looks slow and JVR looks lost.  Voracek doesn’t seem to have a problem getting to the net — maybe it’s because he gives a damn.  All 3 Flyers goals in this series have been scored by guys going to the net.

When you’re ahead in a series it’s only mildly problematic.  Hopefully some of these guys start to break through.

This guy manually tracks zone entries and exits. These aren't advanced stats, they are literally what happened in terms of successful/failed entries. Almost half of our failed exits (10) were because of Laughton (4).

He's not entirely right by saying they got back on track but they didn't play nearly as bad as some of you think they did. It's a 2 way game, the offense wasn't great but the defense and neutral zone play were very good. Fewer chances, forced more failed zone exits, 

Here he explains how he tracks these when he rewatches games

https://theenergyline.wordpress.com/stats-i-track/

20 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

He's delusional.  Thankfully the Habs committed so many penalties, which the Flyers did nothing with.  That hurt Montreal as far as possession time.  They hit 4 posts and Hart made some nice stops, but nothing earth shattering.  They played a better defensive game and made it more difficult on them and their speed.  But offensively they are lost.  In a tight game you cannot get 3 SOG on 6 Power Plays.  That is abysmal.  Full strength they weren't much better.  I don't know what these advanced stats you guys are talking about.  Expected goals?  WTF is that?  LOL.  That sounds like some made up Gabe Kapler bullish to me.  Puck possession, they sucked at.  Passing, they sucked at.  Loose pucks, they were better but still should be a lot better.  Getting out of their own zone, they were a little better but still not good.  I don't need some made up BS stats to tell me what I can see with my own two eyes.  Sloppy play.  Disjointed and predictable power play.  Which they should be spending all day today on.  Grioux and some of the other Vets are major disappointments.  Hayes seems like the real leader on this team.  

I agree with some of this but I don’t take "hit posts” to mean a thing. Hitting the post doesn’t mean it could/should have been a goal. Many times if the puck wasn’t high and/wide enough to hit the post, it would be in a spot where the goaltender stops it. 

good news if it happens 

 

2 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

AV does not like JVR.  For good reason.  Guy is a stiff.  They need to change the lines around and camp a big body down low on the PP.  

I mean, in an ideal word JVR would be that guy. A big body with good hands camping in front for screens, redirects, and tip ins. But JVR has generally been a liability elsewhere and they aren’t really using him in that role on the power play so there is no reason to put Him in the lineup.

On 8/17/2020 at 10:40 AM, Shocker54 said:

This is a big game tomorrow. You go up 3-1 you're in command of the series. 2-2 it becomes a closer contest. 

Should have kept you blocked

2 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

AV does not like JVR.  For good reason.  Guy is a stiff.  They need to change the lines around and camp a big body down low on the PP.  

 

23 minutes ago, 20Safety_Hazards said:

I mean, in an ideal word JVR would be that guy. A big body with good hands camping in front for screens, redirects, and tip ins. But JVR has generally been a liability elsewhere and they aren’t really using him in that role on the power play so there is no reason to put Him in the lineup.

I truly wonder if they could trade him this summer. Not sure what you’d get for him of great value. But imo i rather just have the cap space. I feel like you’d have to find a team trying to get to the cap floor or take back a lesser package. However he has a modified no trade clause

Ugh, stupid early start. Guess I’m missing this one

5 hours ago, devpool said:

This guy manually tracks zone entries and exits. These aren't advanced stats, they are literally what happened in terms of successful/failed entries. Almost half of our failed exits (10) were because of Laughton (4).

He's not entirely right by saying they got back on track but they didn't play nearly as bad as some of you think they did. It's a 2 way game, the offense wasn't great but the defense and neutral zone play were very good. Fewer chances, forced more failed zone exits, 

Here he explains how he tracks these when he rewatches games

https://theenergyline.wordpress.com/stats-i-track/

Yup.  I mean, without even looking too deep into those #'s, you can feel these kind of shifts in possession and success rate as you watch.  And it's an amazing (and obvious) relationship between these subtle victories and the overall momentum of a game.  It's fast, and sometimes it feels like the team is just 2 and 3 steps behind, but all it takes is a couple opportunities. 

Honestly it's one of the things the guys trying to control the pumped in crowd volume need to get a little better at.  Because sometimes as a fan, it's hard to trust things without the "appropriate" crowd reaction.  But I think it'll get better.

1 minute ago, nipples said:

Ugh, stupid early start. Guess I’m missing this one

Yup.  Really hope it's just for this round....

RIP Dale Hawerchuk — big time talent and a class guy

Former flyer. Rip 

 

Damn that sucks.  He was FIFTY SEVEN?!  F cancer.  GDammit.

I remember using Hawerchuk on Sega NHL 94 or 95 as my 2nd line center.  Had great speed and elite passing.