Flyers proved they could hang with the Hurricanes despite loss
The postseason is no time for moral victories, but at the very least, the Philadelphia Flyers showed on Monday night that they can keep up with the top-seeded Carolina Hurricanes. After getting shut out 3-0 in Game 1 of their second round series against Carolina, Philadelphia bounced back to take the Hurricanes to overtime in Game 2. Unfortunately for the Flyers, Taylor Hall’s winner gave Carolina the 3-2 overtime win and put Philadelphia in an 0-2 hole for the series.
For the Flyers, the glass-half-empty take is that they just blew an opportunity to steal a game against a superior opponent. The glass-half-full take, though, is that they proved to themselves the Hurricanes are not some unbeatable juggernaut, as the Flyers went from 0.81 expected goals in Game 1 to 2.68 expected goals in Game 2, according to Natural Stat Trick. Philadelphia will now have to win four of the series’ next five games to advance, but Game 2 at least showed that’s not an impossible task.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how the the Flyers can build off their Game 2 loss.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Give me your take on that game last night. It goes to overtime, Taylor Hall with the eventual winner in the dying minutes of the first OT period. Did Philly prove anything to you there?
Carter Hutton: Yeah, they did. I think they proved that they can hang, and they answered the call. I think that’s something that we expected coming out of Game 1. I do think there’s a factor of an emotional hangover from that first series win against Pittsburgh, and you’re going against a team like Carolina.
Ideally, it starts as good as you want it to. You get a two-goal lead early in the game, you’d like to see them hang on to that. I think the penalties kind of killed them. Obviously a big goal there from Seth Jarvis, who’s been quiet. If he starts heating up, I think this team really becomes deep, it really becomes more dynamic. I though Sean Walker was a big factor in that game, too. When I looked at Game 1, I watched the game front to back, both of them, Carolina was just overwhelming and they swarm you, and they really give you no time to possess the puck, and they create chances off of that. On the other side of it, I though Philly in the offensive zone was much more mobile, and they were creating. I though (Matvei) Michkov had some really good shifts as well. (Travis) Konecny had a chance in overtime, a breakaway where he misses the net, which you could easily win that game.
That being said, it felt like this was a very big missed opportunity if I’m the Philadelphia Flyers. Now, you have to go home and you have to try to win both on home ice. Realistically, if you go back to Carolina down 3-1, I can’t see them winning out.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…