How do I put this?…

I’ll make it simple – the Flyers are a pretty good hockey team.

Yes, it’s only six games, so I’m not jumping to any conclusions, but this team hasn’t had an extended lull in any of its six games. Not the one where they were shut out in Los Angeles. Not the one were Dave Hakstol gave the game to Nashville with a ridiculous challenge. Not even the opening minutes of last night’s game against Florida, one they won handily 5-1.

That’s the most impressive thing. They were coming off an emotional high with a blowout win over a heated rival and welcoming in a Florida team that doesn’t even register on the excitement meter.

Never mind the fact that the Panthers are a team that likes to shoot the puck, from all over the ice, at all times. They came into the game averaging 42 shots on goal. That’s an absurd number.

So, it was a ripe scenario for a letdown.

Except these Flyers don’t appear to be that kind of team anymore.

That doesn’t mean they won’t have a letdown at some point. It doesn’t mean there won’t be a losing streak somewhere. It doesn’t mean they are being labeled a playoff team with 76 games still to play.

None of that.

What it means, though, is that it’s a team that is seeing positive results from a culture and style of play we aren’t used to, and as a result, will be on the right side of the scoreboard more frequently than the wrong side.

Barring injury, you can book that and say you heard it here first.

Wait… there was an injury to a key player in the win against Florida? What? Sigh… put the predictions on ice for a bit.

Instead… to the takeaways.

1) Neuvirth

Goaltending controversy commencing in 3…2…1….

Hey, at least Jake offered some critical analysis, so let’s start there…

Michal Neuvirth played a very good game. He made 40 saves to pick up his second win. He would have had a shutout were it not for the NHL officiating mandate that is the scourge of the league every October (see No. 6 below).

He could arguably be considered the player of the game – heck, his own teammates crowned him as such, although he missed the opportunity to show the world how stylin’ and profilin’ he was (See No. 7 below).

Still, it took Neuvirth a period to look comfortable.

The opening period was a little hairy.

As you can see by the timestamp, it was late in the first period when Jason Myrtetus from 97.5 the Fanatic (and the excellent Stick to Hockey Podcast) and I were seeing Neuvirth struggle with his rebound control.

Too many shots hit him and then sat tantalizingly in front of the net. Florida couldn’t cash in, but if you were going to beat Neuvirth it was either going to be then, or late in the game when the referees decided to give out penalties like they were Oprah:

Fortunately, the Flyers got out of the opening period scoreless. They seemed to sleepwalk through the first 10 minutes (as expected), but righted themselves quickly enough to start to take over the game with some good power play chances that were stopped by Roberto Luongo, who looked 10 years younger in the opening period.

But then in the second period, things came together nicely for the Flyers. Not only did they score four goals, to blow open the game, but they were backstopped and buoyed by some excellent goaltending by Neuvirth:

Here’s the thing with Neuvirth – he’s a streaky goaltender. When he’s on, he’s unreal. When he’s off, he’s… well… bad.

But, like any streaky goalie, he “competes.” That’s coach or management slang for a guy who might not have the best skill set, but who, from time to time, shines with his play, maybe even excels to the point where he is really good for an extended period of time.

Know who else “competed” a lot in goal for the Flyers? Antero Nittymaki.

And before you think I’m crazy to compare the two, look at their career numbers. Yes, Neuvirth has a slightly better career save percentage (.912 to .902 for Niitty) and goals against average (2.66 vs. 2.92), so he’s definitely the “better” goalie of the two. But Niittymaki played in only four more games than Neuvirth – with one season as the starting goalie on the worst Flyers team in it’s 51-year history – and yet their records are almost identical: (Neuvirth 96-83-22; Niittymaki 95-86-31).

What I’m getting at with this is a message to pump the brakes on Neuvirth as the go-to goalie. Yes, he’s looked good in two starts where as Brian Elliott has been just OK in four. But the fact is, the Flyers are going to have a pretty regular rotation and it should amount to somewhere close to 60-40 in favor of Elliott, barring injury – and that’s probably the way it should be without a bonafide, All-Star caliber goalie at your disposal.

I’d expect they split the Predators and Oilers games. I don’t know which way Dave Hakstol is leaning, but he did start Elliott against the Predators in Nashville last week, despite Neuvirth having good numbers against them. So maybe, that’s an indicator.

Or maybe it isn’t.

Either way, it’s way too early to start a goalie controversy. Let’s let these guys play some before we start calling for who should be starting.

 

2) Train derailment?

It was a weird play. It didn’t seem like anything happened. Here… see for yourself:

If anything, he was unexpectedly half-spun by Alexsander Barkov, but the contact was light. I happened to be watching Simmonds at the time and he went straight to the bench.

Within a couple of minutes, he was hobbling down the tunnel with the trainer in tow. He never returned to the game.

Afterwards, GM Ron Hextall released a statement through the PR staff saying Simmonds had a lower-body injury and was removed from the game for precautionary reasons and that more details would come in the next day or two.

That last part is the most critical part of the statement – a day or two.

It means, they don’t know enough about the injury yet.

It could be nothing. It could be minor and just be something to keep an eye on. Or it could be something more and they need tests to confirm severity.

I hear that it could be two days for the update, and here’s what I immediately think – they need today for an MRI.

If the MRI comes back clean, we probably get an update at some point today saying he’s day-to-day with a lower body injury.

If the MRI comes back and shows an injury, we don’t get a real update until tomorrow so the Flyers can figure out what they are going to do roster-wise.

Either way, this was the dampener on a pretty strong team game for the Flyers, and they have to hope it’s nothing serious, because losing Simmonds for any length of time is a big blow on several levels.

 

3) It’s a Fine, Fine line

Yes, I could be talking about the Flyers’ top offensive trio. After all, they all registered points again. Couturier scored:

That was a nifty little touch pass from Voracek.

And Giroux had a goal and an assist. Voracek now has 10 assists, which has him tied for second in the NHL behind Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov and for fifth in scoring in the league, just two points behind Tampa Bay’s Stephen Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov (who became just the second player in the last 30 years to score a goal in seven straight games last night – which is pretty sick).

Voracek could have gotten as high as third if he would have scored into the empty net last night instead of clanging it off the crossbar, but that first goal of the season for Jake continues to elude him.

Giroux is just one point behind Voracek, tied for ninth in the NHL in scoring. Meanwhile, he and Couturier each have four goals through six games. They both scored their fourth goal last season in the same game – Game No. 14. So, they’re ahead of pace, too.

But I want to show how fine the line is between being a goat and a hero in hockey.

It happens all the time. Hockey is a game of mistakes and the teams that win usually capitalize on more of them than the team that doesn’t.

Sometimes, though, things just go your way:

The outlet pass from Valtteri Filppula to Giroux for this breakaway goal was great. And Giroux’s shot was fierce.

But here’s the thing… this was a power play goal. You hardly ever get a breakaway on a power play…. was Florida that inept that they allowed this to happen?

Not really. I mean, the defense probably got caught a little flat-footed on the play, but so much unfolded before it that it likely caught them by surprise.

  1. After the Flyers turned the puck over to the Panthers just inside the Florida blue line, Giroux oddly decided to pressure the puck, even though he was one of only two men back at the point for the Flyers. This allowed Florida to break out of their zone on a 3-on-1 shorthanded breakaway.
  2. Credit Giroux for getting back into the defensive zone, and Shayne Gostisbehere for playing the Florida passes well, not really giving them a clear shooting lane.
  3. Florida’s Derek Mackenzie crashed the net and plowed into Neuvirth. Gostisbehere and Simmonds got tangled up with Mackenzie, and everyone in the entire building assumed there was going to be a penalty – either on Mackenzie for goaltender interference, on Gostisbehere for roughing, on Simmonds for cross-checking (all these things actually happened), or any combination of the three. Surprisingly, the referee’s arm didn’t go up, and with two forwards now caught the Flyers could have had a 3-on-2 the other way.
  4. However, Giroux sprinted out of the zone and got behind the Florida defense and Filppula hit him in stride with a stretch pass and the rest is history.

So, what’s the fine line?

Giroux should never have tried to play the puck carrier after the turnover. By doing so, he hung Gostisbehere out to dry as the Panthers generated a scoring chance while shorthanded – and that can’t happen. If Florida scores there, it’s 2-1, not 3-0.

But Giroux hustled back, Gostisbehere and Neuvirth made smart positional plays, and Giroux’s allowed him to be in position to surprise the Florida defenders who assumed there was going to be a penalty stoppage.

Credit to both Giroux and Filppula for making that offensive chance come to fruition, but it never should have been for several reasons – beginning with a bad read by Giroux.

So, it’s a fine line between making a critical mistake and scoring a huge goal – and Giroux tip-toed onto the positive side of that line with his goal last night.

 

4) Couturier Confidence

We’ve delved into this before, but Sean Couturier is growing more and more confident as an offensive player with each shift he is taking with Giroux and Voracek.

They are so gifted with vision and skill that they often draw so much attention that Couturier just has to find some open space to put himself in a position to score.

I threw out a 60-point figure for Couturier in a very nonchalant manner following the Washington game, but it’s truly a real possibility if everyone stays healthy.

He’s always focused so heavily on his 200-foot game, that it’s possible the offensive part of his game has been neglected some. He’s also never been paired with playmakers before, never mind the elite caliber of players that are Giroux and Voracek.

But you can see a difference with him now. His offensive positioning is on-point. He isn’t afraid to go into those “greasy areas” (one of my favorite hockey terms) to be a hunter-gatherer of pucks.

And, we’re starting to see that his mitts aren’t so bad after all:

I’m telling you… 60 points.

 

5) Just Keep Skating

It’s becoming a common refrain – the Flyers can skate with almost any team. I didn’t think so for the first half of the Nashville game. I thought the Preds were on another level. But then the Flyers ramped it up and, well, haven’t stopped skating hard since.

These Florida Panthers are no slouch in that department. They are one of the fastest teams in the NHL. And the Flyers simply out-skated them.

Consider this goal by Dale Weise:

Travis Konecny shows off his impressive wheels to beat the defenders. Nolan Patrick beats his man down ice to follow up before making a beauty of a between-the-legs drop pass to…) Weise, who beat his guy down the ice to get off the shot and the goal.

This one resulted in a goal, but these kinds of things were happening all night. We all seem to agree that this torrid pace is not sustainable, but it has been for six games thus far, and if it keeps up for another four games or so, that’s an eighth of a season – at which point maybe we change our tune a little and say – yeah… maybe it is sustainable.

 

6) The Guys in Stripes

I don’t suffer incompetence well. I don’t deal with over-officious mandates from leagues well. I think sports kill themselves with bad rule changes.

I could spend hours here griping about the way the Jets were screwed against New England last Sunday or the idiocy of the Buster Posey rule, which reared its ugly head in the NLCS again over the weekend.

But, then there’s hockey – which wins the award every year for most inconsistently officiated sport on earth. Especially in the NHL.

The League says it’s going to crack down on certain penalties every October. Then phantom penalties are called, game flows are disrupted, games are won or lost on these ridiculous mandates – and then they suddenly go away and nothing has really been deterred.

Players hate the way games are called. So do coaches, GM’s, scouts, those of us in the media. Everyone!

An apologist for the League would say that’s the way they want it. I say that’s cockeyed. It’s a detriment to not know from one game to the next how your sport is being officiated. Why certain guys call a game one way and others call it an other.

Consistency would make the sport better. Not crap like this:

Or this:

That one was “High” Sticking… with a stick below his waist….

Or this…

That. Is. Not. Slashing.

Glad I’m not alone.

 

7) Loose Pucks

Here are some observations and anecdotes that didn’t quite have a place in the takeaways:

  1. Dave Hakstol Trolling Fans

This doesn’t make sense to me. The other scratched player – Jori Lehtera – isn’t skating in warm ups, so why is Sanheim? Unless there’s an undisclosed injury to a defenseman who keeps testing it out pre-game, this makes no sense.

2. Giroux’s assist on Couturier’s goal was his 400th in the NHL. He’s only the fourth Flyer to reach that mark (Bobby Clarke, Brian Propp and Bill Barber) and when all is said and done, he likely will be second to Clarke (he’s only 80 behind Propp). That’s pretty impressive.

3. Filppula scored his fourth goal (!!!) on an empty-netter without ever touching the puck. Some think he did. I asked him after the game, he said no. Nick Bjugstad won a faceoff cleanly and drew it backwards… right into his own net. Here it is:

4. The Flyers have completely embraced this Ric Flair thing:

This was the brainchild of equipment manager Derek Settlemyre. The problem is, as player of the game, Neuvirth was supposed to wear it during his post game interview. He “forgot” apparently.

The duffel bag you see in Sam’s photo is where the robe will live for the season. It will travel with the team on the road as well.

All team bags have a tag with a player’s name and number on it so that it can easily be identified. This bag tag simply says “Wooo.”

Shop now

5.Just a personal note – I won’t be at the game Thursday. I have a pre-existing conflict. I think Kyle will be doing takeaways. I hope my credential still exists Friday.

6. From the Flyers Award-winning PR Department:

A. The Flyers now have 26 goals through their first six games. It’s the 12th time in their history they’ve scored that many or more through six games, but the first time since 2005-06, just the second time since 1988-89 and for the first time when they were shut out in one of those six games.

Instances of 26+ goals in first six games:

26 – 2017-18

26 – 2005-06

26 – 1988-89

28 – 1986-87

26 – 1985-86

26 – 1984-85

30 – 1983-84

28 – 1982-83

26 – 1981-82

30 – 1979-80

35 – 1977-78

28 – 1975-76

B. Gostisbehere assisted on Giroux’s power play goal. He now has assisted on six of the seven power play goals the Flyers have scored this season. (BTW… Ghost took a shot off the arm in the third period and never returned to the game. I asked him about it afterwards and he said he’s fine.)

C. The Panthers put up 41 shots in the loss. The Flyers have won each of the last four games in which they’ve allowed 41 or more shots, and they are 5-0-1 in the last six such instances dating back to February 2016.