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Let’s face it, the odds were long. There weren’t very many sane hockey folks who thought the Flyers had a prayer last night.

Let’s look at the facts heading into the game:

  • St. Louis entered the game tied for the best record in the NHL.
  • The Flyers were starting their most inexperienced defense ever – with four of the six defensemen having a combined 27 games of NHL experience.
  • The Blues were undefeated at home coming into the game.
  • The Flyers had played the night before in Chicago, and had to travel overnight while St. Louis was waiting for them at home, well-rested.
  • The Flyers offense has been sputtering, having scored in only one of the previous six periods.

It was a pretty forgone conclusion that the night wouldn’t go well.

To steal a line from former ESPN anchor Chris Berman, “A wise man once said, that’s why they play the games.”

The Flyers had no business being in this game with St. Louis, let alone winning it. But somehow, they found a way. They did so by committing to a team-oriented defensive concept that was designed to let them hang around in the game against a superior team.

And instead of just hanging around, they came into the Blues’ house party, ate all the cheese and queso dip [editor’s note: no, not the queso] stood on the furniture and kicked the keg all by themselves with an impressive 2-0 win.

Let’s break this down before the NHL changes its mind and insists the game is replayed in an effort to bring balance back to the universe.

To the takeaways:

1) Ivan the Terrific

Bold prediction time – Ivan Provorov will be the best home-grown defenseman in franchise history. Granted, he doesn’t have stiff competition, but the guys who sit atop the list as the best defensemen to ever don a Flyers sweater all came from somewhere else.

Mark Howe, Eric Desjardins, Kimmo Timonen, Chris Pronger.

And the list of the best defensemen ever drafted by the Flyers?

Chris Therien, Jimmy Watson, Dimitri Yushkevich, Behn Wilson.

I guess there can be arguments about the end of that list, but that’s like arguing who the last team in the CollegeInsider.com postseason NCAA tournament should be.

As for Provorov, he’s only 20 years old but plays like a 10-year veteran.

He has fewer than 100 games played in the NHL yet he does things that many vets don’t.

He is incredibly sound positionally. He is smart. He is fearless. And he is one of the premiere young stars at his position in the sport.

He doesn’t get a ton of national recognition because he doesn’t put up a ton of points for a defenseman – at least not yet. But what he does do, is strap his wounded team onto his shoulders and carries them when they need it most.

And oh yeah – another bold prediction – he’s the next team captain after Claude Giroux’s tenure is complete.

Last night’s game was an incredible example. He was on the ice so frequently, he was basically Bugs Bunny.

Seriously. He played top pair defensive minutes – as he always does, but he has been getting extra shifts the past couple games. He was on the No. 1 power play unit. He was on the top penalty kill unit – at one point staying on the ice for the entire two-minute shift.

He was everywhere.

And he tied a franchise record.

Provorov blocked 10 shots in the game. No that’s not a typo. Here’s an example:

The record he tied also belongs to Andrew MacDonald. Just saying.

But it wasn’t just the blocks. Provorov was a beast defensively, shutting down dangerous Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko all night.

It got so frustrating for Tarasenko that Blues coach Mike Yeo pulled Tarasenko off the top line for awhile just to try and get him on the ice when Provorov wasn’t out there – and this for the team who got the last change – which tells you how frequently Provorov was getting on the ice.

This is what Tarasenko was dealing with all night long:

A machine for sure. He played 57 minutes of hockey in a span of 27 hours in two cities against two very good teams – and the Flyers needed every last second from him.

Usually, defensmen in the NHL don’t really come into their own as difference-making players until they are 26 or 27 years old, so Provorov is way ahead of schedule. I mean, he’s like Doogie Howser ahead of schedule.

(For those of you under 30 who have no clue who Doogie Howser is, look him up. You can also stream the show on Hulu – even if it’s 25 years old).

And to be this good at 20 tells you there’s a very good chance that he’s going to be an elite star in this league for a long time. Flyers fans should be very, very happy – and thankful on nights like last night.

 

2) Great night for Hak

It’s always easy to criticize a coach. Frankly, coaches probably get too much scrutiny from writers – and that includes me – but they don’t always get a lot of credit, especially in a sport where the game plan is harder to identify and comprehend – like hockey.

But I try to identify these things from time to time and really give a coach his due if he makes a difference.

Dave Hakstol may have cost his team a point (potentially two) with a silly challenge in Nashville last month, but he responded last night by earning his team two points.

Specifically, Hakstol’s gameplan coming in was superb. Yes, it took the team buying into the concept to really make it work. And yes, the Blues had 68 shots attempted compared to the Flyers’ meager total of 39 and, long-term, that kind of difference does not breed sustainable success.

But for one night, it was the right thing to do.

What was it?

It was a game plan that required the Flyers to sag back in front of their own net whenever St. Louis had the puck and really create a traffic jam in front of goalie Michal Neuvirth.

There were many times when the Flyers had all five players between the faceoff dots and below the circles while the Blues passed the puck around them looking for shooting lanes that weren’t there.

It was one of the reasons Provorov had 10 blocks and the Flyers, as a team, had 20. The Blues also had 15 shots that missed the net completely because the Flyers were taking away the better angles all night.

While it may have looked a little scrambly at the beginning of the game – the Blues were out-shooting the Flyers 10-1 in the first seven minutes – it was certainly intentional.

With the defense as green as it’s ever been (according to the team it was the most inexperienced six defensemen to ever suit up in one game for the Flyers) it was the only way to keep the team in the game. It was a smart strategy and it was executed incredibly well.

But that’s not all for Hak. Nope. Something else happened:

 

3) He won a challenge!

First, here’s the play in question:

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/926253685470040064

Of course it was Brandon Manning, right? His goal was overturned in Ottawa last week for a weak goalie interference call on Jordan Weal.

Well, this time, his tally was called no goal on the ice by referee Eric Furlatt, who insisted Jake Voracek interfered with Jake Allen on the play.

But upon further review…

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/926253957793632261

The difference between the two is so slight, but Voracek never skates into the crease– Weal did. But, with the way things have gone against the Flyers with the men in stripes so far this season, you can understand why Hakstol thought long and hard about it.

I wish there was video of his facial expression on the bench when he told the refs he was going to challenge.

It was half exasperation. Half worry. There was no vision of confidence. It’s as if this sentence was rolling through his head in the nanoseconds before he announced he was challenging this play:

“I can’t have this blow up in my face again. I can’t. I can’t. Don’t do it, Dave. You know what your eyes see but in the NHL, very often, your eyes deceive you. Don’t do it. Don’t make your team shorthanded again. No. Don’t….”

And then he challenged. And lo and behold, he freaking won the challenge.

Good for Hak. It was the right call. For once the NHL didn’t trip all over itself with some inane rule that would have kept the call on the ice as no goal.

Great job by the coach. And great job by…

 

4) Man Dog

Brandon Manning had another good game. He scored for the second time in three games, and when you consider the Weal intereference goal that was wiped out, it should have been three-in-four.

Regardless, it wasn’t just because he scored that we’re talking about him here. Manning led the Flyers in shots on goal with six. He’s getting an opportunity to fire the puck on net, is doing a good job of getting it there and it’s making things happen.

He also played pretty flawless defense. He skated for 22:56 last night, third most on the team behind Provorov and Robert Hagg (who also had a pretty strong game), and looked every bit of the “veteran defenseman” on the ice.

Manning isn’t ever going to be a top-end defenseman. I’ve said many times, he’s a No. 6/7 in the NHL. But, he’s a guy you need on your team for organizational depth. There’s a reason he was the captain of the Phantoms for a few seasons. He approaches the game the right way. He doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him. He’s a hard-worker, a stand-up guy and a positive locker room presence.

It’s why he’s still with the organization. It’s why he’s where he is on the depth chart. Is he going to make mistakes? Sure. More than the other guys? Probably. But, hockey is a game of mistakes. It’s how you respond to them. And Manning has a short memory which is good.

He’s also an opportunist – and given this opportunity to play and play a lot, he’s done a commendable job.

 

5) Neuvirth

Flip the coin. Will you get Hot Neuvy, or Cold Neuvy? The coin landed on Hot Neuvy yesterday. Neuvirth made 33 saves, and more notably had excellent rebound control – something that can be a bit of an Achilles’ heel for him – to record his 11th career shutout.

And while the Flyers were collapsing around him, meaning he didn’t have to move as much to stop pucks and could rely on good positioning for most of the night, the Blues did have some high percentage chances:

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/926244944431517696

But we almost lost him again right here thanks to a rogue Mark Alt stick blade:

Now… the tip of the blade caught Neuvirth inthe forehead, but his reaction was akin to stepping on a landmine.

Neuvirth dropped his stick, threw his head back, and collapsed. He took a minute to get up and kept grabbing at his forehead… of course… but, there’s no mark there:

Hey, the guy’s a little melodramatic. He’s a goalie. They’re like relief pitchers and community theatre actors. As long as he stops the puck, the histrionics are an acceptable part of the package.

 

6) This was an injury to worry about

For about 20 minutes, the Philadelphia hockey world held it’s breath.

Former Flyer Brayden Schenn really caught his former teammate – and close friend – Sean Couturier up high with a hit that sent Couturier careening to the ice violently. Here’s the hit:

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/926258874604310528

The initial tone on Flyers Twitter was that of an angry mob calling for Schenn to be crucified. The Flyers broadcasters didn’t help either, clamoring for a five minute major. (Full disclosure, I had to run out and pick up my son, so I heard the last few minutes of the second period on the radio).

But once I got back and saw the hit, I thought the refs got it right. It was mostly a clean hit – except Couturier didn’t have the puck – which is what made it a penalty. It was shoulder to shoulder. Schenn just caught Couturier at a bad angle, which drove him hard to the ice.

Couturier went off the ice and to the locker room. There was serious doubt that he would return. But he did, and the Flyers fandom let out a big sigh of relief.

Injuries have been brutal so far this season – the patchwork defense is evident. But, the Flyers can truly not afford to lose their top line center at this point – especially with the way he’s playing. THAT was a close call.

 

7) Loose Pucks

  • Will O’Neill, whose name sounds like that of a fiction author more so than a hockey player, made his NHL debut last night for the Flyers on defense. The 29-year-old waited a long time for this opportunity. He did well in limited time. He played just a little more than 10 minutes but finished tied for second on the team in shots on goal. And… earned himself a heck of a gif:

  • Speaking of smelling salts, Claude Giroux decided to incorporate them in his captaining duties to wake his team up:

  • Speaking of Giroux, he scored the empty-netter to ice the win for the Flyers. He was assisted by Wayne Simmonds on the play. It was Simmonds’ 200th career assist in the NHL.

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/926277405668409344