Anytime. Anywhere.

That’s the Flyers’ revised playoff slogan and you know what? They mean it.

There’s no other way to describe this team, who after a full weekend of watching hockey looked like the best squad in the NHL among the 20 of 24 teams who played either Saturday or Sunday.

Yeah, there were a couple of fine shutout performances last night by Columbus (I’ve been saying for two months on Snow the Goalie that they are a dangerous team) and Minnesota that were pretty dominating, but nothing compared to what the Flyers did to dismantle the big, bad, Boston Bruins Sunday.

The Flyers took the team with the best record in the NHL at the time of the pause and punched it in the mouth – repeatedly.


Sure, the Bruins were without a couple second-line players (Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase) and most importantly without Vezina Trophy finalist goaltender Tuukka Rask, but Boston is still loaded and had a veteran backup goalie who has given the Flyers fits in the past (Jaroslav Halak), and after a sluggish first half of the first period, the Flyers just took over, and Boston had no answers.

The Flyers won the game going away, 4-1, buoyed by a three key elements that make them no longer a chic pick, but rather one of the favorites to be playing for the Stanley Cup in October.

Defensive Pair 1A

OK., so it’s one game and we’re not ready to suddenly elevate Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers ahead of Ivan Provorov and Matt Niskanen, but boy, what a game they had.

All of the excitement about their future potential that we’ve been hearing and talking about for the past two-three years came together on one glorious summer afternoon in Toronto.

They were on the ice for three of the four Flyers’ goals. Boston didn’t get much at all, but they really didn’t get anything against the young middle pair either.

Let’s start with Sanheim, who expertly set up the Flyers first goal with good instincts and a heads up pass:

https://twitter.com/NHLsv/status/1290233556313268224

This shows that even some of the best players in the world can get burned by smart play from their opponents and there was no doubt that Sanheim baited Patrice Bergeron to throwing this pass into a dangerous spot at the blue line.

The Bruins defensemen never expected the puck to be coming right back at them and were caught a bit flat-footed and out of position. Sanheim slowed the play down in his mind, waited for Michael Raffl to pop free in a good scoring spot and then slid him a beauty of a pass to set up the goal.

Sanheim would also be strong defensively, breaking up passes with an active stick, blocking shots and doing a nice job of winning puck battles to send things back into the Flyers offensive direction.

But Myers had perhaps the game’s most important moment.

With the Bruins starting to play a little better toward the end of the second period and finally cashing in on a goal to trim the Flyers’ lead to 2-1, Myers immediately played the role of stopper.

It took all of eight seconds after Chris Wagner’s goals for Myers to basically say, “not today” –

OK Joe… fix your typo, that wasn’t a tip… that was a snipe. And it should be noted that all four Flyers goals were cookie jar goals – and by that, I mean top shelf, which I guarantee you isn’t coincidence.

Their scouting report on Halak is that he doesn’t shoulder pucks well and that his glove hand is not as flashy-quick up top as it once was.

But boy, Myers took advantage of a neutral zone turnover and just used his skating ability and his precision shot to bury this one and crush Boston’s momentum.

It’s also nice to see Myers have a little bit of an edge to his game too, once Boston started to try to get a little chippy:

If we’re being honest, Myers and Sanheim didn’t look great against the Penguins in the exhibition game. It was more like they were trying to find their legs after four months off, which is completely understandable.

Heck, even the coach agreed.

“There’s no doubt both are excellent skaters,” Alain Vigneault said after the game. “Both [have] great size. Both [are] young players that we put together and put faith and trust in them. Tonight they played a real solid game. I thought the first exhibition game they played was average. Tonight there was no doubt they made some big plays and made some big defensive plays. They were a big part of tonight’s win.”

If they can play at an elevated level with consistency in this playoff run, it can be a real difference maker, especially the longer the playoffs go.

Cliff Lee Calm

I don’t know how else to describe to you how Carter Hart looked in his first “playoff” game (Kinkead note: these stats technically count for the postseason). He made 34 saves. There were not a lot of highlight reel stops because he was so well positioned on every shot. Boston had a couple of re-directs in the slot which are always tricky for goaltenders because they expose a goalie’s five hole, but Hart was equal to the task.

For a 21-year-old making his first playoff start in an unfamiliar building against the defending Conference Champion filled with a roster full of guys who’ve won the whole shebang before, he was unflappable.

It was like Cliff Lee nonchalantly catching a pop up on the mound in game one of the 2009 World series.

It was Alfred E. Neuman’s “What, me worry?” moniker come to life.

It was so noticeable that NBC analyst Brian Boucher broke it down perfectly when he said that what is so utterly impressive was the mental toughness that a kid his age has to be able to embrace a big moment and not lose himself in the magnitude of it. Boucher pointed out how this marks the difference between an average goalie with NHL caliber skills, and those that go on to become elite goalies.

In other words, all goalies who make it to this level are really good, the ones who excel though are those that have it “between the ears.”

Hart certainly has that. And like I mentioned earlier with Sanheim/Myers, if he has the ability to block out pressure and thrive in big games for the next two months, maybe he’ll be leading the virtual Stanley Cup parade.

Depth, depth, depth

The two trades made by GM Chuck Fletcher right before the deadline in February may not have been flashy, but, as we said on Snow the Goalie at the time, may have been just the kinds of trades a team that thinks they can win it all need.

They solidified the center position for the bottom two lines, adding Derek Grant to the third line and Nate Thompson to the fourth line. It guaranteed Scott Laughton would move out to wing, where he seems to be more effective, and Raffl also stays on the wing, where he’s more comfortable.

And, it forces Joel Farabee, who had a solid rookie season for such a young player, to the press box as an extra player (although we may see him soon… more on that in a minute).

Think about this – the Flyers played a near perfect playoff game and didn’t get any offense from:

  • Claude Giroux
  • Jake Voracek
  • Sean Couturier
  • James van Riemsdyk
  • Kevin Hayes
  • Travis Konecny

What does that tell you? This team is dangerous with it’s third and fourth lines on the ice.

You already saw Raffl’s goal above, but Thompson, whose not much of a goal scorer, netted the game-winner:

That’s two goals from the fourth line in a playoff game.

And while Laughton is no longer a bottom six player on this team, now playing on the second line with Hayes and Konecny, it’s safe to say that the Flyers don’t look to him to light up the scoreboard.

But, he’s had an outstanding year (when healthy), was the Flyers’ most-improved player, and is a former first round pick, so… it might just be his time to breakout and become that top six forward we always hoped he would be:

This all bodes well for a long Flyers stay in Canadian bubbles.

The bad news is Raffl took a hard tumble into the boards and looked to have a lower leg injury that he couldn’t put any weight on as he left the ice. The Flyers didn’t have an update after the game, but it didn’t look great.

If he can’t go, Farabee will be the next man up.

Think about that for a second, the Flyers “next man up” is a first round pick who played in the NHL as a teenager and has a lot of promise as a huge piece of the organization’s future.

These Flyers can come at you in waves. They are a very difficult team to defend. You can’t blink against them, or else they will make you pay.

The Bruins now realize that. Flyers fans kind of knew it five or six months ago. And now, the entire hockey world is finding out the same thing:

This isn’t just some cute underdog story. This team is a full-grown beast and ready to do something it hasn’t done in 45 years.

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