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Flyers Got 16 Goals From 14 Different Players in Penguins Series Victory
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From Hockey Reference, the Flyers won their opening playoff series against the Penguins with 16 goals coming from 14 different players:
Context: Luke Glendening and Owen Tippett had empty net goals in Games 1 and 3, so if you want to filter those out, the statistic would be 14 goals from 12 players, which is still pretty crazy. And that’s without Tyson Foerster, Matvei Michkov, Christian Dvorak, and Sean Couturier finding the back of the net, and Coooots had himself a really nice series.
You can look at this from two different perspectives.
On one hand, they got balanced contribution across the board. They played a gritty and defensive team game and scored their goals with some traffic in front, a deflection or two, and the nasty short-handed goal that Tippett created. Porter Martone cleaned up a couple of rebounds in front of the net and Travis Konecny pulled off a Game 5 snipe. Five defensemen scored in the series and there are fourth liners with points, so they weren’t necessarily reliant on a couple of superstars to do all of the heavy lifting. And look at playoff Risto leading the way with 5 points in his first series ever.
On the other hand, you still saw that glaring lack of high-level offensive skill on the ice. There wasn’t anybody to step up and put the puck on their stick and make something special happen. That was especially noticeable on the power play, which was horrific. You did see a handful of north/south sequences in Games 1 and 2 especially when guys like Tippett and Denver Barkey were able to force some offense with straight-line speed, but in Game 6 you were probably sitting there like me, thinking “somebody has to dig deep, find the extra gear, and make a play.” Eventually they broke through with Cam York, but there’s no go-to guy on this current roster. And in Game 6 for instance, while Michkov was carving out some half-chances offensively, that came with the risk/reward of some bad turnovers and meandering defensive and neutral zone play.
Either way you look at it, this is a proper snapshot of a still-rebuilding Flyers team. They’re playing a cohesive defensive game and really scratching and clawing while learning playoff hockey at the same time. They are seemingly overmatched against the Canes, but ask yourself how many people saw them even getting to the postseason just a few weeks back.
You can never say never.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com