With 17:45 remaining in the third period, Josh Anderson took a wide shot that ricocheted off the board behind the Flyers’ net and deposited it past the outstretched glove of a sprawling Brian Elliott to put the Columbus Blue Jackets up 4-2 in the teams’ first matchup of the season. It looked like it would be more of the same for the Orange & Black, who came into Saturday night’s game having dropped all four matchup a year ago and an even more woeful 5-11-8 record against Columbus dating back to December 21, 2013.
It would’ve been understandable if Anderson’s goal shut down any hope of a Flyers comeback and to be quite honest, last year’s team may have very well turned off the effort when they fell behind 3-2. But this isn’t your 2018-19 Flyers. This isn’t your 2017-18 Flyers. Heck, this isn’t the past six years’ Flyers. This is a confident bunch that entered Saturday night’s game outshooting, out-chancing, and outworking the opposition game-in and game-out.
When I went back to rewatch the third period this morning, my wife looked at the score with just over nine minutes remaining and uttered, “I thought you said they blew out Columbus.” With both teams skating 4-on-4, captain Claude Giroux whipped the puck to Shayne Gostisbehere, who waited in the slot an absolutely buried a one-timer past Joonas Korpisalo for the team’s third goal of the game and Ghost’s first of the season:
The boys are buzzing.
Postgame 5️⃣: https://t.co/xTJuXSX4PF#CBJvsPHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/68XduIFfeo
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 27, 2019
With just under seven and a half minutes remaining, the offensive zone face-off worked its way to the blue line, where it was swung to Jake Voracek, then to defenseman Ivan Provorov, who got the puck into the left circle, unleashed the puck with all of his might, and pinged it off James van Riemsdyk, who was credited with his second tally of the evening to tie the game at 4:
