Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette made two intriguing decisions today. The first was starting 22-year-old rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The other was taking a timeout within the first ten minutes of the Flyers' first game of the season. Both paid off.
Bobrovsky was brilliant, stopping 29 of 31 shots leading the Flyers to a 3-2 win over in-state rival Pittsburgh.
The Penguins stormed out of the gate peppering Bobrovsky with shots, but he weathered the storm stopping 15 shots in the 1st period.
Laviolette, master of the timeout, took it early to settle down an anxious defensive corps that was missing its leader, Chris Pronger. The Flyers settled down after that and played well the rest of the way.
While Bobrovsky stole the show, the key play was Claude Giroux's shorthanded goal to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. The Penguins had a rushed and atrociously executed breakout with all the forwards up too high. Kris Letang was too fancy trying to make a back pass to his defensive partner and last man back Paul Martin. Giroux picked it off and made Marc-Andre Fleury look foolish on an in-zone breakaway. View the goal here.
While the Penguins were missing Jordan Staal here is why the win is encouraging:
-Crosby/Malkin: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were on the ice close to 25 minutes each. This has to be troubling for the Penguins going forward especially if Staal misses extensive time. Both Crosby and Malkin will be worn out by season's end if they have to be relied on this much. If you look at the Flyers forwards ice time, only Mike Richards went over 20 mins.
-Defense: The defense was not spectacular, however going into a hostile environment and the opening of a new building, the defense got the job done. With a rookie goaltender in net and without Chris Pronger, the Flyers kept a lot of pucks to the outside and cleared the net pretty well and will only get better once Pronger returns.
-Bobrovsky: Let the goaltender controversey begin. Bobrovsky showed when it mattered tonight both how athletic and astonishingly quick he is. The pressure is now on Michael Leighton when he returns since he has the most to lose. Bobrovsky is motivated and looking to prove he can play at this level.
The Flyers will be at St. Louis on Saturday to take on the Blues. Caps update after their tilt with the Thrash tomorrow.
Video courtesy of nhl.com
Stats courtesy of nhl.com and philadelphiaflyers.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment