Flyers - Leafs Recap

1st Period
Another good first period from the Flyers. They were not as dominant as they were against the Oilers, but the Leafs are a better team and are playing in front of their fans. The Leafs had a few shifts where they were able to pin the Flyers in their zone, but the Flyers did a good job of keeping the Leafs to the outside and protecting the front of the net.  Brian Boucher continued his good play against the Leafs and made a couple of key saves when the Flyers had a coverage breakdown.

The power play looked better, but was still only able to score once on a five minute power play. The passes were much better and the Flyers were getting bodies in front of James Reimer. Andrej Meszaros picked up his sixth goal of the year when his slap shot from the point found its way past Reimer who was being screened by Jeff Carter. Carter had another great period, and was probably the best Flyer in the first.

The Flyers did a great job on the fore check. They forced multiple turnovers and generated a lot of offense by going into the corners to fight for pucks. They also did a great job of going to the net and fighting for rebounds. It was nice to see JVR knock Colby Armstrong on his ass. The Flyers' penalty kill was excellent that period. Mike Richards needs to get a handle on his cross ice passes, the majority of them lead to turnovers and rushes the other way.  Hopefully the Flyers can take advantage of the Leafs being down a D-man for the rest of the game.

2nd Period
I thought the Flyers had another good period. The Leafs were able to grab a little momentum after they scored a power play goal that deflected off of Mikhail Grabovski shield, but the Flyers were able to stabilize the game after a timeout. The forwards did a good job of picking up the right man on the rush which allowed the D to force the rushes to the outside.

The fourth line had a couple of good shifts that period which culminated with Darroll Powe scoring off of a nice keep by Matt Carle. The Flyers picked up another goal by having players in front of the net. A shot from the point was blocked, but the Flyers had two guys in front of the net who were able to dig the puck free and find Claude Giroux for the goal. The team has also done a better job of making the correct decision between dumping or carrying the puck into the zone.

The Flyers have had trouble holding onto leads lately, and I expect the Leafs to come out with some extra push in the third. They really need these two points and I don't expect them to let them go without a fight. If the Flyers can continue playing the way they have up to this point, they should get out of Toronto with a win.

3rd Period
Even though the Leafs cut the lead to one and had a lot of good scoring chances, the Flyers were able to hold on and win the game. This was easily the Flyers best game in weeks. They did a great job on the fore check, back checking, and not having long lulls during the game. There is still room for improvement, but they are at least moving in the right direction.

Nick Boynton had a good first game in the orange and black. He made a couple of good defensive plays and I don't recall him making any major errors. He played good enough that he should be considered an option to give Sean O'Donnell some rest. O'Donnell wasn't as bad as the last couple of games, but he did get beat by fourth liner Mike Brown for the Leafs' only goal in the third.