I thought that the Flyers forwards looked good the first 10 minutes of that period. The Richards' line looked good, highlighted by Versteeg's first goal as a Fyers where he had to beat a goalie. Giroux looked great, as always, throwing his weight around and pressuring the Leafs' D. Ben Holmstrom looked good in his first period as an NHLer, he had a good back-check and even tried to mix it up with Leafs' captain Dion Phaneuf. The Leino-Briere-Hartnell was reunited and looked pretty good except for Hartnell's assist on Clarke MacArthur's goal. I also thought the Flyers only power play opportunity looked good. They moved the puck well, earned a few goo scoring chances, and Briere had a great chance moving in from behind the net.
The Flyers D, lead by O'Donnell, looked to have a few issues that period. They got beat a couple of times by the Leafs' forecheck, and mishandled the puck a few times which lead to great scoring chances for the Leafs. Meszaros was called for two penalties, which were horrible calls, but the Flyers were able to kill both penalties. Luckily Bob had a good period in net and bailed his team out of of their mistakes. I think if the refs hadn't butchered the second half of the period the Flyers might have come out of it with a lead, but they were lucky to even be tied after the Leafs three consecutive failed power play opportunities.
2nd Period
The forwards looked good again that period. Each of the top three lines showed some good play that period. None of the lines were completely dominant, but each had a couple of great shifts. Versteeg was the recipient of another great setup from Richards. Giroux's heavy forecheck helped to generate a couple of good chances for his line. Giroux's hit to start the period was a thing of beauty that sparked the Flyers. Leino looked good on the puck that period and Hartnell showed some of the bite that has been missing from his game the last couple of weeks (months?).
The D looked better that period, but not great. There was a miscommunication in the final seconds of the period that resulted in the Leafs tying goal. Meszaros ended up in the box again, and once again Bobrovsky made a couple of great saves to bail him out. Bob benefited from a little luck that period, but he made enough good saves that he earned it. If it wasn't for an inexcusable too many men penalty while on the power play that lead to a goal, that would have been a really good period for the Flyers. Hopefully they can kill the penalty to start the third and swing the momentum back their way.
3rd Period
Well, I thought the Flyers started out playing another good well. They controlled the play for the majority of the first nine minutes, and then it was all undone by a poor defensive play late in the period. O'Donnell gets out battled in the corner by Darryl Boyce and then Meszaros lets him go to the net and score. I think that the forwards had a great game. Giroux showed off his speed in the third getting back to help out the D. JVR showed off his heavy slapshot that went through Reimer's glove and squeaked wide. Richards showed some good hustle on a race a puck a center ice. They were also successful dumping the puck in and applying a good forecheck.
Even though they couldn't pick up the two points, I thought it was a good first game after the extended break. All three top lines looked good. The team seemed more willing to get into the corners and in front of the net to fight for the puck. Although the power play couldn't covert, I thought they looked better. I think this game can be used as the first step in the build to the playoffs.
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