18 minutes and 45 seconds, that is how long it took the Edmonton Oilers to register their only shot on goal in a first period that was dominated by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were able to correct almost all of their short comings in Sundays' game. The forwards were aggressively hunting the puck in the Oilers zone and played strong along the boards. The defense did not get out of position and had good communication defending against the rush. The Flyers got a lot of shots on goal from the points and had men in and around the net for deflections and rebounds. Finally the Flyers did not relax after they scored a goal.
The key to the Flyers domination that period was the forwards willingness to get back and help out the defense. The Oilers had a hard time moving the puck beyond the neutral zone because they were constantly being harassed by the forwards. This left the d-men in good position to retrieve the puck when the Oilers were forced to dump it into the zone. I don't think the Oilers had any sustained pressure outside of their two power plays the entire period.
I give the Flyers full marks for putting in a full twenty minutes of work in the first. So far they have not underestimated the Oilers and have not taken their foot off the gas, but that doesn't mean everything was perfect. If the Flyers get another power play, it would be nice to see some better passes, and the D not dumping the puck in from their side of the blue line. It would also be nice to see someone stand up for a teammate who was just boarded. Hopefully the Flyers continue their stellar play in the second period.
2nd Period
Well, the Flyers took their foot off the gas in the second period. After registering 18 shots on goal in the first, the Flyers only managed to get four in the second. The only good scoring chance the team had was off of set face off play, and Carter picked up his second goal of the night because the Flyers' superb execution. The Oilers answered :55 seconds later on a bad giveaway by Sean O'Donnell.
You might expect the Oilers to come out with a little extra push after their embarrassing first period performance, but their is no reason the Flyers shouldn't have squashed it and returned to dominating the game. All of the intensity and hustle of the first period was replaced with low percentage passes and lazy play. This game could have easily been out of reach by the end of the second if the Flyers would have kept up the intensity.
The Flyers need to realize that they can't sit on two goal leads for the rest of the year. I guess they failed to learn that lesson on Saturday against the Sabres. The Oilers are not nearly as desperate for points as the Sabres, but the Flyers need to come out in the third and take away any thoughts the Oilers might have of winning this game.
3rd Period
Just a simple testament to the continued lazy play; to start the third period the Flyers averaged one offsides or icing for the first five minutes, they only had one of each during the first period. The fore check was returned to the shelf and exchanged for cute drop passes in traffic and cross ice passes in the neutral zone.The Flyers failed, on multiple occasions, to get the puck deep into the zone, which resulted in a lot of scoring opportunities going the other way.
The Flyers played one of the worst teams in the league last night and absolutely dominated them when playing with a little passion and heart. As soon as they stopped playing with that desire and aggression the Flyers were outplayed by a bad team that was missing the majority of its offensive threats. I really believe that Flyers were lucky to get two points out of last night's game. A better opponent would have capitalized on some of their chances in the third period and tied or outright won the game.
I picked the Flyers to win in a close game, I wasn't sure if the Flyers' had learned to put in a full 60 minutes yet. It was great to see a dominant Flyers squad again, but some of that dominance was exaggerated by the quality of opponent they were playing. If the Flyers play an entire game with the way they played the first period, they might be unbeatable. But a full 60 minutes of effort is somethign we havn't seen from this Flyers team in some time.
