Highlights Beyond Highlights- Dec. 14 vs. Capitals

Goals like tonight’s are how the Flyers are going to be successful this season. There’s not going to be a sniper, a 50-goal scorer, a player who’s dangerous every time he steps on the ice. Not yet, anyway.  This is a true Philly team where the goals are going to come from hard work – even on nights where the energy is sort of flat, like this one.

The first goal comes off some excellent play in the corner both by Bobby Brink and Morgan Frost.  Frost goes to the corner to keep the possession alive, getting some help from Brink in the process. But while Frost goes up the wall and then gets it out to the point, Brink doesn’t coast towards the net or watch the play develop. That’s actually what Caps defenseman Martin Fehervary does here; meanwhile, Brink gets on his horse and goes around behind the net to the other side before coming out in front. That allows him to lose Fehervary, who seems to be wondering where Brink went while Brink is cutting out in front and first disrupting the point shot from Staal before knocking home the rebound.

Cam Atkinson may be a bit snakebitten right now on the scoring front, but his forecheck created the second Flyers goal. He again victimizes Fehervary by arriving and applying an immediate stick check that initializes chaos. The stick whack, which is intentional, prevents Fehervary from picking up the puck. As Atkinson ties Fehervary up, Tom Wilson arrives to help. But another timely stick check from Ryan Poehling knocks the puck right off Wilson’s stick and straight to Farabee, who emerges quickly with the wraparound goal.

And then there’s the game-tying goal, which comes about because Travis Sanheim, of all people, went all the way behind the Washington net to hit a Caps defenseman. He arrived there not because he was jumping in on the play; rather, he pinched all the way in from the right side to deliver a hit in that spot. That caused a less-than-crisp pass up the wall to a Washington forward who had his hands full of Morgan Frost, as Frost had anticipated the pass and closed to force a turnover. Frost sent it out to Tippett; meanwhile, since Sanheim was already deep in the zone, he cut across the slot and provided a screen instead of simply reeling back to his spot. Tippett took full advantage in firing home the equalizer.

It is simply a trio of goals where any one of them would not have happened without hard work from multiple people involved, and they came on a night where the Flyers had to bear down to create the type of energy it takes to score these goals.  It’s an extremely good sign moving forward.