Highlights Beyond Highlights: Jan. 15 vs. Blues

Noah Cates returned to the lineup and did not look like he’d missed 22 games.  His last game where he was injured may have been his best offensive performance so far, and he picked up with that same aggressiveness on this first period shift where he came on the ice and pinned St. Louis in its own zone for more than a minute.

The Flyers blocked 16 shots on the night, half of them by Nick Seeler, who continues to lead the team in the category. But even Tyson Foerster got in on the act as well, picking up a pair of blocks that included this big-time stop.

Egor Zamula was so good in this contest that he gets three clips – one for each period. In the opening frame, Zamula gets a puck at the left point and calmly just shakes Brayden Schenn, who’s only played 900 NHL games, before setting up Scott Laughton for a scoring chance.

In the second period, Zamula makes a simple, quality read on a situation that could have gotten out of hand. Foerster was trying to get the puck out to Zamula at the point but it was deflected and knocked down by Jordan Kyrou.  A younger Zamula might have frozen, or taken a step forward, and would have been easily beaten. The current Zamula instead recognized the puck wasn’t going to reach him and backed off, and then played Kyrou so well that he drew a high-sticking penalty – not only shutting down the threat, but putting the Flyers on the power play.

Then early in the third, the Flyers had a tremendous scoring chance generated by Zamula skating the puck out from behind his own net. He’s able to elude two Blues before neutralizing a third with a good headman pass.

Finally, we bring you an excellent effort from Laughton in the second period. It starts with a blocked shot at the Flyers blue line, followed by an absolute foot race with the Blues defender. Laughton is then able to muscle the opponent off the puck and push him completely out of the way before finding Garnet Hathaway in front for a terrific scoring opportunity.

It was a weekend full of plays like this that enabled the Flyers to come home with all six points, and they’ve now earned a well-deserved rest before starting their four-game homestand on Thursday against Dallas.