Highlights Beyond Highlights: Oct. 13 vs. Panthers

Early in the game, Dan Vladar makes a save that doesn’t seem like much more than a decent highlight as he goes post-to-post to shut down a two-on-one shorthanded break for the Panthers. But the importance of this save can’t be understated. This is early in the contest on Philadelphia’s first power play, and giving up a shorthanded goal at this juncture would completely change the course of this game – the mindset of the players on both sides, the fans, all of it. Instead, it started the momentum rolling in the Flyers’ direction.

These next two clips show us how effective forechecking can change the course of a game. Here, it’s the third line out on the ice making life difficult for Seth Jones. Bobby Brink is the first forward in on the forecheck, or “F1” in hockey parlance. His mere presence causes Jones to forego an exit on the far side of the net and instead come to the near side. That’s read by Noah Cates, who’s the F2 in this situation, and he pressures Jones into a spin move and then a stumble. Although Jones gets back to the puck first, now here comes Tyson Forester, who’s the F3 - the third forward on the forecheck. Jones knows Cates is still to his right and a turnover here to Foerster is going to result in a bad situation for Florida. So he tries to exit the zone via the air, but he snap-hooks it to the left out of play, and just like that the Flyers are on the power play.

Our final clip includes the Flyers’ first two goals, which are of course highlights, but here we’re looking at how they were created – off turnovers. The first one is off another forecheck, as Bobby Brink swoops in to apply pressure on the goaltender Daniil Tarasov. The Flyers are in the midst of a change here and Noah Cates has already left the ice for Sean Couturier, who joins the fray. Tarasov sends it away from Brink to the near corner, but Couturier just continues right along to that point and his active stick deflects the Panthers’ clearing attempt. That sends it right to Tyson Foerster, who takes full advantage.

The second goal in this clip is created in similar fashion, but it’s by the defensemen. Certainly, not every goal in the NHL is a highlight reel chance manufactured by the offense. The game is so fast that oftentimes it just takes one little deflection or flub to start a rush the other way, and that’s what happens here. Adam Ginning and Travis Sanheim defend this well, and it’s a simple active stick from Sanheim that disrupts Carter Verhaeghe’s zone entry. Meanwhile, the forwards were changing, and both Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier had jumped on after Florida’s defensemen had come across their blue line – Konecny was behind one of them, and Couturier was behind both. So when Sanheim’s tip ended up on Konecny’s stick, Couturier was already behind the D and was able to take the pass for the breakaway goal.