This is a game where it’s necessary to look past the lack of any standings points and examine it more from a big-picture perspective. The Flyers relentlessly checked the league’s hottest team for 40-45 minutes and minimized their scoring opportunities. That is a foundational element that leads to success down the road, and was present in both road games against the last two teams standing in the West last year. With that in place, a team can add offensive threats, and the Flyers did have a couple flashes of offensive brilliance in this game that didn’t result in goals. One in particular came near the midway point of the game when the Flyers executed some top-notch puck movement that resulted in three shots on goal, two of which were top-quality scoring chances. It’s about as much of a building block of a game as it gets.
A backchecking appreciation moment is in order for the fourth line. Nick Deslauriers in particular hustled back on two Vegas rushes that would have otherwise been very dangerous scoring chances; instead, the fourth line was able to defuse them. On another occasion, Deslauriers labored for 1:22 alongside Egor Zamula and Sean Walker, both of whom were stuck out for more than two minutes, and were able to keep Vegas at bay until getting a stoppage.
Sticks in lanes are not an NHL stat, which is unfortunate, because that was a shining point of the Flyers’ game in this one. Their constant disruption of Vegas’s puck movement was the reason they were able to keep the Golden Knights off the board as long as they did. Blocked shots are a stat, however, and the Flyers had 30 of those – two of which were great sacrifices by the feet of Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny. Fifteen of the Flyers’ 18 skaters blocked at least one shot in the game.
