Highlights Beyond Highlights- Dec. 19 vs. Kings

Today we’ll take a look at how the Flyers’ three goals developed in this contest. On the Noah Cates goal, it starts at the very beginning of this clip when Nick Seeler makes a great read to step up and dispossess the Kings player coming up the near boards. He recognizes that Cates is coming across the ice behind him, and also that he’s closer to the puck carrier; because of Cates supporting the play, Seeler is able to jump up with minimal risk. This forces the bad pass that Cates himself actually retrieves and starts up the ice before he heads back to the net to score the goal.

Tyson Foerster’s first goal comes off a great overall effort by Scott Laughton. After the Flyers came away with the puck in the neutral zone, Laughton has to catch up to the pass towards the far wall. With little time to do much else, he just fires a slapshot on net, which starts causing chaos. Darcy Kuempner stops the initial shot, but the rebound gets away. Laughton doesn’t hesitate to go after it, but the LA defenseman does and loses track of where it is. So Laughton heads behind the net and then opens up to come around for the wraparound – if you look at his skates, you’ll see his toes are pointed in opposite directions. This is called a mohawk in skating terms, and is really quite difficult to pull off – it’s an underrated part of what makes NHL players elite skaters. Foerster puts himself in the right place to finish off the play.

On Foerster’s second goal, we send a nod to Morgan Frost, who makes a terrific pass from behind the net to find Foerster in front. But the other thing to look at here is how LA defends this, and why it’s exactly the opposite of what the Flyers coaching staff teaches its defensemen to do. Frost is behind the net and doesn’t really have a ton of options until Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson reaches for him. When Edmundson does that, he leaves Foerster out in front and also opens himself up, which gives Frost space to get a pass through. When the Flyers are defending this situation, the directive is that if you can’t reach the player who’s behind the net, you don’t reach – you just leave him back there and hold the post to cut off the pass out in front, instead forcing it to the outside. The opponent can’t (usually) score from behind the net, and forcing the pass to the outside creates a situation a lot less dangerous than when it slips right out in front. What happens here is a prime example of why the Flyers defend these plays the way they do, and Frost and Foerster are able to take advantage.