Highlights Beyond Highlights- Dec. 21 vs. Blue Jackets

The Flyers cashed in for the first time just under seven minutes into the third period on a play that illustrates the problems that east-west motion (side-to-side on the ice) can cause for a defending team. If you watch this clip and look at every player that doesn’t have the puck, you’ll see they all play a role in how this develops. While Tippett makes the play towards the net, all four of his teammates on the ice played a part in helping to open that ice up for him.

Cam York and Travis Konecny first engage in an ordinary cycle, which happens all the time; two players on the ice essentially switch places, and their defenders go with them. This is a practice that on its own is designed to open up the ice for the offense. But while that’s happening, Owen Tippett has moved all the way up out of the zone before he starts in on his charge that generated the goal. Meanwhile, while Konecny comes up high towards Tippett, both York and Travis Sanheim cross in front of the goal and then drift towards the far point; as they do, they draw two Columbus players with them. All the while, Frost has been posted up in front, with another Blue Jacket occupying him. But as Tippett comes down and cuts across, Frost moves out of the way; at that point, the Columbus defender that was on him leaves him and moves to double-team Tippett – so Frost is as open as a 24-hour Denny’s when Tippett feeds the pass back across the front.

Everyone saw Noah Cates score his goal. Now take a look at everything he does for the eight seconds leading up to the goal. First he goes to the net – this action is what you hear players and coaches alike talking about “going to the blue paint.” He gets knocked on his hindquarters by Zach Werenski for his troubles. Then Cates gets up and gets re-established. Next, you see him pointing his stick straight at Cam York and wiggling it. This is Cates signaling that he wants York to shoot for a deflection – when you see these deflected goals, they often don’t happen by accident. They’re actually practiced almost every day.

Cates doesn’t get the deflection here because Werenski skillfully lifts his stick – again there’s a reason for that, as Werenski is trying to clear Cates so his goaltender gets a clear view of the shot and Cates can’t deflect it. But in the aftermath of a play like that, there’ s a lot of things that can happen. Cates is likely expecting this, and he ensures that after the puck comes through, he can turn towards the front of the goal while Werenski has to turn away from it. That’s where he finds the loose puck for the rebound goal.

Finally, a moment to appreciate the feed from Cates on Tippett’s overtime winner, especially from this angle. We’ve seen this before and NHL players probably consider this easy, but in reality it’s quite the skill to lift this puck the perfect amount and drop it right where it needs to be for Tippett to take it in.