Highlights Beyond Highlights- Dec. 28 vs. Canucks

Any change in how the first 30 minutes of this game played out would have changed the entire night, so all the defensive efforts to keep Vancouver at bay were huge. Cam Atkinson had a puck hop over his stick at the Vancouver line that resulted in a Canucks rush the other way. But he worked hard to get back with the rush and got himself in position to block a tremendous Vancouver scoring chance.

We’ll use our other two slots to examine what led to the second and third goals. The second tally begins with more smothering defensive play behind the net. After Brock Boeser steals a puck in the offensive zone, he goes to Nils Hoglander behind the net.  Sean Walker and Sean Couturier both descend on Hoglander; as Hoglander spins away from Couturier, he turns right into Nick Seeler.  Seeler’s checking disturbs Hoglander enough for Couturier to push the puck away from him to Konecny, who started the rush. 

Here, the Flyers recognized that the Canucks had three players stuck below the puck. That enabled Walker to join the rush with Konecny and Owen Tippett.  When Konecny floats the puck ahead to Tippett, he makes an underrated diving pass to swat it away from Quinn Hughes and to Walker, who was wide open to bury the chance from the right circle.

Before that goal could even cool off out of the oven, the Flyers struck again. This time it was their neutral zone forecheck that caught Nikita Zadorov coming out of his own end. Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink were waiting for him as he crossed into the neutral zone, and as Zadorov skated away from Farabee’s pressure, he went right into the path of Brink.  That forced a turnover right at the red line that Farabee picked up, and as Zadorov didn’t have any support behind him, Farabee was set to go in on a breakaway that he converted for the Flyers’ third goal in just over two minutes.