Highlights Beyond Highlights- March 26 vs. Rangers

Who wouldn’t sign up for a seven-game series of that?  Maybe we’ll get it.

This focuses mostly on little things in the first two periods, because that’s when the Flyers were at their best defensively. They continued a run of excellent play that really started with the third period against Carolina, ran through the entirety of the Boston and Florida games, and continued tonight. And it’s not that they did a bunch of bad stuff defensively in the third period tonight, but that frame just got silly.

This first clip is a pretty boring sequence early in the game, but it carries some significance. The notable thing here is that the Flyers didn’t force this play. Travis Konecny receives the puck behind the net and carries it up the far wall. He has Egor Zamula at the point, but (ranger) is anticipating that pass and if Konecny makes it, it’s probably a 2-on-1 the other way in the game’s first 90 seconds. Instead, he just lays it back deep into the corner and waits for the next opportunity.

The next clip involves Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning defending a dangerous situation very well, with some help from Noah Cates. Attard, Ginning and Erik Johnson were all added to the d-corps around the same time at the deadline, and there was a little bit of an acclimation period necessary. But the defensive coverage has settled back down.  Attard and Ginning, on this play, find themselves dealing with Artemi Panarin behind the net trying to set up Mika Zibanejad in front, which is about as Flyers Kryptonite as it gets in recent years. But the two young blueliners do a great job of defending the lanes by the posts, and while Panarin does get a puck through, Zibanejad is forced to a less-optimal angle and it gives Cates time to get back and get a stick on the shot.

Finally, a well-defended situation from the second period. The rebound of a Joel Farabee shot sprung the Rangers on a 3-on-2. Yes, it bounces over Panarin’s stick and the Rangers never get to complete a play, but even if they had, the Flyers get this covered because Johnson closes on Panarin, Zamula drifts over to take Zibanejad and The Scott Laughton Express arrives in the lane that would have seen the puck go from Panarin to Chris Kreider. Note that back at the start of this clip when Igor Shesterkin stops Farabee’s shot, Laughton is essentially touching the end boards. Yet he’s still able to get back into an effective defensive position.