Highlights Beyond Highlights: Nov. 18 vs. Vegas

The Flyers finally broke through on the power play when Owen Tippett opened the scoring in the first period. Tyson Foerster didn’t register an assist, but just as important as everything else were Foerster’s two puck retrievals that kept the attack going on the power play. The first is visible along the end boards at the very start of this clip, and the second is about seven seconds in after the shot on goal. What’s more, after the second retrieval, Foerster sails through the low slot and helps create some traffic.

“He’s doing all the things that I thought we’d have to spend some time teaching and making sure he knows the importance of it,” said head coach John Tortorella after the game. “He’s doing those things. The biggest strength of his game is scoring goals. Can’t teach him that. Hopefully this will get him rolling that way.”

With just under three minutes remaining in regulation, Vegas’s William Carrier stole a puck that he pushed to William Karlsson, who found Paul Cotter in the left circle for a ten-bell scoring opportunity.  But Nick Seeler threw himself in front of it like something out of a Mission Impossible movie, picking up his fifth block of the game and the team’s 28^th and final of regulation. Then the rebound went to Garnet Hathaway, who started a breakout before being tripped by Cotter as he headed up the ice. As a result, the Flyers went on the power play for two minutes of the final 2:43. Although they didn’t score, it put them on the attack for a good portion of the remaining time and helped push things to overtime. The all-important block from Seeler was his team-leading 42^nd of the season; he ranks among the top 15 in the NHL in the category.

We’ll wrap up tonight by giving Sean Couturier credit for more than just his game-winning goal. On the sequence, Jack Eichel has gotten his stick on a Travis Konecny pass towards Couturier, Eichel wins the race to the puck, and he’s looking to chip the puck ahead. Couturier could have closed on Eichel, but if Eichel gets the puck through it becomes a two-on-one the other way against Cam York. Instead, Couturier has the presence of mind to step into the nearest passing lane, which is where Eichel tried to feed the puck to Shea Theodore, and he ends up putting it home.