Highlights Beyond Highlights- Oct. 15 vs. Oilers

The Flyers blocked 21 shots on the night to Edmonton’s nine; those 21 blocks were spread among 12 different Flyers who all got in on the action. The first block went not to Garnet Hathaway or Scott Laughton or someone with a history of blocking shots, but rather to Matvei Michkov. He had two goals on the evening, but that block 1:18 into the contest was the first thing he did on the night that registered in the stats. The young star is already buying in to the Flyers’ way of playing the game, adding it to what’s made him so highly anticipated.

Jett Luchanko’s primary defensive assignment on the night was Connor McDavid, who’s a pretty decent hockey player. Luchanko didn’t back down from the assignment all night long – the Flyers held McDavid without a shot on goal until well into the third period. In this clip, Luchanko stays right with McDavid coming across the middle, thwarting an Edmonton breakout attempt and sending it right back where it came from.

Little things lead to big things in hockey, which is why this particular feature exists. This was illustrated tonight by Scott Laughton, who makes just one little tap of the puck here in the neutral zone. That little tap results in a scoring opportunity not only for himself, but two other follow-up scoring opportunities, all generated by one little bit of effort. Sometimes it doesn’t take a fancy sweeping defensive play – sometimes it takes just one tap.