Highlights Beyond Highlights- Oct. 17 vs. Kraken

The Flyers had a tough one on Thursday night that turned on a three-minute stretch of the second period. Away from that stretch, there were a number of commendable moments, particularly in the first period, that deserve a look.

The Flyers’ first goal happens because of a veteran play by Garnet Hathaway. A lead pass banked off the wall to a Seattle defenseman and was immediately ejected back out of the zone; it came to Hathaway, but Scott Laughton was offside and needed to tag up. Instead of just dumping the puck into the zone, Hathaway took it to the far wall to buy time for Laughton to get onside. At one point as he did so, the puck even slid into the zone over the line, but as long as Hathaway didn’t touch it before Laughton tagged, the play was still legal. So Hathaway protected the puck and even absorbed a hit before feeding a rinkwide pass to a now-onside Laughton, who fed Ryan Poehling for a shot that went wide before swooping in and wrapping home the rebound. But none of that happens without the play Hathaway makes on the wall.

While Jett Luchanko is certainly still adjusting to the NHL, he continues to play a solid 200-foot game. In this clip, he gets into the corner on the forecheck and takes on three Kraken players, eventually forcing a turnover that results in a good look for Bobby Brink. In the third period, Luchanko was right in the middle of the big scrum that happened with just under eight minutes to play in the third.

Then there are two little plays by Rasmus Ristolainen that prevented high-danger scoring chances, if not goals. First he thwarted Chandler Stephenson in the bumper spot on the power play, turning 180 degrees to do so after initially fronting the point.

Then later in the first, Ristolainen broke up a breakout by staying step-for-step with Jared McCann. Even though the speedy forward got a step on Ristolainen, the far-reaching defenseman was able to get his stick under McCann’s and lift it just enough that McCann was unable to redirect a centering pass on net.