Giroux and Carter seem to be getting soem good chemistry and Carter seems more willing to try to get dirty goals. If both of these continue, that would be awesome.
Giroux and Carter seem to be getting soem good chemistry and Carter seems more willing to try to get dirty goals. If both of these continue, that would be awesome.
Carter and Giroux have easily been our best forwards lately, never thought I would be able to say this but Carter's forecheck has been beastly easily the best on the team, and he is playing like a power forward.... now if briere's line can get their **** back together, and richie and versteeg can bury some chances thats when this team gets ultra scary again
Boucher was strong this game although, admittedly, our defense (aside from OD) did a terrific job of blocking shots and keeping the Leafs to the outside.
Did others notice that the Flyers seemed to have worked on better puck possession and movement in their own zone? The unforced turnovers appeared to be much fewer than over the past 10-15 games. As well, it looked like they were relying less on one player to dangle through 3-4 opponents to gain the offensive zone. These have been puzzling to me over the latest stretch of games, particularly as Laviolette is such an adherent to puck possession.
1 for 2 on the PP, though the quick whistle prevented them from really taking advantage of the early 5-minute PP.
On the other hand, I thought they did better in faceoffs than they actually did. Giroux 5 for 13, Carter 3 for 4 (!), Brière 6 for 12, Richards 9 for 20, Betts 4 for 9, Leino 1 for 2 and Hartnell 0 for 1.
Defensively, there were a couple of stretches where they were bottled up in their own zone, and they obviously didn't do the young Gretzky exercise of reading where the puck is going, because they too often seem to be in the wrong position or on the wrong trajectory to pick off loose pucks. But the effort was much better, and I thought it was punctuated by completely clamping down on the Leafs over the final 1:30 when Reimer was off for an extra attacker. Zero chances and most of the time was played outside the Flyer zone.
i only caught the third, how did boynton look? from what i saw he looked okay, nothing eventful really happened while he was out there. OD got burned yet again on the lupul goal. maybe he'll get a few games to rest up once pronger is healthy?
i only caught the third, how did boynton look? from what i saw he looked okay, nothing eventful really happened while he was out there. OD got burned yet again on the lupul goal. maybe he'll get a few games to rest up once pronger is healthy?
He saw limited ice time, about 11 minutes. He didn't do anything exceptional which was fine for a stopgap role. He was in the box for a hooking minor which led to a Toronto PPG.
He saw limited ice time, about 11 minutes. He didn't do anything exceptional which was fine for a stopgap role. He was in the box for a hooking minor which led to a Toronto PPG.
That PPG requires a bold, italicized, underlined asterisk, though. Toronto wasn't generating much in the way of serious pressure when Phaneuf launched the point shot nowhere near the net that caromed in off Grabovski's visor. Just bad, bad luck.
For two such truculent teams, and a game that start with a 5-and-a-game just shy of 3 minutes in, there really weren't many PP opportunities for either side. The questionable additional 2 to Versteeg and Giroux's head-scratcher of a roughing to even things up were evidence that the refs were looking to make amends for tossing Komisarek.
It was a great effort by the guys. No more stupid backhand passes to no one. They just kept coming last night. Carter's line was the dominant line last night. Briere's the game before. Carcillo, odd as it may seem, is a force when he plays. He needs to keep playing and not sit for Nodl or Z. Boosh was great. We have to keep it going on Saturday against the Thrash.
