What changes should Flyers make to get back in series?
The Philadelphia Flyers put up quite a fight in Game 2 of their second-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.
Completely outclassed in the opener, the Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game, but they couldn’t hang on, as the Hurricanes scored the next two to send it to overtime tied at two apiece.
Despite Carolina having the momentum, it was Philadelphia that was the better team in overtime, though heartbreak eventually arrived when Taylor Hall delivered the overtime winner to give the Canes a 2-0 series lead as the venue shifts to South Philadelphia.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss how the Flyers can replicate their strong effort in Game 2 and find a way to get back into the series on home ice.
Carter Hutton: And I think for them, the factor is now how do you answer that? How do you get back up into that situation? What adjustments do you think the Flyers made from Game 1? Or do you think it was just that they actually showed up for this game? Because I think after Game 2 now, from a Flyers perspective, not that you think it’s going to be easy, but don’t you feel like they can compete with them now?
Steve Peters: You’re right, for Philadelphia, their changes have to be, they’ve got to be able to score when they get inside the blue paint. They have to. You’ve got to score when you get an opportunity when Konecny has a breakaway in overtime. Dude, I don’t want to see that wrist shot from the top of the circle. Get in, make a play, try to score. I think Philadelphia achieved their goal of the season. I think they wanted to be a team that played important games late into the season. I think they wanted to come together as a team. They did all those. They checked all those boxes. The reality is the Philadelphia Flyers were not expecting to be a playoff team. They find themselves in the second round against the best team in the Eastern Conference. Right now they’re overmatched. They’re overman, but this was a great learning experience for the Philadelphia Flyers this season. And look out for them next year when they’re healthy and pick up a few players in the off season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, I think that’s a great point on the Konecny one. Like Carolina loves keeping you to the outside. If you’re not going to have, as weird as this sounds like, you almost have to have some more risk to your game when you do get a chance to make, even if it’s a 50/50 play to cut to the middle and turn a B-grade scoring chance into an A-grade.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…