Flyers-Oilers: Postgame Points

12-8-2016_FlyersvsOilers_3rd_credKateFrese-12

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

With three goals in the third period, the Flyers brought their winning streak to seven games in thrilling fashion.

It was easily the Flyers craziest game of the season, so there's definitely plenty of talking points.

Here are 10 Postgame Points from the Flyers 6-5 win over the Oilers.

  1. It's been a little while since the Flyers played in a high-scoring affair like this. There was the back-and-forth games against Arizona and Pittsburgh in October and the loss to Toronto just about a month ago, but since then, the Flyers have been playing many more 3-2 games. This was an entertaining, up-tempo, high-scoring game and the way the Flyers came back shows exactly where they are as a team right now. They are confident, no game is too far out of reach and that's what has them on a seven game win streak, their longest since December of 2011.
  2. The Flyers needed all six goals on Thursday night because it was not the best night for Steve Mason. Make no mistake about it, Mason has been stellar on the win streak and was probably due for a game like this, especially against such a potent offense like Edmonton has. That said, the goals by Leon Draisaitl in the first and Benoit Pouliot in the third are ones he probably wanted back. It's perfectly warranted though. There are games like last Tuesday's against the Bruins and this Tuesday's against the Panthers where Mason stole the win. He needed his teammates to steal one for him on Thursday and they did.
  3. The Oilers just keep bringing speed. Connor McDavid is obviously the focal point, but Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Jesse Puljujarvi, Drake Caggiula, Mark Letestu, Milan Lucic — go on down the list, from top to bottom, that team plays fast and it was a task for the Flyers to keep up with them.
  4. You certainly expect to see a lot from the Oilers kids, but the Flyers have a few kids of their own who showed off on Thursday. Travis Konecny's saucer pass to Mark Streit for the Flyers first goal was a thing of beauty. And Ivan Provorov, are we sure this kid is 19? He looked excellent again in the defensive zone playing against the likes of McDavid and Lucic. Another huge test for the rookie and he just continues to show growth and development on the fly at the NHL level.
  5. The Flyers scored three goals in 1:12 in the second period to take the lead. First it was Streit's blast from the point just after a power play ended. 53 seconds later, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored his first of the season. 19 seconds after that, Claude Giroux scored on a one-timer from the face-off circle. That was the fastest three goals in franchise history since the Flyers scored three in 1:07 on Feb. 14, 2009.
  6. Remember just a few games ago how Claude Giroux looked like he couldn't buy a goal at even strength? You can file that one away. Two more even-strength goals on Thursday for the Flyers captain, both at timely moments. The first was the one-timer off the feed from Jake Voracek to put the Flyers ahead just 19 seconds after tying the game. The second was the game-tying goal in the third with 7:49 left in regulation. Two clutch goals by the captain, who on the seven-game streak has more than doubled his goal total. 
  7. Good for Bellemare to get rewarded with a goal. Aside from having what he thought was his first goal go to Michael Del Zotto from the win in Ottawa, Bellemare played his best game of the season on Thursday by effectively checking and defending McDavid's line. It's a task normally set aside for Sean Couturier, but Bellemare was up to the task. Wherever that performance came from and whatever that was, bottle it, because McDavid's line really couldn't get as much going at even strength. 
  8. For the second time this week, Michael Raffl used a power move to score a goal. And the one on Thursday may have been more impressive than his goal two games earlier. First, there's the timing, 1:29 remaining in regulation. Then you look at the play, collecting the puck off the boards, powering around Oscar Klefbom and lifting the puck over Jonas Gustavsson before tumbling over the goalie. If this season is about honoring 50 years of Flyers history, that finish almost looked familiar, especially with a No. 12 flying across the crease.
  9. Speaking of the play of Raffl on the top line, Brayden Schenn has probably seen the last of the top line. He's just too inconsistent at even strength and always seems to put the Flyers in a bad situation when he's on the ice. He's currently centering the second line, but when Sean Couturier returns, Schenn likely heads back to the bottom-six. 
  10. It's important to look at the where the Flyers are now and appreciate the juncture of the season where all of this is happening. In their last two playoff runs, the Flyers had to make a mad dash to the finish just to get in. After 29 games, the Flyers are 16-10-3 with 35 points in the standings. For a brief period of time, that was actually enough to put them in a tie for first place in the Metropolitan Division with the Penguins and Rangers, before both teams won their games on Thursday. Still, being within two points of the top spot in the division in mid-December? I don't know that anyone saw that coming. Anyone except for the players on this team, who look to be completely buying in and having fun. That's what it's all about, right?

Bottom Line

As several of the games on the winning streak have been, it wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. The Flyers have won seven straight games and that's certainly got spirits high about this team.

There were still mistakes, still flaws and that was to be expected against a fast team in Edmonton. But the Flyers are now not letting these mistakes completely take control of the game. They fell behind 2-0 in the second and rallied. They fell behind again, 5-3, in the third and completed that comeback, the first time in franchise history they erased a pair of two-goal deficits and won.

This is a very different team than they were just a month ago. If you haven't been paying attention before, you might want to start, because this is a fun team to watch delivering exciting hockey night in and night out. They go for eight on Saturday afternoon.

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