Alain Vigneault
In his return to the lineup on Monday, the first game in a stretch of six against teams right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, the first shot Carter Hart faced found the net. Hart responded by stopping the next 30 that the Panthers took in the Flyers 4-1 win.
“It was a strong team win, we had saves at the right time, but go figure, we were able to score seven tonight and weren’t able to score one last game.” Go figure is right. After getting shut out by the last-place Devils on Thursday, the Flyers scored seven goals against the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals. “It’s the beauty of the game,” Vigneault said with a smile.
The Flyers season is at a crossroads. On one hand, they are right in the thick of the race already and not in a frantic chase back to the playoffs. But they also learned the hard way on Thursday night that every game matters, even the ones against teams in the bottom third of the standings.
Nearly every goal the Flyers scored in their 6-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche proved to be timely in some way, whether because of a timely save by Lyon or just helping them always keep a grip on control of the game. The Flyers never trailed, but with full knowledge of how the game 24 hours earlier played out, a big swing could have been moments away.
At the end of a seven-game stretch that featured five of the top six teams in the league as of Wednesday morning’s standings, the Flyers came away with a 5-2-0 record. Against those five teams, they were 4-1-0 with the only loss being a 1-0 defeat to Tampa Bay. So forgive Alain Vigneault if he was in the mood to celebrate this win and going on a break the way it started.
Travis Konecny scored the first two goals of the game and James van Riemsdyk had a goal and two assists, helping to pace the Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers next game comes against another team outside of playoff position. The Los Angeles Kings come to town on Saturday night and it is a game the Flyers certainly feel the need to come away with a better result.
Claude Giroux noted that, while it’s no excuse, it can be tough to get up the next day and play another game, no matter the opponent. Alain Vigneault didn’t buy into the theory. “You know that word that starts with b?” the Flyers head coach said.
A strange ending capped off a Flyers comeback win against a team at the top of the standings. It’s a win they want to build on as they prepare to hit the road again.
Andrei Vasilevskiy posted a shutout for the second straight game and the Lightning showed a real commitment to defensive play and taking away virtually everything the Flyers could have brought to the table. There was simply no room to operate, no room to execute and when the Flyers were able to pump the puck deep, they could not win the races because the Lightning were perfectly placed.
