OTTAWA, Ontario ― Despite the “weirdness” of facing off against their longtime captain Claude Giroux, the Flyers overcame penalties, sloppiness and emotions to beat Giroux and the Ottawa Senators, 2-1, snapping a three-game skid.
It took little time for the reality that Giroux isn’t a Flyer to sink in. As soon as Travis Konecny turned the puck over, Giroux passed it up the ice, raced towards Carter Hart and scored the first goal of the game.
It was Giroux’s 300th career goal, and Senators fans and Flyers fans alike celebrated the occasion. But his longtime teammates had to face that his milestone signaled they were once again starting out behind.
“It’s weird,” said Scott Laughton. “Definitely different. Weird to see him in that jersey on the other side spending so many years with him here.”
Kevin Hayes’ power-play goal helped even the score, but the Flyers struggled to find their game through the first.
By the second, they started to warm up. Long minutes spent penalty killing prevented them from building too much momentum, but they still managed to even out the shot deficit from 11 to 5 in the first to leading 22 to 21 after the second. They even engaged in some shoving with their former captain.
However the Flyers struggled to set up in the offensive zone, until Nick Seeler’s big shot block set up a strong possession in the final minutes of the second. While Seeler limped off the ice, his teammates took the rebound from his shot block down the ice. The Flyers kept the puck on the Senators end for over a minute before Zack MacEwen scored the go-ahead.
With Hart stopping 31 of 32 shots on goal, the Flyers held through the rest of the game.
Special teams up and down
On the first power play, Hayes won the face-off, knocking it to Tony DeAngelo at the point. DeAngelo paused then shot, and Hayes deflected it into the goal in just five seconds .
The power play couldn’t have started off hotter, but it cooled from there. On the second power play, the Senators cleared over and over, until MacEwen took a penalty, evening out the teams to a 4-on-4. The Flyers got off just one shot. They didn’t do much on their third power play either.
The penalty kill was much steadier despite being out on the ice for long minutes. Thanks to a few mistakes made by the Senators , the Flyers kept them to seven shots on goal across five power plays.
Matching mistakes
When the behind-the-back passes worked, they looked super cool. But on the more frequent misses, they were frustrating head-smackers. Coach John Tortorella certainly appeared to think so. Following a series where Konecny tried to pull a number of fancy moves, Tortorella went over and had a few words with him. He did the same after Wade Allison had a particularly bad turnover.
Many of the Flyers, veterans and young players alike, showed a carelessness with the puck through the first two periods. Several turnovers lead to breakaways, but Hart stood strong.
Their sloppiness was also offset by the Senators similar struggle. They, too, made bad passes and whiffed on pucks. As a result, there was a back-and-forth with the two teams trying to capitalize on each other’s mistakes and their goalies bailing them out.
MacEwen’s time to shine
Last season, MacEwen had nine points and just three goals across 75 games as he grinded on the Flyers fourth line. The hard-hitting forward returned the next season only to get cut by the Flyers new coach out of training camp.
By the second game, MacEwen had moved up to the second line. But by the Flyers’ third game, Tortorella decided to bring him back because he thought MacEwen showed an upward trend. MacEwen paid back that confidence by proving coach right.
Nine games in, MacEwen has already equaled his goals from last season. At four points, he’s also almost halfway to his total points from last season.
MacEwen’s kept up his gritty play despite moving up from the fourth line, and his effort helped him score the go-ahead goal in the second. He attempted a shot through traffic, which was quickly stopped, but he followed it and scored on the second shot.
What’s next
The Flyers return to Philadelphia and host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
