October 5, 2013: Philadelphia Flyers
The Canadiens led a strong 4-1 win Saturday night in Montreal, so we're gonna break down the game for you and see what the Habs did in particular that allowed them to walk right over the Flyers.
Let's start with penalties. In the first game vs the Maple Leafs, the Canadiens had seven, very undisciplined penalties, in which we lost 4-3. In this game vs the Flyers, we had five penalties, and we won 4-1. But what's different about this game is that our penalties were much more disciplined, and there was only one or two penalties that we shouldn't have taken because they were either lazy, or undisciplined. That shows a pretty good change in undisciplined and lazy penalties, which can lead back to us using our legs, and skating hard throughout the game without taking too long of shifts. That would create the need to take a lazy or undisciplined penalty.
Special teams didn't vary that much from Tuesday night to Saturday night along the lines of penalty kill. On Tuesday vs the Leafs, we went 6/7 on the kill, and Saturday we went 4/5. The only major difference is Philadelphia had a power play that was getting much more shots on goal and chances then Toronto. The Maple Leafs power play was for sure not as strong or active as the power play of the Flyers, and I'm confident in saying we had much more success in killing off penalties on Saturday. We played a great positional game, cleared the puck with every chance, delayed as much time as possible, and covered the slot. You can also see by how many blocked shots we had by covering shooting and passing lanes in the zone. On Tuesday, we had 15 total blocked shots, but 53 total shots were taken by the Maple Leafs. That means we blocked 24.5% of the shots, which is a good number as it is. But on Saturday, we only had 12 blocked shots. But if you look at how many total shots we had against us, only 35, you can see that we blocked 31.57% of all shots, a dramatic increase from Tuesday to Saturday, which is a significant improvement. The only question will be if the Canadiens can keep this up and continue to improve.
For power play though, we went from 0 for 4 on Tuesday, to 2 for 7 on Saturday. That's going from 0% success on the power play to 28.57% success in only one game, which is mainly because the Maple Leafs are just a plain stronger team, with better, more solid goaltending and a better defense than the Flyers. But in this game, we won 4-1, five goals scored total, and three of them were scored on special teams. That shows what a huge key special teams, especially the ability to kill penalties, and score on the power play occasionally, is to the game of hockey.
Let's start with penalties. In the first game vs the Maple Leafs, the Canadiens had seven, very undisciplined penalties, in which we lost 4-3. In this game vs the Flyers, we had five penalties, and we won 4-1. But what's different about this game is that our penalties were much more disciplined, and there was only one or two penalties that we shouldn't have taken because they were either lazy, or undisciplined. That shows a pretty good change in undisciplined and lazy penalties, which can lead back to us using our legs, and skating hard throughout the game without taking too long of shifts. That would create the need to take a lazy or undisciplined penalty.
Special teams didn't vary that much from Tuesday night to Saturday night along the lines of penalty kill. On Tuesday vs the Leafs, we went 6/7 on the kill, and Saturday we went 4/5. The only major difference is Philadelphia had a power play that was getting much more shots on goal and chances then Toronto. The Maple Leafs power play was for sure not as strong or active as the power play of the Flyers, and I'm confident in saying we had much more success in killing off penalties on Saturday. We played a great positional game, cleared the puck with every chance, delayed as much time as possible, and covered the slot. You can also see by how many blocked shots we had by covering shooting and passing lanes in the zone. On Tuesday, we had 15 total blocked shots, but 53 total shots were taken by the Maple Leafs. That means we blocked 24.5% of the shots, which is a good number as it is. But on Saturday, we only had 12 blocked shots. But if you look at how many total shots we had against us, only 35, you can see that we blocked 31.57% of all shots, a dramatic increase from Tuesday to Saturday, which is a significant improvement. The only question will be if the Canadiens can keep this up and continue to improve.
For power play though, we went from 0 for 4 on Tuesday, to 2 for 7 on Saturday. That's going from 0% success on the power play to 28.57% success in only one game, which is mainly because the Maple Leafs are just a plain stronger team, with better, more solid goaltending and a better defense than the Flyers. But in this game, we won 4-1, five goals scored total, and three of them were scored on special teams. That shows what a huge key special teams, especially the ability to kill penalties, and score on the power play occasionally, is to the game of hockey.
