This time around, there would be no shootout necessary, as the Flyers scored four unanswered goals to easily defeat the Rangers 4-1 for their fifth straight victory.
The Flyers set the tone early with lockdown defense, limiting the Rangers to just two shots on net in the first period. Then, after surrendering a power-play goal to Brandon Dubinsky, the Flyers answered with a power-play goal of their own, and did so in impressive fashion.
How Claude Giroux was able to fire a cross-ice, backhanded pass right on the tape to Mike Richards I'll never know. But then again, this is what we've come to expect from Claude at this point. Hell, it's what I expected from him all along. And last night, Keith Jones sounded an awful lot like me, saying after that awesome assist by Giroux that was capped off by a great finish from the captian, "A couple of years ago the Peter Forsberg comparisons seemed a bit far-fetched. Now every night he does something that reminds you of Peter Forsberg." Those may not have been his exact words, but it was something close … and something I've been saying since the first time I saw him play.
There's just something really special about this guy, and he gets more impressive every time he takes the ice.
That was the goal that set things off. Then it was a couple of former New York Rangers that piled on, with Blair Betts stripping the puck from Michael Del Zotto and then beating his former teammate Henrik Lundqvist for what turned out to be the game-winner.
Then to rub salt in New York's wound, the oft-critized during his days as a Ranger Nikolay Zherdev scored six minutes later on another assist by Giroux to make it 3-1 before the second period was through. That had to absolutely eat at Rangers fans — seeing a guy who was widely viewed as an incredible underachiever in New York beginning to thrive down I-95 in the Orange and Black.
Chris Pronger continued his assault on goaltenders from the point with yet another rocket blast that found the back of the net in the 3rd for good measure, converting on the power play for the second time on the night.
With a four-goal lead, Sergei Bobrovsky did the rest. The youngster was outstanding yet again, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced, including all 10 in the final period. He far out-played his counterpart, the much heralded Henrik Lundqvist. And the way he's been playing so far, Bobrovsky just may be the franchise goaltender the Flyers have long been looking for.
That's certainly no guarantee, of course. We've seen plenty a young goaltender show promise only to fizzle. But right now, the 22-year-old looks legit. The way he's playing, Michael Leighton could never come back as far as I'm concerned and I'd be OK with it. I'm loving Bob.
This really was quite an impressive win for the Flyers coming against a hated division rival, and one that came in playing very good hockey. The Rangers were coming off back-to-back wins including one against the defending Stanley Cup champions, and entered last night just two points behind the Flyers in the standings. But the Flyers went out and beat the Rangers in just about every phase of the game. The only clear-cut victory New York got was in the battle of the heavyweights, with Derek Boogaard besting former Ranger Jody Shelley.
Other than that, it was all Flyers. Not a single player finished with a minus rating last night. Andrej Meszaros returned in impressive fashion, playing nearly 22 minutes and finishing a plus-2. Eric Wellwood showed that he's probably going to be sticking around. And the Flyers are really looking like a team determined to finish at the top the Eastern Conference.
That's exactly where they are right now 13 games into the season, leading the East with 17 points and trailing only the Kings in the entire NHL, who have 18 points in 12 games. The only noticeable weakness this team has is in the faceoff circle, something that has been a problem for a few years now. But this team always seems to find a way to work around that and win some big ones when they really need to.
Other than that, the Flyers are about as complete a team as there is in the league. Their defense is second to none. Their offense has three highly explosive lines and depth all over the place, plus the fourth line has done a great job chipping in. And Bobrovsky is playing like a top-notch goalie.
There's still a long way to go in this season, and a lot can happen between now and the spring. But the Flyers are off to one hell of a good start. Unlike last year, I don't think a shootout will be necessary to determine this team's fate.
