It might be the most conspicuous sign yet that the Philadelphia Flyers are beginning to exorcise some of the demons that have possessed them in recent years.
They actually got to Ilya Sorokin.
The New York Islanders’ goalie, arguably the frontrunner for the Vezina Trophy, surrendered four goals on 21 Flyers shots in a 4-1 Philadelphia victory at UBS Arena on Friday night.
Sorokin — who entered the game with a .946 save percentage, 1.53 goals-against average and five shutouts in 18 career games against the Flyers — got beat by Owen Tippett off the rush at thirteen minutes and fifty-four seconds of the first period, and about a minute later failed to pick up Alex Bump’s snipe from the wall while screened by teammate Scott Mayfield. Matvei Michkov’s bank shot off of Sorokin’s back made it 3-0 at 2:52 of the second period, and after the Islanders pushed and got one back on J-G Pageau’s score at 15:37 of the second to make it 3-1, Travis Sanheim essentially put the game away midway through the third by blasting home an alert feed from the wall by Michkov.
The Flyers, now with 88 points, are just one point behind the Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division, with one game in hand. The Columbus Blue Jackets also have 88 points, and, like the Flyers, have six games remaining. As far as the second wild card spot, the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings have 88 points, too. All of those teams would own the tiebreaker over the Flyers by virtue of regulation wins.
Some takeaways from the game:
Line change sparks Flyers, Michkov
Thursday’s 4-2 home loss to the Red Wings was not one of Michkov’s better games. His line, with Noah Cates and Denver Barkey, was the only one that lost the possession battle and hardly generated anything offensively.
So coach Rick Tocchet made a change. Out came Barkey and in went Bump, who had been a healthy scratch for the past two games. The result was Michkov’s best game in weeks. His area pass (or was it a missed centering pass?) to Bump in the first period got Michkov on the scoresheet, but it was his goal and third-period assist that had him resembling last season’s Michkov.
Michkov alertly realized that Sorokin was in an awkward position after he seemed to be caught in between on a loose puck. He swiped it towards the out-of-place goalie on his backhand for his 17th goal of the season.
While Michkov took a completely avoidable interference penalty on Mathew Barzal early in the third, he made up for it later in the frame after the Flyers killed it off. On Sanheim’s goal, Michkov and Bump handed the puck off inside the offensive zone before Michkov was able to curl a pass to the charging defenseman, who blasted home his 10th goal. It marked Michkov’s first three-point game since Jan. 23 at the Colorado Avalanche.
On a night in which some other key Flyers forwards weren’t all that noticeable — including Porter Martone, who had just one shot on goal, and Trevor Zegras, who banged up his left arm on a hit from Adam Pelech in the first period and played sparingly after that — Michkov picked up the slack.
It would be a huge boost for the Flyers, of course, if Michkov and Bump were to develop some chemistry for the final push. Bump brings more size to the lineup than Barkey, of course, and while he’s also not quite as fast or tenacious as Barkey, he plays the game at a similar pace as Michkov. That was likely part of Tocchet’s thought process when he made what ended up as a fortuitous swap.
Dan Vladar made 21 saves against the Islanders on Friday. (Alexander Wohl / Imagn Images)
Vladar rebounds after recent so-so play
He wasn’t needed early. The Flyers picked up on Friday where they left off in their game against the Red Wings the night before, and were dominant territorially for the first half. Even before Tippett opened the scoring, the Flyers were all over New York, recording 12 of the first 13 shots on goal and coming close on a few chances.
But about halfway through regulation with the Flyers up 3-0, the Islanders, who hadn’t played since Tuesday night, turned it up. Dan Vladar made a series of saves on Ryan Pulock, Simon Holmstrom, and Pulock again on a blast with 9:27 left in the middle frame, and the puck rarely left the Flyers’ end for the remainder of the period. Vladar allowed just the Pageau goal on 21 Islanders shots, making more key saves early in the third with Michkov in the box, including on a Bo Horvat one-timer with 16:25 to go, keeping it a two-goal cushion and preventing the Islanders from gaining any late steam.
Prior to Friday, Vladar had allowed 11 goals on 71 shots in his last three games, sparking concern that the season’s heavy workload — the Islanders game was his 47th appearance — might be getting to him. Instead, he offered a reminder on Friday of why he’s inarguably been the Flyers’ team MVP this season.
The Flyers’ schedule will ease up just a little bit next week, as they’ll have days off between their next four games beginning on Sunday afternoon at home with the Boston Bruins before concluding the season with a back-to-back at home on April 13-14. It’s probably safe to assume that Vladar will get at least five of those games, if not all six, depending on how things shake out.
Flyers’ simplest path to the playoffs is through the Metro
Do yourself a favor. Don’t bother with those playoff percentage chances that populate social media. Simply look at what’s been happening in the Metropolitan Division lately: The Flyers are playing their best hockey of the season, now 9-3-1 in their last 13 games. Even in the two games they dropped earlier this week to the Washington Capitals and Red Wings, they still played well and arguably deserved better (particularly the 4-2 loss to Detroit on Thursday).
The Islanders and Blue Jackets, on the other hand, are scuffling. New York has now lost six of its last nine in regulation, including three in a row, while the Blue Jackets are 0-4-1 in their last five headed into Saturday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, who have had a strong second half. The Islanders have an even tougher matchup, facing a rested, first-place Carolina Hurricanes team on Saturday in Raleigh.
Simply put, if the Flyers can keep playing like they have been for the past couple of weeks, they should be able to leapfrog those two division rivals, even without owning the tiebreaker.
So much can still happen, of course. But the possibility of a Flyers-Pittsburgh Penguins first-round matchup is now very real. Hockey aside, that’s the sort of development that might quickly get the team back on the local sports radar after so many years of apathy among the casuals.