NEWARK, N.J. \u2014 Let\u2019s first state the obvious: There\u2019s a whole lot that has to go right for any team to go on an 11-3-1 run. That\u2019s the Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 record in their last 15 games after a businesslike 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night at Prudential Center.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s fairly remarkable just how much has gone right for this club, which slightly strengthened its grip on third place in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Owen Tippett continues to play at another level since the trade deadline. Tippett helped set the tone for the Flyers early Tuesday, taking a lead pass from Travis Konecny and making a subtle move to freeze defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler before wheeling around the net. Tippett found the open stick of Travis Sanheim on the strong side, and Sanheim immediately found an open Trevor Zegras with a seam pass to finish off a pretty passing sequence at 1:56 of the first period.<\/p>\n
Tippett drew a trip on Jack Hughes 25 seconds later, thanks to a quick speed burst at the offensive blue, putting the Flyers on the power play, leading to Zegras\u2019 second goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had to come out on time,\u201d said Tippett, who has nine goals and 15 points in his last 17 games. \u201cObviously, you get two quick like that, it lifts the room up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Zegras keeps producing since moving to center one month ago, finding the scoresheet in nine of his last 10 games (three goals, eight assists). Notably, his pair of scores Tuesday in the first 3:38 were the second-fastest two goals to start a game in Flyers history (Brian Propp, 1:58 on Feb. 27, 1982).<\/p>\n
Regarding the opportunity to play in games that matter for the first time in his NHL career, Zegras said, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve felt this, like, this rush of winning. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet was effusive in his praise of Zegras, who has a career-high 25 goals, eclipsing his previous high of 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from the beginning, Trevor came to us; he wants to play in meaningful games,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cI hate using the word playoffs, but he wants to make the playoffs. He hasn\u2019t played a playoff game. I think he wants to prove a lot of people wrong. He\u2019s played with a chip on his shoulder, and I love that he\u2019s played with a chip on his shoulder. Pushes the pace. And like I\u2019ve said, he\u2019s a real good locker room guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Porter Martone hasn\u2019t looked like a rookie since making his NHL debut just one week ago. The 19-year-old followed up his overtime winner (and pretty assist) Sunday against the Boston Bruins<\/a> with another point Tuesday. It was his pass to the front of the net to a charging Zegras that upped the Flyers\u2019 lead to 2-0, giving him 4 points (one goal, three assists) in his first five career games.<\/p>\n \u2022 Tyson Foerster wasn\u2019t even supposed to return before the end of the regular season with a shoulder injury. Instead, he seems to have picked up right where he left off Dec. 1 when he got hurt. The owner of arguably the best shot on the team, Foerster ripped a pair of goals past Jacob Markstrom in the second period, helping restore momentum to the Flyers\u2019 side after the Devils pushed over the latter half of the opening frame, including a Cody Glass goal that cut Philadelphia\u2019s lead to 2-1.<\/p>\n Foerster, who led the Flyers with 10 goals when he came out of the lineup, has three goals in his first four games back.<\/p>\n \u201cLegs were sore after the back-to-back (against the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders last week),\u201d Foerster said, \u201cbut got the day off (Monday) and feel good now, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Matvei Michkov is noticeably more mobile and effective lately, looking much more like he did last season than he did in the first half of this one. After serving a bench minor for too many men on the ice, Michkov chased down a loose puck in the second period to spring Foerster on a rush the other way that resulted in Foerster\u2019s first goal at 2:46, and began the passing sequence that ended with Foerster\u2019s second goal a little more than two minutes later. Michkov has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in his last 12 games.<\/p>\n Asked about the Flyers\u2019 young players rising to the occasion lately in games of such importance, Tocchet specifically called out Michkov for his effort on Foerster\u2019s first goal.<\/p>\n \u201cHe served the penalty, comes out of the box, wins a battle on the wall, we get a two-on-one,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThese are big things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 The fourth line, which was giving the Flyers hardly anything in the early part of the season, is helping in several ways. Captain Sean Couturier and waiver pickup Luke Glendening have been the mainstays on that line, with a rotation on the left wing (Denver Barkey got a chance there Tuesday after he was a healthy scratch for the previous two).<\/p>\n Couturier\u2019s accepting a lesser role and thriving in it has been particularly helpful. In fact, Tuesday, Couturier was on the ice against Hughes more than any other Flyers forward at five-on-five. Hughes had some chances but was ultimately held off the scoresheet.<\/p>\n Tocchet spoke about the confidence he has in the fourth line before the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m relying on them (for defensive) zone faceoffs. I\u2019ve been playing them against some good lines. Right there, (that shows) the confidence I have in them. They had to go against the big line against Boston. That\u2019s hard to do. (Against the Islanders), a couple times they were out against (Matthew) Schaefer. \u2026 I give them a lot of credit because I\u2019ve thrown a lot of different things at them.\u201d<\/p>\n Further, Couturier and Glendening are often the first forward pair over the boards on the penalty kill. After Barkey went off for a third-period delay-of-the-game minor, Couturier won the initial defensive zone draw and cleared the puck. Moments later, his active stick broke up a pass in the Devils\u2019 defensive zone, taking more time off the clock.<\/p>\n Glendening, too, has made a fan of his coach.<\/p>\n \u201cAs solid a veteran, character guy there is,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe just gets it done. Whatever he\u2019s asked to do, never complains. He\u2019s been a great addition. The guy\u2019s ripped. He works out hard. He\u2019s a great mentor for the young guys. He\u2019s been a pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 And, of course, there\u2019s the goaltending. Dan Vladar has allowed just three goals in his last three games, making 23 saves on 24 shots Tuesday. His best work came late in the second period and with the Flyers up 4-1 when he denied Timo Meier twice from point-blank range and then smothered Hughes\u2019 shot after the Olympic hero cut to the net untouched.<\/p>\n \u201cVladdy was fantastic,\u201d said Nick Seeler, whose 166-foot empty net goal at 17:09 of the third period capped the scoring.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more, of course. Noah Cates is still the Flyers\u2019 leading scorer since the break, with 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists). Jamie Drysdale keeps playing steady<\/a> defense. Christian Dvorak was arguably the Flyers\u2019 best player in Sunday\u2019s win over the Bruins. Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen are often getting the job done<\/a> against the other team\u2019s top line.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still work to do. The Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 4-3 shootout win over the Red Wings on Tuesday keeps them right on the Flyers\u2019 heels, 2 points back with four regular-season games left to play. But the Flyers continue to show they\u2019re not going to be easy to catch. There are just too many good things happening up and down their lineup to believe they\u2019re suddenly going to fall apart.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the games you want to play with each other, and for each other,\u201d Seeler said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a blast. I think this group has come together since the Olympic break, more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWARK, N.J. \u2014 Let\u2019s first state the obvious: There\u2019s a whole lot that has to go right for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-547151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116368539845948318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}