There\u2019s no room for error. The Flyers know they have to win Thursday night\u2019s Game 3 against Carolina to have any realistic chance of winning the best-of-seven series, which they trail 2-0.<\/p>\n
For a while in Monday\u2019s Game 2, it looked like the Flyers might tie the series at 1. The Flyers took an early 2-0 lead and were leading 2-1 into the third period. Then things began to unravel, the Hurricanes scored a tying goal in and winning in overtime, 3-2.<\/p>\n
Although the stakes will be high in Game 3, coach Rick Tocchet doesn\u2019t plan any lineup changes. That includes his all-rookie line of Denver Barkey centering Alex Bump and Porter Martone.<\/p>\n
That line ended up with minus-2s across the board Monday. But during a media Zoom call on Tuesday, Tocchet gave the impression he\u2019s going to stick with the trio even though it was on the ice for the late tying goal by Seth Jarvis and the overtime winner by Taylor Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from the first game to the second game you saw improvement,\u201d Tocchet said after choosing not to have his team practice on Tuesday. \u201cYou play at this kind of pace, you play at this kind of high stakes, it\u2019s really huge for the development of the guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust imagine if we didn\u2019t make the playoffs and these guys never got the experience. I mean this is just huge. Going into Game 3 I think you will see more improvement. I think the team improved from the first game to the second and I think the young guys were in that boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martone is still a plus-2 for the nine playoff games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited for those guys to play in this kind of atmosphere,\u201d Tocchet said.<\/p>\n
The Flyers only had one five-game losing streak during the regular season, coming in January. Tocchet has said on numerous occasions how pleased he is that the team seems to bounce back well after losses. The young players are certainly part of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really encouraged by it throughout the year,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cEven when we called up those guys. They\u2019ve taken the information after a game that didn\u2019t go well for whatever reason and then applied it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s maturity. I think this team has grown in those kind of aspects. Other than January I think it\u2019s been a pretty consistent team and it\u2019s no different in the playoffs, bouncing back after a tough game. When you have a chunk of young players on your team, these guys are mature.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing worse than being on the defending team when the overtime winner is scored. Bump, Barkey and Martone looked more than a bit frustrated as they skated off the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the kids were upset last game,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cA couple guys were upset because they were on the ice for the two (goals). They can\u2019t be upset because you know what, they\u2019re going to get another shot at it, they\u2019re going to go right back on the ice, they\u2019ve got a lot of support from the organization. That\u2019s going to help their development also.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Captain Sean Couturier has readily accepted his role as the center for the fourth line after spending most of his career higher up. He scored a big goal in Game 2 and has been one of the Flyers\u2019 better players in this series, dishing out some hits and grinding his way to the net front.<\/p>\n
Are there any plans to move him to another line, or is he too valuable on the checking squad?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve put him on the power play, he\u2019s getting more ice time,\u201d Tocchet pointed out. \u201cThrow him with different lines every once in awhile. He\u2019s in a groove. I don\u2019t know if I really want to screw with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been terrific for us. What really impresses me is there was a lull there in the game and he actually drilled a guy. I thought that was awesome. Even the young guys got a little juice. He\u2019s done that all playoffs when there\u2019s been a little lull in our game. He\u2019s done something, whether it\u2019s a defensive block or a hit. Just terrific in that role.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no room for error. The Flyers know they have to win Thursday night\u2019s Game 3 against Carolina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":["post-567794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-flyers","tag-flyers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-philadelphiaflyers","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116524387141420075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567794","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=567794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}