PHILADELPHIA – Raise your hand if, before the season began, you had the Flyers sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division just a few days before Christmas.
Didn’t think so.
No matter. Few did have the Philadelphia squad trailing only powerhouse Carolina this far into the schedule.
Courtesy of Monday night’s 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Flyers jumped over idle Washington and the New York Islanders in the division standings. Plus, they still have a game in hand on each of those aforementioned teams.
Goals by Nikita Grebenkin, Carl Grundstrom, Christian Dvorak, Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov paved the way on offense and goalie Dan Vlader took care of the rest as the Flyers won for just the second time in their last seven games.
Vladar, who was a scratch for last Saturday’s game at the New York Rangers due to an undisclosed health issue, returned to action none the worse for wear. He did not allow a goal until Max Sasson scored with 6:55 to play.
Now that they’re situated near the top of the standings, is the word getting out that the Flyers should be taken somewhat seriously now?
“A lot of teams don’t want to play against us,” Grundstrom said with a smile. “We play a hard, physical game. We won’t let anything up for free. If we keep doing that, we’ll be good.”
Other players feel the same way.
“Obviously there’s still tons of season left,” Tippett said. “A lot of games to be played. Anybody can take the positives from it. We have a couple years ago (when the Flyers collapsed at the end of the season) on our minds, too. It’s great, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Coach Rick Tocchet has instilled confidence in this group and that’s probably not going to change.
“We’re not going around the league saying we need your respect,” Tocchet said. “We got to earn what we get. We’re not a perfect team but there’s a lot of fight. There’s times when we don’t look good. We’re backing in and we know it.
“Then all of a sudden we get back in the game. You have to give the guys credit. They don’t give up, these guys. I thought all four lines contributed tonight.”
He could say that again.
It was an unexpected strong night from the fourth line, which now includes Grebenkin and Grundstrom. Well into the season, the line of Rodrigo Abels, Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers had just one goal. That’s starting to change these days.
“They’ve all played great,” Tippett said of the rebuilt fourth line. “They were fun to watch tonight.”
The Flyers knew the Canucks would be a tough out. Vancouver entered the game on a four-game winning streak.
Philadelphia got on the board first at 13:13 of the second period. Abols did a nice job digging the puck out of the left corner and feeding Emile Andrae at the point. His shot made contact with Grebenkin before getting past goalie Thatcher Demko.
That lead held up until the end of the period and the Flyers felt good about things because they are now 11-0-1 when leading after two periods.
In the third, Grundstrom used a Grebenkin feed from the lower edge of the right circle to make it 2-0 at 5:58. Then Dvorak bunted a puck out of the air into the net at 7:49 and the play survived a review by officials. Finally, Tippett finished off a break-in at 15:35 to put it away.
As time was running out, Matvei Michkov scored into an empty net for his first goal since Nov. 29.
The Flyers have had trouble closing out games from time to time but not on this night.
“I think in the past we kind of sat back too much,” Dvorak said. “I thought we were more aggressive tonight, controlled most of the play. We had a lot of chances and capitalized on them.”
Don’t think other teams around the league aren’t starting to notice. The Flyers have just 10 regulation time losses, tied with Carolina for fewest in the Eastern Conference.
“I don’t care what they (the rest of the division) think,” Dvorak said. “We believe in ourselves and how we’re playing. There’s a lot of belief in our room here. We’re confident in ourselves and that’s all that really matters.”
>Sanheim nears milestone
Defenseman Travis Sanheim entered Monday night’s game with 229 career points, just one shy of tying former Flyer backliner Tom Bladon for fourth place on the team’s all-time blue line point list
Hockey Hall of Fame member Mark Howe tops the list with 480 points, followed by Eric Desjardins (396) and Kimmo Timonen (270).
Sanheim is on pace to lead the Flyers in ice time for the third consecutive season. His 25 minutes, 10 seconds ranks seventh in the NHL. Additionally, his three minutes, 29 seconds average ice time on penalty kills ranks sixth.
>Short shots
The Flyers play in Chicago on Tuesday night, then have three days off from the rink for the Christmas holiday. They resume action in Seattle on Sunday. . .Trevor Zegras, who picked up an assist on the Dvorak goal, extended his point streak to eight games. That surpassed the last Flyer to record a seven-game point streak in his first season, which was Jaromir Jagr back in 2011-12. . .Among NHL goaltenders who have appeared in at least 20 games, Vladar began Monday night’s game ranked second in the league with 48 goals allowed. . .It was the Flyers’ first sellout of the season. . .Vancouver added a meaningless goal with 17 seconds to play.
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