Oct 16, 2018 | Cbaranowski | 277 views
Short bench equals short breath
Due to the unexpected retirement of Michael Mazzetti and the flu bug that struck #4Dylon Diehl and #55James Wickham not to mention that Luca Cifani is still undecided on our qualifying offer that left the Flyers with a short bench and big expectations.
With exactly 2 lines the Flyers had their work cut out for them facing an experienced Predators team with only 2 minors on the roster. But the team was up for the challenge although the coaches had their doubts with the lack luster cheer at the start of the game. The Flyers played a smart game and let the puck do most of the work with a lot of passing and cycling down low, the Predators who had a full bench were getting a little frustrated as they couldn't break down our D. Philip was making every save look easy as he was in position and most shots hit him in the chest or pads a-la Eddie Belfour(there you go Joe). The Preds got into some penalty trouble early and we just couldn't capitalize on them. The chances were there but it seemed like the hockey gods were not on our side as some of our best chances were thwarted by the craziest luck. #19Pazzy who is a prolific goal scorer had the puck jump over his stick in the slot fanned on a breakaway and hit the post, I was starting to believe that maybe some jilted young lady had a voodoo doll of Pazzy as he is usually doing a cellie after that many chances. But it seemed to be contagious as we had plenty of opportunities to bury a few but just couldn't find the mesh, the post on the other hand was sounding like the bells of St.Mary. Near the end of first a questionable call on #22Rylan who took a body checking penalty it wasn't they both went for the puck and battled just Rylan stayed on his feet and the Preds had taken 2 penalties already so we seen it coming, but the experience of the Preds showed as they took advantage of PP. Second period was action packed as both teams had a few brain farts but both goalies kept their teams in it, well we couldn't hit water if we fell out of the titanic. #24Cap had some great rushes and some glass shaking shots. #87Patrick Young for the second game in a row played solid 2way hockey as well as #16Matt who was all over the ice trying to get something going. We tied it early in the second when #13Jordan busted his hump on the forecheck and worked it out front to #34Seba who missed the first opportunity but was able to stick with it and buried the second opportunity making the score 1-1. But the Preds got one back late in the second to go up 2-1. Now the third period was the tell tale of the short bench we hustled and did our best to get one back but you can see there were fumes in the gas tank and when the legs stop moving it's not hard play against (just look at the Habs sorry Bruce) a couple of turnovers and some lucky bounces and next thing you know it's 4-1. All in all considering we were missing 2 D and a forward plus a contract holdout I thought we played well.
Sunday night hockey's 3 Stars
3rd Star #87 Patrick Young
2nd Star #13 Jordan Baranowski
1st Star #16 Matt Ciancioso.