#BrothasTalkinPucks

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Quacked By Kaitlyn Hemsley Staff Writer Late Night Hockey Watcher Flyers lose to Ducks, 4-3 in Shootout Pregame Notes · Matt Read returned to the lineup vs the Ducks and they sent Taylor Leier back down to the Phantoms · Radko Gudas returned to the lineup after a lower body injury Goals · Ducks: Ryan Kesler Hat Trick (2 goals in 1st period, 1 in 2nd period) · Flyers: Travis Konecny (1st period, 5th of the season), Sean Couturier (2nd period, 6th of the season), Brayden Schenn (2nd period, Power play goal, 11th of season) Happy New Year! The after Christmas road trip is something that just hasn’t been good for the Flyers since 2013. It’s this West Coast road trip that always manages to mess the Flyers up. This season, they went 0-2-1 on the West Coast swing and have lost their last 4 games and only managed to collect 1 point in their last 4 games. I blame Disney on Ice. Something different and something incredible from this last game of the road trip, the shots on goal. Flyers offense had something to play for. They took 55 shots on goal total, 55 shots. That’s astonishing to accomplish. They were 5 off of their club record of 60 in a game and it was the most shots in a game since March of 2014 when they played the Boston Bruins. There were a couple incidents where the Flyers should have been able to get their 4th goal of the game and win it. Rookie John Gibson for the Ducks looked shaky making the easier shots and scrambling a bit too much on the easy shots on goal but made some pretty spectacular saves on the tougher shots on net. It shows how impressive the Ducks rookie goalie was in that game. The Flyers completely outplayed the Ducks in the 2nd and 3rd period, even outshooting the Ducks in the 2nd period, 24 to 5. The problem was that they just couldn’t find that extra goal to put them on top. Steve Mason was also impressive in net for the Flyers. Sure he gave up three Ryan Kesler goals, but they were three really awesome Kesler goals. Mason saved 22 of 25 shots and made some key saves to make sure that the Ducks didn’t take the lead, especially in the 3rd period when the Ducks started to heat up in the last 5 or so minutes. Even after the hand injury that he suffered in the Sharks game on Friday, Mason looked like nothing had ever happened and was on top of his game, which is good news for the Flyers. Travis. Konecny. He FINALLY got off the slump of 22 games going scoreless. I said in my last article that sitting Travis Konecny for the Sharks game would be the kick that he needed and it was exactly what the rookie needed to step up. He managed to get two shots off of the initial Wayne Simmonds shot and easily put the puck past John Gibson to tie the game. There is something about a Wayne Simmonds fight that always shocks me. It always has something and that first fight of the game between Simmonds and Kevin Bielska was something else. Bielska managed to get the jersey and the pads off of Wayne Simmonds. How many times is it going to take for players to learn that you just don’t fight Wayne Simmonds. It’s just not a good idea. I’d be a fool not to mention how the game ended. After a decent overtime session, Flyers faced the once dreaded shootout. Flyers were currently 4-3 going into that shootout and the fact that they had even started on the winning end of that was not something I ever imagined. As a Flyers fan, you’re expecting that shootout to go terribly wrong quickly and most of the season, it hasn’t. I’ll put the blame on Hakstol for this one for one reason. The last shooter. I liked the fact that Shayne Gostisbehere started the shootout. It might have been because Nick Cousins had been scratched from the game, but I’ll view it as they trusted the 2nd year player shooting. It’s also not a Flyers shootout without the Captain and Jake Voracek. The Voracek goal to keep the game going was great by the way. Wayne Simmonds was a good choice for the 4th round even if he didn’t make the goal. That last shooter though, oh man. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Sean Couturier. He is my favorite current Flyer. But putting him into the shootout to win the game was just not a good idea. I get the fact that he managed to score in the game and it would be a bit of a confidence booster had he kept the game going, but I would have put it Brayden Schenn. He’s a stronger shooter and in what I’ve seen, he’s a little better at finding an angle to get the puck in on the shootout. Flyers outplayed the Ducks for more than 40 minutes of that game and deserved to win the game. You deserve to win the game when you have 55 total shots on goal. You deserve to win the game when your offense keeps that Ducks goalie on their toes. But it was not a lucky game for the Flyers. Flyers are going to return home for a matchup with the New York Rangers on Wednesday. The last time they faced the Rangers was Black Friday, the game right before the Flyers 10-game winning streak.

[bitwsports]

🚨NEW PODCAST AVAILABLE NOW 🚨 #BrothasTalkinPucks is back talking Flyers Hockey. This week Jon and Kaitlyn Hemsley from CSNPHILLY & #SistasTalkingPucks discuss the Flyers Wednesday Night loss to the Capitals; Should the Flyers look to move a goalie at the trade deadline?; We'll also preview this weekend's Stadium Series in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. To Listen go to soundcloud.com/bitwsports or click the link in the bio. Listen now or download for later. #PhiladelphiaFlyers #Flyers #FlyersTalk #broadstbullies #broadstreetbullies #orangeandblack #FlyersNation #flyershockey #FlyersFans #letsgoflyers #waynesimmonds #jakubvoracek #shaynegostisbehere #ivanprovorov #claudegiroux #traviskonecny #hakstare #pucks #nhl

[bitwsports]

#SistasTalkinPucks: Don’t Go into the Sharks House By Kaitlyn Hemsley Staff Writer Hater of Shutouts Flyers shutout by Sharks 2-0 Goals: Patrick Marleau, Justin Braun (Sharks) None (Flyers) So the Sharks are a good team. Let’s get that straight right off the bat. They’re one of the top teams in the Western Conference and were THIS CLOSE to knocking off the Penguins last year in the Stanley Cup finals. The Sharks have a 16-1-2 record in their past 19 games against the Flyers. The Sharks looked like a team that wanted to win, while the Flyers gave their best efforts and didn’t manage to get aggressive in their offensive zone until the last ten minutes of the game. Flyers average about 31 shots a game for the season, and in the past three games, they’ve not gotten anywhere over 25 shots on goal. That’s not good. Granted, the Sharks defense is pretty stellar but the Blues and especially the Devils defenses are not spectacular. The Flyers were also playing against a rookie goalie in Aaron Dell who was playing in his 6th game of the season and hadn’t played in three weeks. I’m not sure what happened to the Flyers offense in the past three games but it is not there. This is the 2nd game in their last three that they have been shutout. Yikes. Something interesting that happened pregame is that Travis Konecny was benched as a healthy scratch for the Sharks game and was replaced on the 2nd line with Taylor Leier who was replaced by Michael Raffl. Raffl missed 1 game after the injury that he suffered against the Devils before the holiday break, which was lucky for the Flyers. Hakstol took out Konecny because he wanted the rookie to work on his details. It’s not the first surprising scratch that Hakstol has made this season. He scratched Shayne Gostisbehere from a game in November. But the reason behind Konecny’s scratch is significant. Konecny has scored in a goal in a few games and hoped that sitting during this huge matchup against the Sharks would be something that lit a fire underneath him. We’ll see if it works on tomorrow vs the Ducks. Besides the loss, the Flyers suffered another injury and it’s a big one. Their goaltender, Steve Mason was injured in the 1st period after being hit during a shot attempt. He injured his left hand and was taken out of the game after the 1st period after Joe Thornton’s stick got a hold of Mason. It meant that the rookie Stolarz would get a chance to play in his 4th game of the season. Stolarz was incredibly impressive last night. It’s interesting to watch the range that Stolarz has compared to Mason. There are a lot more pucks that Stolarz can get to that Mason because of his size. It seemed like he was sprawling all around the net and kept the game to a 1 goal game until late in the third period. The second goal of the game was not Stolarz’s fault though. It was the fault of some really sloppy defense. The defense is something I’ve noticed in the past few games. They’re taking more bad penalties and giving the puck away a lot more than they did before their streak was ended. There were some crucial giveaways that led to some easy Sharks shots on Mason and Stolarz. The best line of the night was the 3rd line of Weise, Couturier and Cousins, which surprised me. Couturier lead the team with 4 shots on goal and had a few good hits. Weise had some good shots on goal as well. The top line of Giroux, Voracek and Raffl were held to just 4 shots total on goal. I don’t know if it’s a credit to the Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell and the Sharks defense or a discredit to the Flyers top line for not finding the opportunities to score. Although Giroux did have a shot that bounced off the crossbar and almost went in. The Flyers are now 1-4-1 in their last 6 games and have only been able to muster 3 points out of the possible 12. The Carolina Hurricanes who have been playing some good hockey are now only 5 points behind them in the Metro while the Tampa Bay Lightning are 4 points behind them for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Flyers absolutely need to step their game up on Sunday and get creative with their shots or everybody is going to catch them.

[bitwsports]

Listen to #BrothasTalkinPucks Ep. 8: Flyers lose to Maple Leafs; Playoff Chances; Can they beat Boston by The Best in the World Sports Report #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/bitwsports/btp008

[bitwsports]

New Podcast Available Now #BrothasTalkinPucks. This week Kaitlyn Hemsley of #SistasTalkingPucks drops by to talk about the Flyers loss to the Capitals; should the Flyers look to trade a goalie before the trade deadline?; and we'll preview this weekend's Stadium Series in Pittsburgh against the Penguins Listen to #BrothasTalkingPucks Ep. 7 - Caps Smash Flyers; Who gets traded? Stadium Series Preview. https://soundcloud.com/bitwsports/brothastalkingpucks-ep-7-caps-smash-flyers-who-gets-traded-stadium-series-preview

[bitwsports]

ALL NEW #BrothasTalkinPucks Episode 6 - Why Are the Flyers Losing?; Wayne Simmonds in the media. Guests: Jordan Hall of CSNPHILLY, and Daryl Bell of The Undefeated & the Philadelphia Tribune. https://soundcloud.com/bitwsports/brothastalkinpucks-episode-6

[bitwsports]

Listen to the Best in the World Sports Report: Season 3, Show 13 - Eagles Offseason; Sixers need a PG Guests: Timothy Parker from #BrothasTalkinPucks, and Tom Aresco from InsideTheIggles.com & 4th & Jawn https://soundcloud.com/bitwsports/season-3-show-13-eagles

[bitwsports]

This week, we’ll discuss the Flyers Recent Struggles with Jordan Hall of CSN Philly. This week, the Philadelphia Tribune and The Undefeated profiled Wayne Simmonds. We’ll talk about that profile with the Author Daryl Bell. (via https://soundcloud.com/bitwsports/brothastalkinpucks-episode-6?utm_source=soundcloud)