Richards, complete defensive effort shut down Flames, 3-0

Tim Panaccio must have been watching a different game tonight. Or, he’s been reading too much Eklund the last two days. Or, shit, I don’t know, but he’s not too bright right now. In his recap article of tonight’s 3-0 shut out against the Calgary Flames, Panaccio writes: “The 3-0 victory was anything but pretty hockey against a Calgary team that had won just once in its past 10 games.” Timmy, the Flyers held the Flames to under 20 shots, didn’t allow them to score one goal, answered every defensive test that came their way, and had possession of the puck for a large amount of tonight’s game. If that’s not crucial to helping your club win a hockey game, then I’m not entirely sure what is, and maybe you should be the coach of this team. Automatic Stanley Cup? Unless I’ve mistaken your wording for something other than what it really is, c’mon man.

Tonight was the first of three games out West for the Flyers. They’ll follow up this performance with a game Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers who beat up on the Hurricanes tonight, and then close out the trip against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

In a game where the opposition was facing several line-up changes, the Flyers did the best they could to shut them down entirely. When the defense couldn’t make the stops they needed to make, Ray Emery was up to the task. Emery stopped every one of the 18 shots that came his way en route to the 3-0 shut out and looked like a “game-changer” tonight. He also seemed to regain a sense of his rebound control and puck movement tonight as well.

Mike Richards was by far the Flyers best player tonight. Richards scored his 100th and 101st NHL goal (21st and 22nd on the season) and was an aggressive piece of the forecheck. If I had to give Mike Richards an evaluation for tonight’s performance, he’d get an A+. He didn’t look lethargic, lost, and confused on the ice. He didn’t seem to not care at all. He didn’t make terrible line changes on the back check, and he was part of almost every scoring chance that his line developed.

Claude Giroux had another noticeably good outing, which included an extremely nifty backhander on Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff. Giroux fooled Kipper into believing that he was bringing the puck back to his forehand, but never actually made the switch back and, at the last second, lifted the puck right over Kipprusoff’s shoulder on the back hand. Claude Giroux continues to amaze me night after night. There’s no telling how good the kid’s going to be two or three years from now. Bill Clement put it perfectly during CSN’s TV broadcast when he said that Giroux “will never beat you with the same move twice,” and that he is always “creating his moves based on the play that is developing around him.” It’s so true. The creativity and vision that Giroux carries goes unmatched on this team, and maybe in the NHL as a whole.

Two other Flyers who also played noticeably good games were Arron Asham and Matt Carle. Carle’s been struggling as of late and tonight’s game will only help his confidence heading into the Olympic break. Like I keep saying, Asham continues to be an underrated forward. The skill set that he carries aids Giroux and JVR so well, though. It’s so fun to watch them play together.

Did I really go this long without mentioning the stellar play by the newly acquired Lukas Krajicek? I did, didn’t I?

Krajicek logged 18:25 of ice time tonight and earned every one of those minutes. Many Flyer fans and writers were skeptical about Krejicek’s signing, but I think with tonight’s effort, he’s at least earned another game. He didn’t make many mistakes that I saw and he always seemed to be in the right spot at the right time. Was this just a case of playing with a new team and being overly excited, or is he just the piece that the Flyers needed to take some of the stress off of Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen?

The Flyers are back in action Wednesday night at 9:30EST in Edmonton, Alberta when they face-off against the Oilers in the second leg of this road trip.

While you’re waiting for Wednesday, be sure to check out the news on the new WeBelieveInOrange Podcast that’s launching next week!