BOX SCORE
So often, players talk about having a big game against an opponent that once spurned them.
As such, it was easy for Jakub Voracek to say on Friday he wanted revenge on Columbus because the club had publicly ripped him last spring for his lack of conditioning.
What wasnt easy for the Czech winger to do was break a 10-game scoring slump to actually make good on that promise.
Well, Voracek delivered Saturday night during the Flyers 9-2 humiliation of the Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center with a goal and two assists.
Obviously, Im happy, Voracek said. Im real happy. Its been tough to play against my friends but its a hockey game and I was very excited for this game to come up.
I was happy that I scored, finally. Its been 10 games. Its been a tough stretch. We played hockey well as a team and we won against my ex-team, so its very satisfying.
NHL
The Flyers scorched goalies Steve Mason and Allen York for five markerstheir best first-period output this season.
It marked the second time this week the Flyers have chased a goalie in the first period. No one could recall when that last happened.
Mason gave up three goals on 12 shots; York yielded two on the first five shots he faced.
Guys are embarrassed of our effort that we put out for the coaching staff, the management, said Columbus captain Rick Nash. It's just not good enough.
It was more than an ass-whupping. It was shocking because the Flyers really didnt have to work very hard.
Things like Matt Carle literally walking in past a frozen statue defense for a backhander. Or three shorthanded chances on the same Columbus power play.
Columbus only goals came late in the game.
I thought the intentions of our team right from the start were good, coach Peter Laviolette said. Skating was good, the puck movement was good, good decisions with the puck.
We addressed a bunch of things on Friday we needed to do betterespecially in our building and guys really answered tonight.
Eight different Flyers scored. Rookie Sean Couturier had his first two-goal effort. Recall, he was last summers first-round pick the Flyers got in the Jeff Carter trade that brought Voracek here.
I didnt think of it that way but Im just trying to help the team win and do what I can do, Couturier said. It feels good. I mean it was two nice passes that I got. Tonight every one stepped up and thats important.
James van Riemsdyk, back in the lineup after missing a game with what was believed to be a groin pull, scored at 1:38 on a fine pass behind the net from rookie defenseman Erik Gustafsson.
JVR had a three-point night while Gustafsson was plus-6 (see blog post). JVR said his current injury is something I might have to deal with for a while, but it felt good enough to play.
Not even two minutes later, Jaromir Jagr made it 2-0 during a 4-on-3 power play, firing the puck across the goal line from the left side off Blue Jacket defenseman Fedor Tyutins (minus-4).
Max Talbot backhanded a hard pass from Voracek coming into the zone at 13:09 and that was it for Mason.
Alas, York was no better. Claude Giroux greeted him with a goal on a wrister a little over a minute later.
Voracek, however, had the last laugh. With the clock winding down to 35 ticks, he lofted a knuckleball just inside the blue line, making it 5-0 in the first.
Hes talented enough to do that on a nightly basis, Laviolette said of Voracek. To produce points, sometimes you can see things when they are starting to come. Players start to get comfortable and scoring chances are there. They have the puck a lot.
They make plays and maybe the results of what the player might be looking for to help the team win, the offensive production might not be there yet. But you can see its gonna come.
Thats what Ive been saying the last couple days. He was close and doing the right things. It was nice to see him get some of those rewards tonight.
Wondering about Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov? He had had enough time to read his favorite author, Dostoyevsky, facing just eight shots that first period and 35 overall.
The Flyers have had some awful second periods, lately. This night, they didnt rest at five goals, adding three more in the middle frame.
To truly appreciate how inept Scott Arniels Blue Jackets are, early that period while the Blue Jackets were on a power play, the Flyers generated three shorthanded rushes.
They converted the last one (3-on-1 rush) off a nice give-and-go up the ice among call-up Eric Wellwood (playing for Andreas Nodl), with Couturier connecting for the teams second shorthanded goal this season.
Before the period was over, Wayne Simmonds and Matt Carle got into the action to make it 8-0.
The players did a really good job responding to that because the second periods had really gone south for us for the last two games, Laviolette said. With that lead after the first, youre concerned with how your team will play. I dont think we let up in the second.
Simmonds had a goal and a fight through 40 minutes.
All he needed for a Gordie Howe Hat Trick was an assist in the third period.
He didnt get it, although he snapped an eight-game goal drought.
Yeah, its been a while, Simmonds said. I havent been playing the way I should be playing the last few games. I just need to establish myself physically and get back to how I started playing in the beginning of the year.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net