You had to blink to figure out it wasn’t the Rangers or Penguins, two teams that the Flyers loathe and two clubs that often bring out the beast in them.
There was passion, and energy, and chippiness, coupled with kind of end-to-end skating you seldom see after a four-day break.
It simply made for breakneck hockey, as the Flyers began a crucial 15-game month of February with an exhilarating 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday (see Instant Replay).
“This was a little easier to get up for as they came in here and started off chippy,” said Wayne Simmonds, whose game-winner in the third period broke a 2-2 tie.
“That brought the fire out of us immediately. We didn’t like some of the things that happened to us in the first five minutes and brought it. Everyone was fired up.”
It was a complete effort, as well. The Flyers got an outstanding double-team from both their power play (two goals) and penalty kill, which had to stave off a five-minute major near the game’s end.
Goalie Steve Mason had six saves during that kill and 30 overall.
“Power play looked awesome and in the first period we kinda resembled what we expected of those guys,” Mason said. “They made things look easy.
“The penalty kill came up big there. For a full five minutes, our guys did a great job. It shows what we can do when guys are going on all cylinders.”
The Flyers haven’t had many double-digit scoring nights on the power play this season — only two since December began coming into play. Yet their power play did everything right that first period en route to a 2-0 lead. They had zone time, puck control, crisp passing and strong shot selection.
Simmonds started it off with tic-tac-toe precision passes from Jakub Voracek and Brayden Schenn six minutes into play. Nine minutes later, Voracek, from the same half-wall on the right side, had a pass into the high slot that hit Schenn’s stick and possibly something else because the puck trickled into the paint past Montreal goalie Mike Condon.
“It was emotional, penalties on both sides,” said Voracek, who had three assists. “A great skating game. It was a big win for us. Everyone rested, you could tell. It was shotgun hockey the first 10 minutes. Things settled down. It was a pretty game to watch.”
The only downer is the Flyers were unable to gain any ground in the wild-card standings, as they remained five points behind the Penguins.
Yet if they play like this over their remaining 34 games this season, they may make up the difference.
“It was a little sloppy early in the game, which is why you saw so many opportunities back and forth,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We gave up a lot but we did have energy. There was a little bite to the game right from the outset. Probably tells you what time of year it is.”
The Habs erased the two-goal deficit in the second to tie it with a power-play goal and deflection, but Mason had a series of good saves to keep it even until the third when Simmonds scored at 11:56 after Voracek did some yeoman’s work behind the net to dig out a puck for him.
“Playing with those two guys, I’m just trying to find open areas,” Simmonds said of Voracek and centerman Claude Giroux. “If I can get open, I know they’ll find me. Jake had his eyes open to find me.”
Shortly after, Radko Gudas was nailed for clipping on a play where he was already down on the ice when Lucas Lessio appeared to trip over him. The Flyers didn’t even realize a penalty had been called until after both teams came out of a TV break.
Gudas, who was thrown out of the game, was too upset to even comment. Somehow, the Flyers' PK units came up huge with help from Mason.
“Our PK helped us close out the game in a big way,” Hakstol said. “It was a big penalty kill. … It was a tough one but at the same time, we have our job to us and our focus stayed on what our job was.
“Whether you like call or not, fast game on the ice, officials have to do their job and we got to worry about doing our job and our guys did that.”
In emphatic fashion, too.