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As the Flyers start to look more complete from a staff perspective, they are starting to put together full games, the kind of effort that spearheaded the team’s run last regular season.
With four players back in the lineup, the Flyers largely outperformed the Sabers to claim a 3-0 victory on Saturday afternoon at the KeyBank Center.
The Flyers (10-4-3) have claimed at least one point in three of four games (2-1-1) after their seven-day break from COVID-19, which decimated the roster when the club returned.
The Sabers without Jack Eichel (6-9-3) were dominated by the Flyers 39-23. The 24-year-old Buffalo star center missed the game with a lower-body injury.
The Flyers have posted a record 39 shots in consecutive games. The Rangers didn’t have Artemi Panarin on Wednesday and the Sabers missed their best player on Saturday, but the Flyers’ process progressed well.
• Jakub Voracek, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom and Justin Braun have all joined the Flyers roster after long stints on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. They missed the Flyers’ first three games after the team had to stop COVID-19. Before Saturday, the four had not played a game for nearly three weeks.
Their feedback was enormous.
Voracek, Laughton and Lindblom all played on the same line and produced a grueling type of goal with just 1:06 to go in the second period. Voracek started the streak with feedback to Lindblom, who managed a perfect assist to Spring Laughton for the 3-0 goal.
Laughton and Lindblom had skated only once in 18 days before playing that game. Voracek had skated only twice.
Laughton has become such a valuable forward who can play from top to bottom in the Flyers lineup. Over the past two seasons, the 26-year-old has registered 18 goals, 19 assists and an over 20 score in 63 games. In that span, he’s fourth among the Flyers with evenly matched goals (18).
• Brian Elliott continued to make do with Buffalo.
The 35-year-old veteran went 14-2-2 with a 1.78 goals-against average and .941 save percentage against the Sabers. He pushed the win total to 15, his most wins against any team in the NHL.
Elliott has excluded Buffalo twice this season and has won five of his six starts so far in 2020-21. He was one of the Flyers’ most important players.
Sabers goaltender Carter Hutton converted 36 saves on 39 shots.
• The Flyers defense as a whole has played one of their best games of the season. The defenders of the team have scored five goals in the first 15 games; they have three in the last two outings.
Braun played his effective game of taking the body and suppressing games. He was a plus-2 in over 21 minutes.
Travis Sanheim made an exhilarating and skillful play to establish Sean Couturier’s opening goal.
Ivan Provorov blocked two shots and played 24:57.
And Shayne Gostisbehere scored his second goal in as many games. Gostisbehere seems fueled by that self-confidence as he has three points (two goals, one assist) and 12 shots in the last two games.
Head coach Alain Vigneault made an interesting move on the blue line by seated Philippe Myers. The 24-year-old is one of the club’s best and most versatile defenders. The Flyers have started a packed six-game streak in nine days and Vigneault said he could turn some players up and down.
Still, Myers is shaping up to be a guy who should probably play every day unless his performance is seriously lacking. Don’t expect him to sit for long.
• Since returning from a costochondral separation that sidelined him for 10 games, Couturier has accumulated nine points (four goals, five assists) in five games. Ho-hum for the team’s do-it-all center.
• Claude Giroux played his 904th career game, placing him in exclusive possession of second place on the organization’s all-time list. He overtook Bill Barber and only trails Bob Clarke (1144).
• Travis Konecny remains on the COVID protocol list, dating back to February 14.
• The Flyers and Sabers are back Sunday afternoon in Buffalo (3 p.m. ET / NBCSP).
The Flyers are 2-0-0 in the second game in a row, while the Sabers are 1-4-0 in such games.
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