The Philadelphia Flyers capped off a special evening at Wells Fargo Center with a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. “I just had a glass of red wine”, Timonen said to laughs a few hours later. It’s just been two great team efforts.
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Philadelphia (2-1-1) picked up its second straight win behind the 27-year-old Neuvirth, starting again in place of goalie Steve Mason, who is out because of a personal family matter.
“You want to make sure in today’s game you don’t want to change momentum by taking penalties, careless penalties”, Quenneville said. “Michal did a good job of that”.
“They beat us in the Western Conference final then, so I know a little bit about him; a little too much about him, I think”, Gagner added. They had three infractions in the final period -VandeVelde for holding the stick, Ryan White for slashing and Radko Gudas for delay of game.
“I have a lot of respect for him”, Neuvirth said, “but I was just trying to stay patient and wait for him to make the first move”. “It was a huge save for us and right after we made it 2-0 so that was a really big save”.
The Flyers have now won 12 consecutive home games against the Blackhawks in the regular season.
Timonen, who finished his career by winning the Stanley Cup as a member of the Blackhawks last season, said that although he will always be a Flyer first and foremost at heart, he looks fondly at his brief time with Chicago as well as blossoming to stardom as a member of the Nashville Predators before joining the Flyers in 2007. It was Kane’s second road game of the season. “We didn’t get anything going”. Several players said the high-octane pace and the challenge of playing an elite opponent forces them to be at their best. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford made 26 saves and has given up two or more goals in all three of his starts this season. Hakstol says, “We need to practice at game-day speed”.
Instead of letting problems on the penalty kill, which conceded three goals to Florida on Saturday, seep into their heads, the Flyers killed all six of the Panthers’ power-play and the first penalty kill led to the Flyers’ only goal of the game.
Defenseman Michael Del Zotto and center Brayden Schenn earned assists.
At the 5:35 mark, the Flyers’ second power play unit broke through for the game’s first goal. Giroux got to the net unnoticed by Seabrook, who skated toward Raffl. Good thing he did.
Captain Jonathan Toews said the penalties were a result of “insufficient” five-on-five play. “They’re doing a lot of the right things”.
Right winger Patrick Kane was cooled off after tallying three goals and three assists in the Blackhawks’ first three games this season.
So tonight the Flyers celebrated Timonen’s career before a game against the team he actually reached the top of the mountain with, which is kind of like going to your ex-girlfriend’s wedding reception and meeting her better looking, richer new husband. He played 1,108 National Hockey League games over 15 seasons and scored 571 points.
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“That’s a mentality within a group of guys”, Hakstol said.
