Players in, players out

Morgan Frost and Jamie Drysdale were out, while Erik Johnson, Matvei Michkov and Ryan Poehling were in. And boy, did he make a difference. I’m talking about Erik Johnson of course. Johnson, closing in on nearly 1000 NHL games, looked like Owen Tippett or Anthony Richard when he opened the scoring with a great wrist shot that surprised everyone including Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek.

Even stranger was having him having to step in and fight Sharks goon Givani Smith right off the ensuing face, making him one of few players (presumably) to collect two-thirds of a Gordie Howe hat trick within a few seconds of each other.

Fortunately Johnson wasn’t injured, which is something the Flyers don’t need with Cam York and Drysdale nursing injuries. A fight between Nick Seeler and Barclay Goodrow in the second saw Goodrow blocking some shots by Seeler with his face before the officials broke it up. Clearly Goodrow was trying to spark his team already down 3-0, and although Jack Thompson broke the shutout a few minutes later, the Flyers still appeared to be well in control.

Andrae the giant

Emil Andrae started the season in the weeds a bit, not getting much action in either the NHL or the AHL thanks to a call up and scheduling. Now he’s making the most of his opportunity, ending up on the first pairing Monday night with Travis Sanheim. Andrae also shined on the power play unit as both he and Michkov seemed to have some chemistry despite not getting on the scoreboard on their first attempt.

Andrae and Michkov were instrumental minutes later when the power play struck gold. On this one more crisp tic-tac-toe passing resulted in Travis Konecny teeing up a Michkov pass to make it 2-0.

Although that pass was nifty, a cross-ice pass he delivered to Konecny early in the second should’ve put the Flyers up 3-0. Konecny didn’t finish sadly on what looked to be an entire empty net, shooting the puck into Vanecek’s left pad. We’ll cut him some slack as he did put in a nice one in the shootout to seal things up.

Zamula a chances-for machine?

Egor Zamula played just under nine minutes five-on-five through 40 minutes. However he was clicking like most of the Flyers blueline this night, purring at a ridiculous 85.71 percent of 14 total chances while he was on the ice. Whether it’s a case of Andrae’s play taking a bit more pressure off the bottom pairings is unclear. What was apparent was a good night for all blueliners despite only leading by one heading into the third.

Ersson with saves

Although a Sharks shot took a ridiculous bounce and nearly beat an unsuspecting Sam Ersson in the first, he was strong when he needed to be. The Sharks, who had played New Jersey the night before (and won) looked like a team on the second half of a back-to-back. But the schedule is the schedule, leaving Ersson to be relatively unchallenged for most of the first 30 minutes and stopping all 13 shots he faced.

The second half of the game didn’t go as smooth as Ersson was beaten by a Jack Thompson skate which bounced the puck legally into the net. Then late in the second Mikael Granlund roofed it over a screened Flyers keeper. And sadly, a few more bounces late in the third gave San Jose a three-goal comeback that, had the Flyers had any finishing touch, would’ve resulted in six or seven being in the net. He earned his keep in overtime, keeping the Flyers in it on the penalty kill with a series of great saves.

Foerster fine defensively

Tyson Foerster is still trying to find the net a bit more, but his defensive smarts and doing all the little things is what makes a coach like John Tortorella give him a long, long leash. Foerster broke up a possible chance in the second period, getting a stick and position to stop a fine opportunity. You’d like to see him get some more points or goals, but for now he’s continuing to help the Flyers in their own end.