Flyers Need to Find the Offense

The Philadelphia Flyers will return home to the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night, down 0-2 in its series against the Washington Capitals.

The Wells Fargo Center will be electric and emotional at the same time. The fans will be its usual rowdy self since they haven’t seen playoff hockey in two years. The building will also have an emotional side to it since Philadelphia will be paying tribute to its former owner Ed Snider, who passed away last week at the age of 83. The Orange and Black have been wearing patches in his honor and teams around the NHL have been paying tribute with a moment of silence.

If the Flyers want to have a chance to get back into this series then the offense needs to show up and in a big way. The Orange and Black have one goal through two full games and that came from Jake Voracek in the second period of game two. Voracek’s goal came during four on four play after Nick Cousins and Andre Burakovsky each went to the penalty box for 2:00 for roughing. The team has had its chances but they either can’t finish or Braden Holtby has been there to make the save.

Philadelphia needs to get more traffic in front of the Capitals’ goalie. They have had some traffic in and around the net but not enough to take away Holtby’s eyes. On some of the shots that they’ve taken there has been a player just cruising through the crease looking for a rebound, and not standing in front of the goalie trying to distract him. The Flyers did a good job in the first period of game two of getting through the neutral zone with speed, which needs to continue in game three. The Orange and Black will need to get in on the forecheck and try to create more plays from down behind the net.

The Flyers will be able to get the matchups that they want in game three since they’re the home team and have last change. If they want to get Claude Giroux, Voracek and Wayne Simmonds away from the Ovechkin line then Dave Hakstol has that option. Philadelphia also needs to be more physical especially with Alex Ovechkin, who has been throwing his weight around in the series so far. The only three Flyers to have points in the series are Voracek, Brayden Schenn and rookie Shayne Gostisbehere. Sam Gagner has looked good in the first playoff series of his career and has created some chances.

The Orange and Black will need to feed off the home crowd and get some goals early since the Capitals tend to get better as the game goes on.