Flyers-Sabres observations: Second line continues surge

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The roller-coaster ride that is the Flyers’ season saw the team extend its winning streak to five games after defeating the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1, Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim scored the Flyers’ first goal and his first NHL goal after taking a pass from Dale Weise and firing a perfectly-placed shot past Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner. 

After scoring three goals in the preseason, Sanheim finally scored No. 1 in his 28th regular-season game.

Valtteri Filppula scored the game-winner with 2:33 remaining in the second period.

Brian Elliott stopped 19 of 20 shots and has earned the win in every game during the current streak.

Michael Raffl played in his 300th career game.

• The Sabres scored the first goal 1:29 into the game when Elliott attempted to rim the puck around the boards from behind the net, but Zemgus Girgensons blocked it with his body that left Elliott in no-man’s-land. For whatever reason, Elliott elected to stay behind the net instead of retreating back to his crease, which left Ryan O’Reilly in front with a slam dunk empty-net goal.

• Roughly a minute later, Elliott was caught behind the net where he nearly did the same thing as he threw the puck straight into a Sabres player. This time, rookie Nolan Patrick was on the back side to protect the post, stop Sam Reinhart and save the goal.

• The Flyers scored first as the Patrick line had a good cycle game. Eventually, Weise fed a pinching Sanheim, who moved in from his left defense position. Instead of winding up for a big slap shot, Sanheim wisely directed the puck, which allowed him to pick his spot on the net. For Sanheim, it was his first NHL goal after he displayed what he could do offensively during the preseason.

“It feels great,” Sanheim said at the first intermission. “Obviously, it was a big goal in the game. I’m just excited to finally get the first one. Weiser was coming behind the net, and I saw my winger kind of cheat to the wall and I had a seam down the middle. He made a great pass, and I was pretty excited that it went into the back of the net.”

• There was a lazy penalty by Buffalo’s Kyle Okposo as he tripped Filppula behind the Flyers’ goal line. The Flyers’ second unit actually performed better than the first unit and had better success with its setup, including a quality chance down low as a result of quick puck movement.  

• Sanheim may have scored his first goal, but defensively his struggles continued throughout the night. He turned the puck over and then lost track of his man as Reinhart fed Evander Kane for a one-timer in the area where Sanheim was supposed to be stationed.

• Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere appeared to be in quite some pain as he left the ice with 1:57 remaining in the first period holding his left arm.

• Early in the second period, the Flyers’ No. 1 PP unit looked much better with a pair of prime opportunities. “Ghost” ripped off a slapper that sat on the crease for a split second. Wayne Simmonds was in front and tried to bang it home with no luck.

• It was a rough shift for Ivan Provorov as he was whacked in the face by his teammate’s stick. Seconds later, Provorov snapped his stick on an attempted slap shot and was caught up in the Sabres’ 2-on-1 the other way with Kane getting off a weak attempt that Elliott turned away with his right pad.

• As much as I like Jakub Voracek’s power-skating game with the puck, he’s definitely turnover-prone. He had a couple of turnovers in the first period and another at the 9:00 mark. On that same shift, Voracek broke in all alone on Lehner for perhaps then Flyers’ best chance of the second period. With Voracek, you have to take the bad with the good. 

• I’ve really liked the play of the Patrick line with Jordan Weal and Weise. Together they were buzzing in the offensive zone for most of the first two periods. They were in on Sanheim’s first goal and Weal had that extra gear in this game and looked determined to score. 

• The Flyers grabbed a 2-1 lead when the trio of Raffl, Filppula and Voracek all got involved. It initially started with Raffl’s strong forecheck when he eventually grabbed the puck as it came off the wall. Raffl then fed Voracek, who was stationed at the goal line, and finally to Filppula, who wristed a shot top left corner — a perfectly executed tic-tac-toe play.

“It was definitely an important goal,” Filppula said at the second intermission. “There’s not a lot of room out there. It’s a close game both ways, so it was good to get ahead before the third.” 

• After he was leveled to the ice in the Sabres’ zone, Travis Konecny took out his frustrations on Okposo and drove him hard to the ice.

Lineups, pairings and scratches

Forwards
Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl-Valtteri Filppula-Jakub Voracek
Jordan Weal-Nolan Patrick-Dale Weise
Taylor Leier-Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny

Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Andrew MacDonald
Robert Hagg-Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim-Radko Gudas

Goalies
Brian Elliott
Alex Lyon

Scratches: Forward Jori Lehtera (healthy) and defenseman Mark Alt (healthy).

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