The November 27, 2015, Black Friday contest featured a matchup of coaches Dave Hakstol and Peter Laviolette, who famously led the orange and black from early in the 2009-10 season through the third game of the 2013-14 campaign.
Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers entered the contest with a 7-10-5 record (19 points). Laviolette's Nashville Predators' mark was 12-6-3 (27 points).
Introductions
Flyers starters: Goaltender Michal
Neuvirth. First line: Claude Giroux, Brayden Schenn and Michael
Raffl. Top defensive pairing was Radko Gudas, Michael Del Zotto
Predators starters: Goaltender Pekka
Rinne. First line: Calle Jarnkrok, Eric Nystrom and Gabriel Bourque.
Top defensive pairing was Shea Weber and Roman Josi.
First period
Flip Forsberg opened the scoring for
the Preds with his third tally of the season at 1:44. His short side
shot was assisted by Mike Ribeiro and James Neal.
Del Zotto countered with his first goal
of the season at four minutes into the game. His cut to his left and
sent a laser over Rinne's left shoulder. Schenn and Giroux earned
assists.
TOI Leaders were Gudas, Del Zotto,
Weber, and Roman Josi.
Second period
Back and forth action is the best
definition of what took place in this frame. In keeping with what can
mostly be described as varied, lackluster play during the month, the
Flyers exited the first period in a 1-1 tie.
The Predators seasonal offensive
advantage hadn't factored into the game as the second intermission
began.
Voracek's continued presence on the
third line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Chris Vandevelde remains
telling, of both the player and the team. His appearance on the
second power play unit, with Matt Read and Michael Raffl, deepened
that reality.
Third period
Colin McDonald scored his first NHL
goal at 4:57, putting the Flyers ahead 2-1. Assists were offered by
Evgeny Medvedev and Scott Laughton. The marker came on a short-side
shot past Rinne off a rebound. Philadelphia had overtaken the
Predators in shots (25-23) by this point in the game.
Laviolette pulled Rinne with just over
a minute to go in the game. His forced strategy worked, as Mike
Fisher lifted the puck over a fallen Neuvirth with 20 seconds showing
on the clock until the final buzzer. Forsberg and Josi assisted on
the game-tier.
Overtime
The openly embraced 3-on-3 overtime
ensued with each team taking game-ending chances through the first
few minutes of action. But, a too-many-men on the ice penalty was
assessed to the Preds with 2:20 to go.
Shayne 'Ghost' Ghostisbehere's power
play goal won the game with 52 seconds remaining in OT. It was his
third goal of the season, with assists to the temporarily reunited
tandem of Giroux and Voracek.
Ghostisbehere later said, “It’s a fun ride right now and I don’t have any plans of getting off it. I mean I’ve never scored that many OT winners in my life so I mean it’s a surreal moment but I’m going to keep going and I’m looking forward to New York.”
After the game, Hakstol commented on how he felt his team played with the lead today. "We did a much better job I thought then we did a few nights ago. We were playing tonight, you always know on the bench when guys are talking about the right things and trying to do the right things, that’s a good step.”
Ghostisbehere later said, “It’s a fun ride right now and I don’t have any plans of getting off it. I mean I’ve never scored that many OT winners in my life so I mean it’s a surreal moment but I’m going to keep going and I’m looking forward to New York.”
After the game, Hakstol commented on how he felt his team played with the lead today. "We did a much better job I thought then we did a few nights ago. We were playing tonight, you always know on the bench when guys are talking about the right things and trying to do the right things, that’s a good step.”
Laviolette's remarks about chance totals and his goalie were familiar, based upon his post-game demeanor during his Philadelphia years. “We probably had 25 chances tonight. Quality chances. So there’s 20-25 good chances so there was Peks. He played a good game in net. He made a back door save on a nice turnover. A couple of point plays chances and he made a save on Wilson’s rebound in tight. We had a lot of looks.”
Takeaways
The win could be a
nice confidence builder for the Flyers during the holiday weekend.
'Ghost' is a clear
difference-maker, whose play could enable him to remain on the squad
indefinitely.
