Roster shakeup doesn’t faze Flyers, and other takeaways from a big win at Florida

SUNRISE, Fla. — With 21.3 seconds left in the regulation, Garnet Hathaway buried a loose puck behind Sergei Bobrovsky.

The Flyers bench erupted. And rightfully so. Getting a win against the Florida Panthers is no easy task these days. They had just two losses in their past 18 games, and one of those was a 2-1 victory by these same Flyers — who won 2-1 on Thursday, too.

It says a lot about a club that has seen lineup changes recently and has the New York Islanders breathing down its neck for a playoff spot. But this team has some bite and, like a certain famous boxer, should never be counted out.

Here are five things we learned about the Flyers after their latest victory.

The Vegas Golden Knights were in first place when the Flyers played them on Nov. 18. Checkmark, a 4-3 overtime win. The Vancouver Canucks were tied for first in the NHL on Dec. 28. Checkmark, a 4-1 win. The Winnipeg Jets were No. 1 on Jan. 13. Check, 2-0 win. The Panthers were in first place entering Wednesday night. Checkmate.

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“Seems like every time we play a good team they’re on a seven- or eight-game winning streak,” said Ryan Poehling, who scored the first goal of the game. “So for us to come in [and win] it just shows a lot about ourselves. Like you just got to worry about yourself. I mean, at the end of the day, every team in this league can play so you just got to focus on what you can control and we’ve done a good job of that so far.”

The win came a day after key blueliner Sean Walker was traded to the Colorado Avalanche. Poehling said it obviously stinks to lose Walker but the Flyers once again showed they’re all about the next man up.

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“As a team, we’ve shown how we handle adversity, or how we handle injuries and all types of situations,” goaltender Sam Ersson said. “It’s something that fuels the fire for us and gives us more energy and I think, when we play with a lot of energy, we’re a very, very good team.”

He may have lost some steam toward the end of the game, and that would be expected for a guy who had missed the previous six games and only skated in two practices. But when Konecny was on his game, he was the guy John Tortorella called “a huge part of our energy.”

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On his first shift of the night, he raced down the ice with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and put pressure on the defenseman allowing the Flyers to control the play. On his fourth shift, he broke in and was robbed by the right pad of Bobrovsky. Konecny finished with three shots on goal amid five shot attempts.

In the first period, the Flyers were outshot 13-6 and saw the Panthers own 60.5% of the shot attempts at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. But then they turned it on and were above the 50% mark in the final two frames while outshooting the Panthers, 20-17.

“I thought we played better from each period,” Tortorella said. “Started developing more offense in the second period. Our third period was our best period as far as territorial play. I think that was the key as the game went on, we kind of get out of our own way and got out of end zone quicker and spent more time on the other half of the ice.”

The Flyers were without four of their top defensemen with Walker gone, and Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Jamie Drysdale injured. It opened up two spots on the blue line for Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning, 24-year-olds with 17 and one NHL game under their belts, respectively.

Despite being thrust into the lineup and facing a team with the likes of Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and new guy Vladimir Tarasenko, the duo looked calm and steady.

“I thought they played unbelievable,” Hathaway said. “Seamless. I thought they played great. If they didn’t play as well as they did, I don’t know if the game ends up in our favor.”

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The duo has some history as they’ve played together in Lehigh Valley. It showed on the ice as they moved as a unit consistently. They had one blip on the night when Gustav Forsling tied things up on a shot from the point that found its way through traffic, including Ginning, who was in front. But other than that, you wouldn’t know two rookies were out there.

“It’s a tough challenge for them coming in and playing the best team in the league right now,” Ersson said. “I think they did a great job and that’s something we kind of maybe talked about a little bit before just to kind of help them get into the game and and get into the rhythm.”

Attard showcased a wicked shot as he had six shot attempts, including one of the Flyers’ best chances during four-on-four action in the second period, along with five hits and two blocked shots in 17 minutes, 48 seconds. Ginning showed a strong defensive game and made some big plays in the neutral zone while finishing with one shot attempt, one blocked shot, and five hits, including a big bash on Sam Reinhart in the third, at 18:13.

“[The coaches] went over a lot of stuff with me, of course, but at the same time, it’s just I’ve been playing hockey for a long time,” Ginning said. “So just go out there and do what you always do and even though it’s maybe a new system, don’t think too much and just try to play on instinct.”

Pregame, Tortorella said he couldn’t really answer too much about the kids as he hadn’t seen them play. After the game, he was impressed.

“They weren’t afraid. They seemed to feel very comfortable. Ginning is a guy that’s going to be in your face. You can see that already in his game, we knew that a little bit about him. Ronnie is going to be able to bring some offense,” Tortorella said. “I gotta look at the tape but when I watch them in the game, they were playing against some pretty good people. They weren’t matched up against their third or fourth lines a lot of the night and I thought they handled themselves really well.”

The Flyers may want to go out and get a goalie before the trade deadline hits. But that goalie will be a backup. Ersson is this team’s No. 1.

The Swedish netminder, who surely would love to get back the goal he allowed to his countryman, was stellar. Per Natural Stat Trick, he saved all six high-danger shots he faced during five-on-five action; all five mid-danger shots he saw; and went 12-for-13 on low-danger.

Just over 8 minutes into the game, he stopped Tarasenko in the slot and Dmitry Kulikov’s rebound attempt from the right face-off circle. He then stopped Tkachuk and Brandon Montour on two shots 4 seconds apart before making a big pad save on Barkov during a Panthers power play in the second period.

“He knows that he has to do certain things at certain times of the game to keep us in it,” Tortorella said. “The biggest save of the night was the power-play save, when they made a couple of nice plays and beat us. He’s done that all year long, it’s becoming who he is.”