Flyers’ penalty kill dominating with blocked shots, solid structure

The Flyers certainly didn’t earn their first third-period comeback win of the season the easy way.

Trailing by one in the final 20 minutes Saturday, they faced their third Penguins power play of the game. Sure, Pittsburgh has struggled this season with the extra man, but it is a power play that features four surefire Hall of Famers in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson. A kill is never a guarantee.

But the Orange and Black did one better by not only killing it off — plus two more, including one in overtime — they scored a shortie to boot.

Yep, the Flyers’ penalty kill is a power kill.

Ranked eighth in the NHL after Saturday night’s 4-3 shootout win at 84.8% effectiveness, the Flyers sit at the top of the league with the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes, and St. Louis Blues with six shorthanded goals. Of those teams, only the Stars have a better penalty-killing effectiveness at 88.5%.

And speaking of the Stars, three of the Flyers’ six shorthanded goals came against the Texas team in a 5-4 overtime loss on Oct. 21. Travis Konecny scored two and Sean Walker scored the third.

The Flyers have scored two shorties in the last 10 games, one each by Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling. And during that stretch, as they posted a 6-3-1 record and had the third-highest time on ice spent shorthanded (6 minutes and 17 seconds per game), they held teams at bay, killing off 32 of 34 times shorthanded with a 94.1% effectiveness (No. 2 in the NHL).

» READ MORE: Flyers overcome a pair of deficits and hold off the Penguins for shootout win

Having a healthy Cam Atkinson and Sean Couturier — who should see his penalty-killing time rise now with Noah Cates out with a broken foot — has helped this team establish itself as a threat despite being down a man. As have the additions of Garnet Hathaway, Walker, and Poehling. But the Flyers penalty kill is a group effort. So why has it worked so well, specifically in the last 10 games?

The easy answer starts and ends with two names: Carter Hart and Sam Ersson.

Each has been on fire, with Ersson posting a .937 save percentage during that stretch, including a 1-0 shootout win against the Islanders, and Hart a .904. Cal Petersen also started one game and made 35 saves in a 4-2 win against the Kings, who went 0-for-3 on the power play.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Hart has a -0.65 Goals Saved Above Average when facing a power play. He’s seen 29 shots, allowing one goal on 12 high-danger chances. Twelve. In six games. And the average shot distance is almost 25 feet, dots and up, which lowers the danger and possibility of a goal.

In his four games, Ersson has not faced a single high-danger shot while on a penalty kill but has seen eight shots on goal.

A big reason for Ersson’s lack of high-danger shots against and his 0.28 GSAA is the structure. Regardless of who is deployed, when watching the Flyers’ penalty kill, they move as a unit trying to maintain the box or, if needed, a diamond. These two structures are the foundation of pretty much every penalty kill.

But it’s how the box or diamond moves that is key. Watching the Flyers’ five penalty kills against the Penguins on Saturday night, if there is any movement by a player outside of the structure, the remaining three penalty killers shift to keep the structure steady. Because of that, the Flyers can be more aggressive and give their opposition fewer options and lanes to get passes and shots through.

The Flyers also keep an active stick. Most of the penalty killers, outside of maybe the one defenseman in front of the net who needs to be strong on the net-front guy, often can be seen keeping one hand on their sticks and shifting between their forehand and backhand to close down lanes. This allows for more coverage when a team is in the highly utilized 1-3-1 setup while allowing for poke checks and takeaways.

The Poehling goal is a good example of a diamond pattern allowing for Walker to step up and poke the puck away with one hand on his stick, leading to the two-on-none finished by Poehling.

Let’s be honest. Yes, goalies and structures are important, but the Flyers are dominating opponents in terms of blocking shots — and that is really what separates this team from the rest of the NHL on the penalty kill.

As Laughton said after Saturday’s win, “That’s kind of the motto of our group, is blocking shots.”

Against the Penguins the Flyers blocked 11, including Cam York blocking two big shots by Malkin and Travis Sanheim getting in front of a Crosby attempt, all before the first commercial break.

The ability to get in front of shots is a reason why the Flyers are below the NHL average for defensive zone time at just 56.4% (81st percentile), per NHL Edge. They are also in the 84th percentile with offensive zone time at 28.9% when shorthanded.

Less time in their end equals fewer chances for the opposition to get set up and find the back of the net. It’s why the Flyers also have the second-best Corsi For Percentage when shorthanded (16.99%) and expected Goals For Percentage (17.03), according to Evolving-Hockey. They are also No. 1 in the NHL in Shots For Percentage when shorthanded (29.27%); three percentage points higher than the No. 2 team, the Carolina Hurricanes.