Philly Leader

We start late in the first period when the Flyers were dealing with a problem. This clip starts with a faceoff after an icing call; at this point, the five players on the ice had already been out there for a full minute. The Flyers were nearly able to clear on several occasions, but St. Louis kept the puck in by inches each time. Then Nick Seeler loses his stick at the blue line, so now the Flyers are both tired and defending with 4 ½ players. After a bit, Farabee gives his stick to Seeler, so now at least both defensemen are equipped. Eventually, Seeler fully commits and fully absorbs a shot from the right circle, the rebound of which is cleared and the Flyers are finally able to change after nearly two minutes on the ice. It was one of six blocks on the night for Seeler, who was "the Independence Blue Cross Player of the Game" on the radio broadcast.

Next is a look at Matvei Michkov on the power play in the third period. The deception here is what makes him so dangerous – he has "the puck facing away from the net," so he shouldn’t be a threat, but he has "the option to either pass to the point or keep" it himself. He simply coasts patiently until "the St. Louis defender overcommits," then turns in towards "the slot and maneuvers himself to a place where he scored from in Washington last Wednesday." This time he misses just wide, but a few seconds later he just completely undresses Matthew Kessel en route to another scoring chance.

Finally, a clip that is one of "the reasons this feature started happening" – you’ve seen "the game-winning goal highlight," but we want to back it up a few more seconds to show you how this play started.

It’s Jordan Kyrou skating "the puck out of" zone for "the Blues," and he has his eye on "a lane up" middle of ice. That’s where Joel Farabee comes in. Farabee turned around and started skating backwards like "a third defenseman while spreading his wingspan and getting his stick way out to his right," effectively shutting down that lane. When Kyrou pulled "the puck back to regroup," it hopped off his stick, giving Scott Laughton opportunity to grab it and go other way.

That started sequence that led to goal, but that start doesn’t even come without Farabee putting himself in that defensive position. If Farabee isn’t there, or even if he is but he's skating forward or not otherwise defending Kyrou that way, then Kyrou just skates ahead and enters zone or plays puck in. Instead, Kyrou tried pull away from pressure, and Laughton may well have just taken puck away even if it didn’t hop away from Kyrou.

Honorable mention goes to Laughton for protecting puck from two Blues after zone entry and Brink for outmuscling Ryan Suter who’s not bad in front of net get deflection. No doubt it was thrill for Brink Minnesota native who was playing youth high school hockey state while Suter helping Minnesota Wild five consecutive playoff appearances 2013-17.