TORONTO _ In speaking hopefully of their prospects at season's start, Flyers brass touted their organizational depth. They weren't counting on proving it before November.
Shayne Gostisbehere became the latest casualty, sobering what was otherwise a well-played 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre.
Gostisbehere was hammered hard into the glass at 9:51 of the second period by Leo Kamarov, but played the remainder of the period and even assisted on Valtteri Filppula's goal at 11:03, which gave the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
He did not come out of the dressing room for the third period.
Ahead 4-2 at the start of the third, it left the Flyers with just five defensemen, including two rookies, to fend off the league's most prolific scoring team, and an unhealthy dose of Auston Matthews. The Leafs had their own depth problems with the absence of top-6 players Matt Martin and James van Riemsdyk. But they had a healthy and apparently inexhaustible Matthews.
Shaking off two games of mind-numbing mistakes, the Flyers did it with the same kind of endless hustle that marked their surprising start to the season _ and with an outstanding effort from Brian Elliott.
Elliot, who grew up in nearby Newmarket, turned away 28 of 30 shots.
The Flyers scored two goals on just six first-period shots against Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen, who entered the game with an .893 save percentage and a 3.54 GAA. Some of that has to do with the Maple Leafs own defensive troubles. The Leafs entered the game leading the NHL in goals per game (4.30), but were 25th in goals allowed per game (3.60).
Still, it was a good sign on several levels. Of their 43 goals scored before Saturday night, 18 had come in the first period. The Flyers, in comparison, have scored 27 of their 34 goals after the first period. The Leafs had one of the most lethal power plays coming in, the Flyers a tepid kill, yet they fought off a two-man advantage early in the second period and fed.
The Flyers pushed it to 3-1 at 11:03 of the second period via a vicious wrist shot by Filppula that beat Andersen over his glove shoulder.
Toronto made it 3-2 at 13:02 on Nazem Kadri's second goal, after Jake Voracek's big check at the blue line failed to clear the puck or take out Toronto defenseman Ron Hainsey. A frenzy in the crease followed and Kadri popped it into the net.
Voracek fixed his mistake on his next shift, feeding Giroux on a long pass that resulted in a limited 2-on-1. With Couturier racing down the slot, Giroux looked off Andersen and fired a wrist shot that looked identical to the one Filppula scored a few minutes before. "I saw Jake had some time with the puck so I tried to find a way to get open," Giroux said. "The puck was kind of bouncing and I was just trying to get a quick shot on net."
The placement of those two goals has been a problem for Andersen, Leafs observers say.
