I am full of pasta and successfully acquired new winter boots today (on sale, no less!) Let’s see if the Leafs can manage to refrain from killing my good mood.

First period

The Tavares line starts, with Muzzin and Barrie on defence. Flyers counter with the Hayes line and Provorov and Niskanen on the blue line.

Nick Shore incurs the first penalty of the game, a more-or-less accidental trip on Tyler Pitlick  only two and a half minutes into the period.

Toronto keeps the Flyers mostly to the outside. Andersen has to stop a Travis Konecny shot and that’s really all. Kasperi Kapanen ends the kill with a shot on Elliott.

Kapanen tries a slapshot on the fly from beyond the faceoff dot — he wasn’t under that much pressure, I don’t know why he couldn’t get himself in a bit closer there.

William Nylander has a wraparound opportunity but decides to come further out, fans on his first attempt and his second is a pass.

Philippe Myers opens the scoring with a shot through traffic that goes in and out of the net so fast that for a second no one is sure whether he actually scored. 1-0 Flyers. JVR’s credited with one of the assists.

Jake Muzzin sends a stretch pass to Mitch Marner at the Philly blue line, giving Marner a one on one opportunity but Elliott came charging out of his net to poke check the puck and Marner went flying over Elliott.

Ilya Mikheyev goes off for interference and the Leafs are on the kill with just under three minutes to go. This one doesn’t go as well as the last one as Travis Konecny passes to Oskar Lindblom at the side of the net. Lindblom doesn’t receive it well but manages to start a ricochet that eventually ends up behind Freddie. 2-0 Flyers.

Leafs end the period up 10-8 on the shot clock and down 0-2 on the scoreboard.  I didn’t get the sense of impending doom I sometimes had on Thursday against Vegas, but the Leafs won that one so maybe that’s not a good sign?

I’m gonna go do some dishes and avoid racist uncle doing his annual vomit of patriotism or whatever he decides to spew about tonight.

Second period

Mitch Marner looks like he lost a skate blade seconds into the first period but a second look reveals he stepped on a stick and seems to have hurt his ankle.

William Nylander takes his place on the power play that starts a few seconds later. Marner comes in with PP2.  He sends a pass to Kapanen who has a hell of a time keeping control of the puck but actually starts a good sequence that nearly leads to a goal.

Marner falls again and heads to the dressing room.

So, no goals on the power play and down Marner for at least a few minutes. Second period’s going swimmingly.

Leafs are getting chances here but they’re not able to finish them.

Leafs have about two minutes of solid pressure on the Flyers and finally Nylander feeds Travis Dermott, who sends a beautiful shot past Elliott to make it 2-1.

Dmytro Timashov plasters Justin Braun against the boards almost immediately afterwards so the Leafs have another penalty to kill.

Marner comes back on the ice during the commercial break to try his ankle / skate whatever it is that’s going on.  He stays on the bench so we’ll see how this develops.

Muzzin and Mikheyev get a couple of shorthanded chances and Elliott’s second save is a hell of a glove save. Marner has now been sent back down to the dressing room.

Andreas Johnsson goes down and Claude Giroux goes off. Leafs power play without Marner. Tyler Pitlick gets a shorthanded shot on Freddie.

Auston Matthews passes into a knot of Flyers instead of shooting and Philadelphia get a shot on Andersen and a faceoff in the Leafs zone. Is any forward on this team allowed to shoot the puck, or is it up to the defence to score now?

Leafs are giving up a lot of unchallenged chances. Fortunately this means Freddie can see the shooter just fine and he’s keeping the puck out of the net.  This period is as close to chaos hockey as the NHL gets.

Leafs outshoot the Flyers again that period at a rate of 11 - 10.

2 games, 2 exits: Mitch Marner and Timothy Liljegren are both hurt

Third period

I don’t know what the hell the Leafs think they’re doing, and I’m not certain they do either.

Flyers get a flurry of chances and for a second a goal seems inevitable but Freddie twists and dives and keeps everything out.

Matthews gets the puck behind the Flyers net, thinks about a lacrosse goal but at the last second feeds Nylander at the other side of the net. Willie ties the game 2-2.

Andersen seems entirely dialed in this period. It has also started to look less like Ziegfield Follies and more like a hockey game.

Jake Muzzin blocks a shot and has to head for the bench.

Trevor Moore gets a chance at the side of the net with three minutes to go but hits the crossbar.

Muzzin is finally back on the ice.

Everyone is tired as the teams exchange icings.

Giroux gets a late chance but can’t decide whether to pass or shoot and by the time he decides to shoot Freddie’s waiting for him.

Shots 14-11 for the Flyers in that period

Overtime

The rest of this game was so chaotic that 3 on 3 seems almost boring.

The Leafs get the lion’s share of the chances but the best chance of the five minutes is Provorov with all the time in the world in front of Andersen... and he misses the net.

Flyers are called for too many men with less than ten seconds to go.

Tavares gets a shot off, Nylander gets the rebound... but nothing doing and we go to the shootout

Shootout

Tavares x

Konecny x

Matthews x

Giroux  scores

Nylander scores

Couturier scores

Flyers win, Leafs get a point and lose Marner. Back at it tomorrow night against Chicago.

Game Coverage