Highlights Beyond Highlights- Feb. 22 vs. Oilers

We get back to it after the Four Nations break with a look at how the four Flyers 5v5 goals started in this contest. The goals are the highlights, but how each of these starts is important in its own way.

In this first clip, it happens at the very beginning back just inside the Flyers blue line, where Egor Zamula applies an effective pokecheck to send Scott Laughton headed the other way.

Owen Tippett made his own good play to start his first goal, winning a battle along the boards in the Flyers end and then merely swatting the puck ahead into the neutral zone – because he knows he’s got the top speed necessary to be the first player to that puck.

Keeping with the theme, Sean Couturier makes the play that leads to his own goal. Couturier loses this faceoff, but then he pressures on a quick forecheck and gets a stick on the outlet pass. This sends it straight to Michkov, who gets a nod here as well – the whole building was expecting him to dish to Tippett, who was locked and loaded, but instead he slips it down low to Couturier for the goal.

Then on Tippett’s second goal, it’s again Couturier who makes a great play in the neutral zone. At the very start of this clip, he picks an Oiler pocket along the wall and quickly sends the puck up the other way for Michkov. The goal doesn’t happen without the play from Couturier.