While the Flyers played their best hockey of the season, they fired Buffalo again at KeyBank Center on Sunday.
For the third time this season, the Flyers delivered an identical 3-0 result to the Sabers.
The Flyers (11-4-3) have won three consecutive games and possess the highest scoring percentage in the Eastern Division at .694.
Head coach Alain Vigneault achieved his 700th career victory. In NHL history, he is one of nine coaches with 700 or more wins.
The Flyers had 34 shots during the first two periods. They did not experience a great third period as Buffalo made his push, but the Flyers still ensured the exclusion. They keep the Sabers (6-10-3) nine times in a row without a goal.
• There was reasonable concern about the start of the Flyers season, simply because the team struggled to avoid shots a year after the NHL was allowed the least per game.
The Flyers are starting to find their identity and hard-to-attack system. They have beaten the opposition 116-78 in the last three games after being eliminated in 13 of their first 15 games.
And they have last year’s All-Star back in the picture.
After his 14-day quarantine, Travis Konecny was removed from the NHL’s protocol list on Sunday. Konecny, who last played on Feb. 7, is likely to rejoin the team on the ice for Tuesday’s morning skating in Pittsburgh. His status for the match needs to be determined.
• Carter Hart bounced back strongly after conceding six goals in two periods to the Bruins in the 7-3 NHL Outdoors on the loss to Lake Tahoe last Sunday.
A day after Brian Elliott beat his 3-0 result, Hart delivered one of his own.
The 22-year-old was sharp with 28 saves and was strong in the third period, when Buffalo outscored the Flyers 9-4.
• The Sabers saw the return of Jack Eichel, who missed Saturday’s game due to an abdominal injury.
Buffalo’s 24-year-old star center has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 15 career games against the Flyers, but was kept in check on Sunday.
• The line of James van Riemsdyk, Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee came together when the club returned from its mandate that stopped COVID-19 for seven days, with a decided timetable.
The line got stuck as the Flyers got healthier because it was the team’s best unit.
“Playing them with Coots and JVR, both together, these are probably two of the smarter guys I’ve ever played with,” Farabee said Friday. “Reemer should be there for the smartest guys in the league. It’s pretty easy for me to play with them. They find the soft ice and stuff like that as well. Try to find it, keep our legs going – I think if we play fast together, we’re tough to stop. ‘
On Sunday, the trio cooked again.
Farabee has hit two shots and is on in 18 games with just 17 points (eight goals, nine shots) with just under one point per game. Van Riemsdyk had a multi-point match (one goal, one assist) and Couturier scored another goal.
JVR extended the Flyers’ lead to 3-0 in the second period with a spectacular rematch. After needing 47 games to score 25 points in a fairly snake-bitten 2019-20 season for Van Riemsdyk, the 31-year-old winger has 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) this season through 18 games.
Since his return from a costochondral separation, the 2019-20 Frank J. Selke Trophy winner has played six points for Couturier (five goals, five assists). Couturier scored the first goal of the match in midfield.
• Michael Raffl does a lot of the little things and he is an even bigger difference when he delivers secondary goal kicks.
The playoffs included, the Flyers have been 34-2-6 for the past five seasons when Raffl scores a goal.
He put the Flyers ahead 2-0 in the middle stanzas with a deviation past Jonas Johansson, who had to hit 35 shots on 38 shots.
• Vigneault stayed true to its word about possible defensive defenders with the Flyers amid six games in nine days.
After Philippe Myers served as a healthy crab on Saturday, he took the position for Erik Gustafsson.
Myers was good because he played a physical and active game. He finishes with an assistant, four strokes and a plus-1 rating.
The top pair of Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere still played well.
There is currently a lot of healthy competition within the Flyers group of blue liners.
• The Flyers’ penalty deaths penetrated 30.2 percent in the league this weekend with 70.2 percent, but 6 for 6 in Buffalo’s two games.
• The Flyers fly to Pittsburgh on Monday for three live road games against the Penguins over Tuesday (19:00 ET / NBCSP), Thursday (19:00 ET / NBCSP) and Saturday (13:00 ET / NBCSP).
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