Morning Observations is a feature where we break down the previous night's game with an analytical eye.
#1: San Jose is just better than the Flyers... but the Flyers didn’t need to help
The most likely outcome of this game was always going to be a Philadelphia Flyers loss. The Sharks are a deep team strong in all three phases of the game, with elite veteran defensemen (Brent Burns, Marc-Édouard Vlasic), and dangerous scorers (Joes Thornton and Pavelski, Logan Couture, Patrick Marleau). Add in the fact that one of Philadelphia’s best defensive forwards (Matt Read) and maybe their top defenseman (Radko Gudas) were out with injuries, and this was looking like a long night even before the lineups were announced.